Young Forest Entrepreneur
Aware of the potential of youth’s contribution to many sectors in society, Reforestamos México launched its Young Forest Entrepreneur initiative to improve the forestry education, particularly in Latin America, complimenting it with entrepreneurial skills for students to be capable of creating valuable projects by making sustainable use of the natural resources in forest protected areas. Every year, students participate with qualified project ideas, among which the best ones receive one-year support through specialized mentoring to consolidate into an enterprise.
Impacts
Since the project launched in 2013 with 11 forestry schools across Mexico, it has benefitted 2,500 forestry bachelors and 80 mentors from 10 participating countries (Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Paraguay).
Some institutions where this work is being implemented are incorporating concepts on entrepreneurship to educate their students. These institutions understand the importance of engaging in sustainable practices in forest protected areas and are thus highly involved in projects where this aspect is taken into account.
Governments in some of the participating countries are becoming highly involved in the project, supporting and empowering the participating teams in various ways, including exposure and training.
The student community in the institutions we work with has significantly improved its project development and execution skills.