This week in Montelimar, Nicaragua, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Fauna & Flora International jointly conduct a precedent-setting workshop that aims to develop a cadre of conservation professionals in Latin America.

More than fifty top conservation practitioners from more than thirty countries in Latin America and the Caribbean will meet to formulate a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary program to train the next generation of conservationists in the region.

“By bringing together the region’s most effective conservation of our practitioners will begin to develop new and innovative training programs to generate future conservation leaders with the experience and skills necessary to overcome the complex challenges facing the conservation of Latin American species, many of which spend most of their lives in United States, “said Sam Hamilton, Director of Services.

Approximately 40 percent of the world’s biodiversity can be found in Latin America and the Caribbean, making it one of the most environmentally significant areas on the planet. But compared with the richness and complexity of natural resources, the amount of natural resource professionals in small areas are not proportional. This is due, at least in part, a lack of training opportunities available conservation. In contrast, the United States, for example, contains about 10 percent of the world’s biodiversity, but the U.S. is estimated to have twice the amount of higher education conservation programs such as Latin America.

“Fauna & Flora International take pride in closely with the Service in supporting effective international conservation. With assembling high-caliber team in Nicaragua, we hope to put the moves with an innovative approach to services to develop the next generation of conservation leadership – based on solid experience and expertise from the region conservation of practitioners, “commented Katie Frohardt, Executive Director of FFI.

Service’s Wildlife Without Borders regional program for Latin America and the Caribbean (WWB-LAC) is working to address this critical need by supporting efforts to build domestic capacity for the professional management of wildlife and other natural resources. For more than 20 years, has supported training programs throughout the region with a focus on protected area managers, park guards, community leaders, and graduate students. With this week convened the workshop entitled Preparing for Highly Effective Conservation Professionals for the Future, the program has started to sharpen its focus on cultivating environment future leaders.

Renee Castellón from Nicaraguan Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA, as known by the Spanish acronym), is scheduled to join the participants for discussion today about the challenges facing the conservation area. Christopher Nyce, from the Department of Environment and Science at the U.S. Embassy in Managua, will accompany Mr. Castellón.