Click the sections below to read about highlights from Spring 2026!
COLLABORATIVE CONSERVATION
Multinational Experience Exchange
With Conservationists from Colombia, Mexico and the U.s.
By Lorayne Meltzer
Experience exchange participants posing with a flag created by Colombian youth involved in MSP+ led conservation efforts
Andrés Galindo/Kino Bay Center
The MSP+ Experience Exchange brought together 23 participants from five coastal communities in Colombia and northwestern Mexico, along with MSP+ and Prescott Center staff, for a three-day gathering focused on community-based conservation of shorebirds and coastal ecosystems. All participants are involved in MSP+ (Migratory Shorebird Project+) community projects that contribute to the protection of critical coastal and wetland habitats for migratory shorebirds and other wildlife.
Organized by the Center, the exchange created space to share experiences, strategies, challenges, and cultural perspectives related to conservation, environmental education, and the sustainable management of natural resources.
Discussing community-based conservation
Andrés Galindo/Kino Bay Center
Activities included visits to two Ramsar wetlands, dialogue circles, cultural exchange, and collective reflection. Participants emphasized the value of learning from other territories, strengthening collaborative networks, and integrating Indigenous and community knowledge into conservation efforts.
Exploring Comcaac territory
Andrés Galindo/Centro Prescott
The experience reinforced participants’ leadership capacities, strengthened relationships among communities, and renewed motivation to protect migratory shorebirds and coastal ecosystems through locally led conservation initiatives.
Ambulante Vivero
Filmmaking Rooted in Territory
By Francisco Jaime Martínez Reyes
During the month of March, we received a visit from the collective Ambulante, an organization dedicated to documentary filmmaking. This was the second retreat of Project Vivero, a school dedicated to training future documentary filmmakers through territory-based storytelling, with this edition focused on the Mexican states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Sonora.
The filmmaking process
Ulises Rancaño/Kino Bay Center
The experience focused on cinematic scriptwriting, equipment management, interview practice, and the creation of flash fiction films. Many of these activities took place in the field, including outings to Isla Tiburón, Punta Chueca, the Canal del Infiernillo, and the desert for a session of nocturnal sky observation.
This group reflects the remarkable diversity of people and communities connected to the Center and demonstrates the many ways the Center can have an impact across different audiences.
Recording in Comcaac territory
Ulises Rancaño/Kino Bay Center
Dedicated to training in audiovisual documentary practices that emerge from and are rooted in the territory, the program will award fifteen scholarships to members of territorial and creative communities connected to the Desert Seas region of northwestern Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Sonora).
N-Gen Mentorship Program
By Grisel Heredia
Panorama of N-Gen mentorship program participants
Ben Wilder/N-Gen
On April 24 and 25, the Center hosted a retreat for the N-Gen Mentorship Program, where mentors and mentees from different states in Mexico and the U.S. met for the first time. The retreat began with ice-breakers and activities designed to help participants share their aspirations and goals.
Hiking in the desert behind the Center
Ben Wilder/N-Gen
Later, participants proposed and discussed topics using an “unconference” model, then selected discussion themes based on collective interest. Dialogue tables were formed around topics including the importance of communities in science and conservation processes, mental health, professional development in the sciences, and gender perspectives.
Connections were formed among people from different nationalities, regions, and professional backgrounds, and the retreat served as the kickoff for N-Gen’s 2026 mentorship program.
Multinational Experience Exchange
With Conservationists from Colombia, Mexico and the U.s.
By Lorayne Meltzer
Ambulante Vivero
Filmmaking Rooted in Territory
By Francisco Jaime Martínez Reyes
N-Gen Mentorship Program
By Grisel Heredia
