In early December, CSF’s Marcos Amend delivered economics know-how to students in the Professional Masters for Protected Area Managers program run by INPA (National Institute for Amazon Research). The program's objective is to train managers to face the challenges of protected areas management in Amazon region. This is the second time CSF has contributed to the program, which was founded by CSF course graduate Rita Mesquita.

At the training, Marcos taught 18 young environmentalists natural resource economics, cost-benefit analysis, payment for ecosystem services and business planning for protected areas. The next phase is thesis development, with four students already demonstrating interest in applied economics in their research. Marcos is currently in the process of discussing with them the conceptual design of their projects.