As part of the ICAA fellows program, CSF held three methodological guidance workshops in November. The fellows traveled far and wide to visit each of their respective mentors and work on their final research profiles, which contain all of the definition methodology and data tools design collection. The workshops were held in Concepción, Chile, Bogota, Colombia and La Paz, Bolivia. In Chile, Karin Gonzales, Sophía Espinoza, Patricia Siles met with their mentor, Felipe Vásquez, who is a specialist in economic valuation of natural resources. In Bogota, Paula Zuluaga, Pablo David Campoverde, and Enrique de la Montaña Andrés met with Rocío Moreno, whose area of specialization focuses on game theory, economic valuation, and payments for environmental services.

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.

In October 2012 CSF completed and delivered business plans for Tourism in Indigenous lands (the Paiter-Surui and Parintintin). The plans were part of the Garah Itxa project on Ethnoenvironmental Corridors in the Brazilian Amazon. At the project's closing event, CSF launched a publication with the compilation of the main results of the project. To obtain this publication and learn more about business plans visit our Projects page.

Knowledge of economic tools in conservation shouldn't just exist on an individual level. In order to make an even bigger impact on nature, CSF is taking its training to the institutional level this month with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Bolivia. WCS was selected by CSF for our first ever In-House Training, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Andes-Amazon Initiative (AAI). WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, global conservation, education and the management of the world's largest system of urban wildlife parks.

For Angela Mojica, a marine biologist in Guatemala, this year's course forced her to think in a completely different way. Watch the video below to find out what had previously been missing in her conservation efforts.

David Johnson, currently a professor at Harvard University, has been teaching microeconomics with CSF since 2004. When asked if economics can alter the way environmentalists approach conservation, he had this to say:

La Iniciativa para la Conservación en la Amazonía Andina (ICAA) felicita a los ganadores de las becas de las propuestas para Investigaciones Económicas Aplicadas para la Conservación en la Amazonia Andina, quienes recibirán hasta US$15.000 para desarrollar sus propuestas. Además, contarán con asistencia técnica y capacitación en teoría económica y análisis económico ambiental durante el tiempo que dure la investigación, a fin de mejorar sus capacidades para realizar estudios de investigación económica aplicada... Haga clic aquí para leer mas Photo Credit: ICAA/USAID

From June 11-22, 2012, twenty-eight environmental professionals from eight African nations gathered at the Rwenzori International Hotel in Kasese, Uganda to learn how economic approaches can help them address environmental impacts of infrastructure development in the Albertine Rift.

Born in Uganda, Sarah Naigaga first came to CSF as a student at our Economic Tools for Conservation course in 2004 with the hopes of sharpening her analytic skills. At the time, she had been working with Greenwatch, an environmental law organization, and was involved in reviewing the Bujagali hydro dam. She was also selected as a representatives of civic society organizations to review the strategic sectoral, social, and environmental assessment of power development options in the Nile Equatorial Lakes Region. This process exposed her to broader issues of development and allowed her the opportunity for collaboration with a multitude of actors across several countries.

Micronesia is a sub-region of Oceania, east of the Philippines and northeast of Indonesia. It is comprised of thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. Kiribati, the Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, Caroline Islands, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, and Wake Island are all considered part of Micronesia. In total, Micronesia is 1,230 square miles, or about twice the size of Los Angeles.