During November 2011, Eneida Montesinos, MBF collaborator, conducted six separate three-day workshops in the states of México and Michoacán. Each workshop was tailored to the needs of a specific community, or Ejido, and for the most part, held in the community to make it easier for people to attend. A total of 139 men and women participated in the November workshops.
During October and November 2012 Eneida held 6 three-day workshops to train eco-tourism guides in six communities within the Monarch Butterfly Reserve. As she was concluding her workshops she was approached by the Director of the Reserve who asked her if she was available to give a workshop to schoolchildren as part of the XXI Monarch Butterfly Festival. In collaboration with WWF and the Reserve Eneida gave one workshop which turned out to be a total success. Excited kids and teachers requested more workshops and Eneida ended up giving six additional workshops with a total participation of 950 kids! Even moms got excited and fifteen of them attended the workshop at Senguio. The smallest workshop had 80 kids and the largest one 250, averaging around 150 per workshop. This was an exciting twist of events which allowed Eneida to expand her workshops to schoolchildren! Lots of the material she uses to train guides in monarch biology was easily accessible to children.
In 2014, Eneida held a 2-day workshop at San Mateo Almomoloa, in the State of Mexico. Forty people from the Piedra Herrada Community completed the workshop about monarch biology, migration, conservation, and best practices as tour guides including common English phrases to welcome tourists. Guest speakers included Eduardo Rendón from WWF Mexico who discussed the decline in last year’s monarch population as well as Rocío Treviño from Correo Real, a citizen science project that monitors the monarch migration in Northern Mexico.
In 2016, Eneida Montesinos, MBF collaborator joined efforts with WWF to
hold several training workshops in El Rosario, Sierra Chinua, Cerro
Pelón and Piedra Herrada monarch sanctuaries.
MBF is excited to support these workshops which are not only engaging kids, school teachers and moms but are strengthening our relationships with WWF, the Reserve, and the local communities.
