From 3 to 10 October, the MEXECO team travelled to Mexico’s Oaxaca Costa Region for the second Training Rural Workshop of the project, held on Monday 5 October in the community of La Escobilla, near Puerto Escondido. Representatives from around fifteen communities in the area joined us, with a remarkably high turnout. The UPM team was represented by Clara Cordón Trujillo, technical lead of MEXECO, and Carlos Calderón-Guerrero.
The workshop put into practice the serious game that we are co-creating within MEXECO. Playing together, participants put the challenges their communities face on the table and shared how each one is tackling them through ecotourism. The exchange of experiences between neighbouring communities was the real heart of the day.
The trip was full of learning beyond the workshop:
On the night of Saturday 3 October, we joined night patrols on Escobilla beach to spot female sea turtles nesting. On the following two evenings, we took part in the release of turtle hatchlings at sunset in the community of La Escobilla.
On Tuesday 6 October, we made a field trip to La Ventanilla to learn about the activities of the Sociedad Cooperativa de Servicios Ecoturísticos de La Ventanilla and to take its mangrove tour.
On Wednesday 7 October, the Universidad del Mar (UMAR), Puerto Escondido campus, welcomed us with a reception and a round table on ecotourism and ecosystem services. There, Clara Cordón Trujillo presented the LIFE Alnus Taejo project and the parallels she sees with MEXECO’s community-based approach.
On 8 and 9 October, we visited ecotourism initiatives in the city of Oaxaca and its surroundings.
After Oaxaca, Carlos Calderón-Guerrero continued to Chiapas, where he held two meetings:
On Monday 12 October, with the Secretary of Tourism of the State of Chiapas, to present MEXECO and MORABEZA.
On Tuesday 13 October, with professors from the Universidad Intercultural de Chiapas (UNICH). Carlos attended as director of the Master’s Degree in Ecotourism taught at ETSI Montes (UPM), to build contacts and explore synergies. He also presented the serious game developed in MEXECO and informally introduced MEXECO and MORABEZA. The professors were very interested in the potential of applying the game with the communities they work with.
It was a deeply rewarding experience, and we learned a great deal. What we heard will feed directly into the next phases of MEXECO, which strengthens community-based ecotourism in rural communities across Mexico, Costa Rica, Greece and Spain. We also took the opportunity to network with attendees on behalf of all the projects UPM is involved in: MEXECO, MORABEZA, NbS-4-Climate, Adapt-2-CC and LIFE Alnus Taejo.
Thank you to the community of La Escobilla, the UMAR, the La Ventanilla cooperative, the Chiapas Ministry of Tourism, UNICH and everyone who took part!
[@UMAR] [@UNICH] [@UPM] @montes_upm [@MEXECO] [@LIFEAlnusTaejo]
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