I am pleased to write an update on the activities and conservation initiatives that I have been working on after attending Conservation Strategy Fund’s 2012 course, Economic Tools for Conservation, in Stanford, CA.

February was a month of non-stop travel for me. Having just started working with CSF I got shipped off on a whirlwind tour of Micronesia and Bali. Not a bad start I suppose!

En el marco del Proyecto ICAA 2 y en colaboración con Wildlife Conservation Society, CSF está llevando adelante la construcción de 3 Planes de Negocios para distintos emprendimientos productivos ubicados en la Tierra Comunataria de Origen (TCO) Tacana. Los planes negocios apoyarán el desarrollo de empresas de turismo, artesanías y recolección de cacao silvestre; manejadas por indígenas Tacanas en inmediaciones de área de gran valor biológico, como el Parque Nacional Madidi y la Reserva Pilón Lajas.

The second year of the Biodiversity Conservation on Public Lands in the Amazon has begun! Between October 22 and November 4, CSF staff conducted their second visit to assess the technical development of business plans in indigenous lands relating to the sale of Brazil nuts, açaí berries, and arapaima fish. In addition, staff collected data on Brazil nut production by the Apurinã indigenous families. They visited associations and organizations in the municipalities of Cacoal, Humaitá Lábrea, and the Caititu indigenous territory. For more information please visit our Projects page.

ASOARTESANAS, a cooperative of women that collect and prepare plastic bags to be crocheted into eco-bags, were recognized at Rio+20 in June with the Equator Prize by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). ASOARTESANAS was one of the 25 selected out of 800 applicants to receive this $5,000 prize, as well as one of 10 who received an additional $20,000 special recognition award at the conference on sustainable development.

This week Mexican President Felipe Calderón withdrew the permit for a 9,400 acre development of a mega resort adjacent Cabo Pulmo National Marine reserve on the southern tip of Baja California. Its proximity to a 20,000-year-old reef and hundreds of species turned this project into a global concern. 2011 CSF Economic Tools for Conservation Graduate Paulina Godoy Aguilar of Amigos para la Conservación de Cabo Pulmo AC, had a big hand in this victory. Because of her efforts and those of many other conservationists and activists alike, hundreds of species and thousands of coastal acres have been saved.

Read the full story here: http://www.oceanfdn.org/blog/?p=611