Making Mesoamerican Reef Work for Central American Economies

The Meso-American Reef Leadership Program is an initiative that promotes leadership towards the conservation of the reef which is shared by Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. Annually, the program brings together a cohort of conservationists and field professionals in the areas of tourism and the environment to look at projects currently in place to tackle the many threats to marine resources and ecosystems. Among those challenges are coastal developments, massive tourism, unsustainable fisheries, lack of marine protected areas and inadequate management of solid waste as well as climate change and invasive species. Through the Mexican Fund for Nature Conservation, the program builds the capacities of motivated and visionary professionals from the four countries to become advocates of Blue Economy in the region, which focuses on the importance of a healthy environment for human development. Program Director Maria Arreola explains more to News Five.

Maria Eugenia Arreola

Maria Eugenia Arreola, Director, Meso-American Reef Leadership Program

“We are in the fourth workshop of the 2016 cohort of the Mesoamerican Reef leadership program. This is a program that started in 2010 when we launched the first cohort applications and every year we recruit twelve fellows coming from Mexico Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. All of them come to the program with a project idea and throughout a year, we train them on how to design a project, how to implement it, but we also build their leadership skills. So throughout the year, these twelve fellows are working together, are building synergies, are collaborating and are working on their projects that aim at protecting the Mesoamerican reef system. The Mesoamerican reef system is the second largest barrier reef in the world; it is the only trans-boundary reef in the world so four countries are working together to protect it because its biodiversity and economically important for the communities. More than two million people live in this region and in terms of fisheries, in terms of tourism, in terms of coastal protection; it is a very important eco-region.”