For the MAR long term conservation, the local community involvement is a key issue. The Program role is to provide partners and local communities with tools to protect natural resources and maintain local economy and their way of life.

Learning Center

Bringing together four nations, a wide range of people and organizations involved in the preservation of the one thousand kilometers Mesoamerican Reef, it is not an easy task.

MAR Program is progressing in the design of a Virtual Learning Center to disseminate better practices, self learning programs and capacity building.

It also consolidates a coherent approach implementation to manage and protect this marine landscape. Some key features in the Learning Center are its: data base, bilingual presentation, and connection to the web. The Center will provide access to scientific information related to spawning aggregation sites, species migration and life cycle and water patterns in the region.

Local communities, governments, partners and conservation managers will access information about Protected Area Network design and management in specific sites.

Another objective of the Learning Center is to register and easily disseminate world scientific progress, allowing professionals to update their practices.

The Learning Center will promote information support and exchange, as well as training workshops on issues such as like those on monitoring of fish spawning aggregation and the resiliency concept. These workshops will be delivered alive and on line, strengthening partners’ capacities at all levels, from community to government level.

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