The First Regional Workshop on Environmental and Social Safeguards in Northern Mesoamerica brought together 47 collaborators from Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico for three days, aiming to strengthen collaboration and standardize procedures among partner organizations and donors to implement conservation actions with a focus on respecting human rights.
The workshop allowed participants to explore key topics such as human rights, social safeguards, violence prevention, the creation of safe work environments, and the integration of gender perspectives into conservation programs. Dr. Heidi Kretser, Director of “Rights + Communities” at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), emphasized the importance of applying safeguards to ensure that conservation is conducted in an equitable and fair manner.
During the workshop, essential processes such as Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples before project activities, as well as the mitigation of access restrictions resulting from conservation project implementation, were discussed.
At the conclusion of the event, Gabriela Ponce, Director of the WCS Program in Guatemala, highlighted the importance of developing these trainings and strengthening spaces for institutional exchange. She also expressed gratitude for the support in advancing collective actions among their partners in Mesoamerica.
The workshop was organized with the support of the "Capacity Development and Collaboration to Strengthen Governance and Conservation of the Mayan Forest" project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of the Interior (USAID/DOI-ITAP), and the "Resilient and Biodiverse Landscapes of Northern Mesoamerica" project, funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (BLF-DEFRA) Biodiverse Landscapes Fund.
Participants came from organizations such as Bosques del Mundo, the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP), the Association of Forest Communities of Petén (ACOFOP), BALAM, the Environmental Justice Forum (FJA), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Julian Cho Society (JCS), Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA), the Foundation for Ecodevelopment and Conservation (FUNDAECO), Defensores de la Naturaleza, Pronatura Península de Yucatán A.C. (PPY), Program for Belize, Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD), and Belize Maya Forest Trust (BMFT).