Jon Kohl's Conservation Experience

All my conservation work focuses on improved performance whether through project design, capacity building, or altering the underlying assumptions that hinder effective conservation. Here guides at the World Birding Center in South Texas learn to link interpretive tours with real conservation outcomes.

Jon advises the Rainforest Biodiversity Group (formerly Friends of the Great Green Macaw) in its US Fish & Wildlife Service-funded project to establish the bird route that aims to attract new private land owners to protect their forests within the corridor (part of Mesoamerican Biological Corridor) as well as establish Costa Rica’s first bird trail.

Worked with Fermata and the WBC to train guides and the interpretive program context to link interpretive tours directly to conservation outcomes. The training had one week-long field segment followed by coaching one-on-one. Guides used causal loop diagramming and elements of effective conservation design to create links between visitors and conservation.

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Facilitator for the Central American Program for Protected Areas 2004-05

The Central American Commission for Environment and Development with UNDP funding channeled through the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor hired me to facilitate the creation of a Central American-wide program to integrate the protected area systems of the seven Central American countries. Working specifically with the Protected Areas Technical Committee, I made repeated visits to the region to convene meetings and lead participants to a first draft describing this new program to promote integration of protected areas across the region.

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Parks in Peril External Evaluation Team Member 2004

Worked with the Foundations of Success team to evaluate The Nature Conservancy’s Parks in Peril Program. This program began in 1990 to increase the park management capacity in more than 45 Latin American and Caribbean protected areas in 15 countries. It is the largest conservation project in Latin America.

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RARE Center for Tropical Conservation Program Manager 1997-2003

Manager of the Public Use Planning Program Antigua, Guatemala, 2001-2002, Wisconsin 2002-2003
• Manage the Public Use Planning Program (PDF fact sheet) of the World Heritage Partnership. Program aims to assist park managers in facilitating their own participatory decision-making process and then helping them implement the plan after it has been created. The program is carried out under the auspices of UNESCO-UNEP-RARE Center project, “Linking Conservation of Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism in World Heritage Sites,”a 4-year program to develop tourism to benefit conservation in World Heritage sites. See also strategic planning.
• Participated in RARE's business development efforts. PUP in particular helps parks to design tourism products and then do financial planning determining three-year break-even points, cash-flow analysis, and contribution tracking. PUP contains most of the major elements of a business plan. • The PUP manual, Park Planning for Life, placed second in the 2003 National Interpretive Media Awards, training category, sponsored by the National Association for Interpretation.

Program Manager La Ceiba, Tegucigalpa, Honduras 1997-2000
• Managed Ecotourism and Community Development Program activities in Honduras which includes the Nature Guide Training Program, Public Use Planning Program, Trails Development Program, Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance facilitated by RARE Center as well as a series of other development activities within RARE and in Honduras (includes Hurricane Mitch relief). See the plaque of recognition given by colleagues in La Ceiba, Honduras.

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Participatory Rural Appraisal Team Coordinator Andes, Ecuador, 1996

Conceived, designed, recruited, fund-raised for, and led a four-person Participatory Rural Appraisal team in a farming community inside the Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve in northern Ecuador. We worked to facilitate the cooperative establishment of an interpretative system by the community, EcoCiencia (a leading conservation organization), and INEFAN (the government agency in charge of protected area management, forestry, and wildlife programs). Independent research with EcoCiencia and INEFAN. See also process facilitation.

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Affiliations / Awards / Education / Recommendations/Services