During December 2016, Eneida Montesinos, with assistance from Tomás Bautista, held training workshops in several communities around the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. More than 260 tour guides from El Rosario, El Capulín, Cerro Pelón and other local communities participated. These important educational opportunities were funded by MBF and WWF. The workshops provided valuable training in monarch biology, migration, overwintering biology and monarch conservation. Most of the guides who attended this year had not participated before in the previous training workshops. In this way we are continuing to help train tour guides in accurate monarch conservation educational skills who will then share their information with the public who visit the overwintering sites.
A number of talks have also been scheduled for local elementary students during the Monarch Festival activities by the end of February.