Celso Cawich Is The New Mar Leader

The Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) Leadership Program is an initiative launched by the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature, A.C. in partnership with the Summit Foundation in 2010. The program “seeks to accelerate conservation impact in the Mesoamerican Reef System by identifying and training local leaders with the ability to carry out bold and replicable projects that share the goal of reducing major threats to the reef” (www.marleaders.org).

In 2010 the program completed training for the first set of MAR leaders. For its second round of training which has just initiated, 12 individual applicants from 4 Mesoamerican countries, including Belize, were selected. The four new trainees from Belize are Celso Cawich, Marine Biologist at the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) of the University of Belize (UB) along with Nicanor Requena, Kirah Foreman, and Angeline Valentine. MAR leaders are chosen based on the feasibility and potential for replication of proposed projects that they submit as part of the application to the program. Celso was the chosen based on his proposal to gather biological data that will be used for zonation purposes in the Turneffe Atoll. Celso recently returned from Honduras where he spent a week with other chosen MAR leaders undergoing professional development training to further develop and improve their proposed projects. Celso’s training as part of the MAR Leadership Program is expected to last at least two years.

Click here for more information on the MAR Leadership Program