Committee proposals --- Propuestas de los comités

This is only meant to be as a summary of some of the ideas presented by the committees, please comment if anything was left out :

Coordinating Committee: Formed by having leaders of each of the committees. - To have an annual all inclusive congress to review, adjust and plan the future. Also for networking. Immediate task: set up the first meeting with the leaders. Find a coordinator and define the job description. The coordinator must work a sa supervisor, help with funding, give organizational support. Amongst his or her responsibilities are those of communication, network enhancement, collaborative ideas and implementation.

Education: Bioregion diagnostic. List of educational centres, organised groups, NGO's and governmental. Make an educational strategy for the area that responds to the needs of the people. This group wants to be able to measure the impact of the educational program, to count on active participation, to promote leadership, and a structure that promotes integration. The action plan is to create a group that will give this follow-up.

Conservation: the goal is to: strengthen the mechanisms for the conservation of the bioregion and its ecosystems to perpetuity through legal, social, political, educational and scientific mechanisms to ensure the correct use of the land and to preserve biodiversity.
As strategies they want to involve more governmental entities and representatives of the protected areas such as ICE, MAG, Asadas and more. To start they want to meet to set the priorities and work mechanisms. Very import to include the Arenal area.

Research: To share information. Improve communication. When possible to have coordinated monitoring and in some cases to have protocols. Leadership will have a horizontal model. As mechanisms they want to have committees and sub-committees. The idea is to create some sort of digital board. To create monitoring programs and publications. Organise more "ologist" meetings. As an action plan they want to decide the format of the digital board, form the committees, seek funding for professionals and made it sustainable.

Maps: They work as a measure of communications and information. By May they are planning on having some sort of database. They need information on the different area sin order to be able to create these maps.

Communication and public image:  It was divided into two groups, internal and external communication. The goal is "to perpetuate the vision". The communication position is to centralise the message and to promote open and frequent communication. Each institution must asign a communication representative for the bioregion. There will be a directory created. The communication department will be a resource for the institutions. A person must be hired at least part time ASAP that is Costa Rican and bilingual that will be responsible for the development and management of the communications department. This person must physically visit the institutions and neighbouring communities to not only offer digital information but also physical information for the bioregion. Also help create information for all the sub-committees.

Funding: Inclusion -Transparency - Accessibility. -Equity (distribution of resources). Secure funding for a part time coordinator. - Establish funding opportunities at a local level the will fill traditional funding gaps. Create a membership quota. To create communication material. Get funding for the committees.