The Coastal Solutions Fellows Program is a collaboration between the David & Lucile Packard Foundation and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University. Through the program, scholars and collaborators design and implement solutions to address current coastal challenges along the Pacific Americas Flyway. The program is geared towards promoting collaborations between researchers, conservationists, architects, planners and engineers, and supports early-career planners, developers and scientists from Latin America to develop the necessary knowledge, resources and skills in all these sectors.
Left: Viviana Ruiz Gutierrez (Research Associate, Cornell Lab of Ornithology) introduces the workshop facilitator. Right: Diego Luna Quevedo presenting the conceptual framework of Good Governance. Photos: Cristián Pérez-Navarro
The program’s inaugural group of fellows gathered at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York in early 2019. As part of this retreat, our Conservation Specialist Diego Luna Quevedo facilitated a training workshop called “Good Governance for Coastal Solutions” that introduced a conceptual framework about governance that can be applied to the conservation of coastal habitats and shorebird populations across the Pacific flyway. In Diego’s workshop, the fellows discussed how to apply the tools of governance analysis, planning and management as the six of them work to implement their projects at a priority shorebird site in Latin America along the Pacific Americas Flyway. Of the six projects selected for the 2019-2020 class of fellows, four are taking place at WHSRN sites.
The workshop was based on a dynamic of collective construction, from the work between fellow and mentor. Photo: Cristián Pérez-Navarro.
Osvel Hinojosa, Director of the Coastal Solutions Program, said that “the facilitated workshop allowed us to think together about the governance of ongoing projects and respond to common questions and challenges, through a dynamic of debate and collective construction. From this work between fellows and mentors, the proposals and the program’s capabilities were strengthened in this crucial matter for conservation.”
The six inaugural Coastal Solutions Fellows selected for the 2019 class are executing the following projects in Mexico, Colombia and Chile:
Natalia Martínez, Universidad Austral de Chile
Project: Integrating eco-physiological and socio-economic aspects to reduce the impact of aquaculture on shorebirds
Sharon Montecino, Chile’s Bird and Wildlife Observer Network (ROC by its Spanish acronym)
Project: Our hands, your wings: shorebirds in Chile and reduction of their threats in a priority site of the Pacific Migratory Flyway in America
Richard Johnston, Institute of Marine and Coastal Research, Colombia
Project: Estuaries of the future: opportunities for habitat improvement for shorebirds and communities in the North Coast of Nariño, Colombia
Johann Delgado, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Project: Evaluation of the coastal resilience in the Bay of Buenaventura, Colombia before extreme wave events and sea level rise under climate change
Leslie Ponce de León, Pro Esteros, Mexico
Project: Master plan and green infrastructure in San Quintin Bay, Baja California
Jonathan Vargas, Terra Peninsular, Mexico
Project: Mitigation of disturbance on migratory shorebirds at the WHSRN site, Bahía de Todos Santos
Participants of the workshop “Good Governance for Coastal Solutions.” Photo Courtesy of Coastal Solutions Fellows Program.
Cover Photo: Cristián Pérez-Navarro.
