An International Seminar on Wetland Management and Governance was held in Chile in November 2018. Organized in the context of the program for rational use of wetlands of Chile’s state company ENAP Aconcagua Refinery, the event had more than 80 participants, including teachers, students, conservation practitioners, and representatives of municipal and governmental entities.

MPAConnect, a network for sharing among Caribbean marine natural resource managers, was invited to participate at the seminar and share experience in marine protected area networking from the Caribbean with colleagues in Chile. As MPAConnect’s expert partner for protected area financing, Wolfs Company took up the invitation to represent MPAConnect at the seminar. Amílcar Guzmán (Wolfs Company) presented about the network of 30 marine protected areas and  shared examples, experiences and lessons learned from the needs-driven approach to capacity building and networking, regional peer-to-peer exchanges held to date and site-specific assistance to marine protected area managers for the implementation of effective marine protected areas.

In addition, Amílcar facilitated a work session on wetland conservation finance with civil society organizations, government representatives and wetland managers, based on the Eco2Fin Sustainable Finance Framework and other tools developed by Wolfs Company. Guidelines to conduct financial needs assessments and communicate socioeconomic benefits of wetlands to raise funds were some of the aspects that participants discussed in this session.

Attendees valued the lessons learned from the activities of MPAConnect and the innovative approaches presented by Amilcar. They especially highlighted the potential for replication of protected area networking in Chile.

The seminar also included presentations by RAMSAR-CREHO, the Ministry of the Environment of Chile, protected area managers, and various NGOs with focus on wetlands.