The Leader | 40 residents were certified in environmental protection and care in the Maipo River wetland
- Publicado el 26.10.2023
- Escrito por Angel Fondon
Forty students graduated from the course “Sustainable Communities: Actions for the Enhancement of Wetlands,” which the Cosmos Foundation conducted in conjunction with the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile to train community leaders in the province of San Antonio.
This initiative is part of the Socioecological Restoration Program of the Maipo River Wetland Nature Sanctuary, funded by the Valparaíso Regional Government and led by the Cosmos Foundation. It seeks to restore nearly three hectares of degraded areas of this valuable ecosystem.
Álvaro Tapia, a risk prevention specialist and course participant, commented, “What mainly motivated me to enroll in this course is that I am in a stage of great transformation in terms of nature and as a commune we are, I believe, very much in debt and we must get involved as communities of both Santo Domingo and San Antonio, with the conservation of places like these, which are some of the few natural places left in the commune and which we must know how to care for and value.”
Specifically, the course was divided into five units, covering topics such as threats to the sustainability of natural systems, the importance of wetlands, and their influence on people’s quality of life. The course also included a deeper dive into the actions and resources needed to advance the management and conservation of the Maipo River Wetland Nature Sanctuary, among other topics.
Another participant was Liliana Cancino, spokesperson for the Ojos de Mar Group, who commented on the main lessons she learned from this course. “Everything I knew thanks to the work we’ve been doing as an organization, we’ve now put into words, into records, into education, into more vocabulary, into more arguments to defend the space. I learned a lot, and I was also pleased that there are many people who have the same need, the same desire to protect nature. We’re in the 21st century; it seems many have forgotten that we’re in a different century, that things aren’t done the way they used to be, that we need to make a radical change in the way we think about and experience cities,” she commented.
A new course on Wetland Environmental Restoration will begin on October 31st, aimed at providing theoretical and practical concepts on the ecological restoration of these natural spaces.
About the program
The Socioecological Restoration Program for the Maipo River Wetland Nature Sanctuary has been underway since December 2022, and within the coming months, the planting of the first native flora clusters will begin. This phase will actively involve the local community, further strengthening the commitment to the restoration and conservation of this nature sanctuary.