Online Training Course Offered to Conservancy Partners in Latin America

Course will provide participants with the training and knowledge they need to advance their conservation agendas with greater success

Monterrey, Mexico — March 22, 2007 — The Nature Conservancy has joined with Mexico’s Monterrey Tech University and partners Pronatura Península de Yucatán, Amigos de Sian Ka’an and Pronatura Chiapas to offer an online training course titled “Conservation Strategies and Techniques” for conservation practitioners in Latin America. Distance classes through Monterrey Tech’s Virtual University are being offered in conservation planning, business planning and legal tools for conservation. The 96-hour course takes approximately 3 ½ months to complete and participants receive a certificate upon completion.

Online classes allow students to participate in the course from home, their workplaces or any place with an internet connection. Emphasis is placed on group learning through student networks that allow for the exchange of ideas and knowledge based on participants’ experiences in their own region. During each course, participants work on a practical project from their own area. They complete the course with products tailored to their regions such as conservation plans, natural protected area business plans, fundraising and financing plans, among others.

Through the course, individuals and organizations will be provided with the training and knowledge they need to advance their conservation agendas with greater success. This innovative education program will also assist conservationists in assessing the biodiversity health of their respective countries and designing strategies to strengthen their protected area networks. Additionally, the course will help the Conservancy’s partners in meeting their commitments under the UN Convention on Biodiversity, in which 188 nations pledged to create a comprehensive global network of effectively-managed protected areas by 2012.

Monterrey Tech University is a national private university with 32 campuses across Mexico. Its Virtual University reaches more than 85,000 students in Mexico, Central and South America.

For more information about this online training opportunity, please contact Karen Wong at kwong@tnc.org or visit: http://www.tecvirtual.itesm.mx/lideressociales. The cost of the course is $450, but a discounted fee of $250 is available to some participants. Applications will be accepted until April 16 when the course begins. The course is currently only available in Spanish.