Maria Espinosa Romero
Since I was very young, I have been very passionate and have focused my work on small-scale fisheries and coastal communities. I now have 10 years of practical experience working in projects related to conservation, marine resource management, and community development, mostly in Mexico, but also in foreign countries. Prior to graduate school, I worked as a project manager and as the sub director of marine fisheries regulations at the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Mexico. In 1999, I co-founded a non-profit organization called The Environmental Youth Network of Yucatan (RAJY), and acted as its Executive Director for two years. I received two prizes, at the national and international level, for my performance and leadership at RAJY.
Recently, I became the program coordinator of the Midriff Island Region at COBI, where I am developing initiatives focused on the human dimensions of fisheries and their relationship with ecological systems. My responsibilities include supervising 13 projects on capacity building, ecosystem-based and community-based management, and building alliances with multiple stakeholders to ensure the implementation of our initiatives. I am proud to say that my work has provided me with significant knowledge about critical issues faced by artisanal fishers, the challenges of developing new regulations, and the methods to collect information for designing policies to guide the development of fisheries. I could see myself in the future developing and supervising the implementation of novel national policies for a better management of marine resources in Mexico.
I intend to incorporate a diversity of local views of ecosystem change and desired futures into management plans, a language that has value and is meaningful to decision makers.
