Focus of Work: The Mesoamerican Reef Leadership Program is convened annually by the Mexican conservation organization Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de Naturaleza. The program has successfully recruited, trained, and inspired young professionals to become conservation change agents across the four countries fronting the Mesoamerican Reef System—Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. Since 2010, the program’s training series has equipped over 100 professionals from coastal communities with key skill sets in a variety of conservation topics and strategies. Many graduates have gone on to become conservation leaders in their respective communities and countries.
Our Approach: The Mesoamerican Reef System spans approximately 620 miles, making it the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere and the second-largest in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef. The theme of the 2015 training series—led jointly by Seatone and the World Resources Institute (WRI)—was mangrove valuation and conservation. Seatone began with a literature review of mangrove ecosystems in the region, assessing their status, threats, and conservation potential. Building on this analysis, Seatone’s Rich Wilson and WRI’s Lauretta Burke worked with program staff to design and facilitate four trainings covering a wide range of topics, all while diving deep on mangrove conservation.
Key Outcomes: Seatone and WRI’s joint leadership of this training series built capacity among mid-career professionals on a range of conservation topics, strategies and techniques for engaging the public and building support for mangrove protection. Over four multi-day events, trainees learned about resource governance, conservation project design, economic valuation, and stakeholder engagement, with practical exercises embedded into each module to reinforce learning. After completing the series, most graduates successfully mobilized financial resources to implement their self-designed conservation initiatives, several of which continue to expand in scope and impact.
Click the links below for Seatone work products developed to support and document the 2015 annual training series of the Mesoamerican Reef Leadership Program.
Seatone Core Service Areas
- Strategic planning and organizational development
- Situational assessments and feasibility studies
- Multi-stakeholder facilitation, consensus building and conflict management
- Inter-agency coordination and communication
- Standards development and sustainable business practices
- Trainings, focus groups and workshops
- Mentoring and professional coaching