2023 was a challenging year, but above all it was a year that fills us with hope for the medium term. And not only for the TURF-Reserves program, but also for Capital Azul Foundation.

The implementation of BHP Foundation support under the new Coastal Community Network brought many changes. In a few months, the team of Fundación Capital Azul grew not only in number, but also in working hours: a good part began to work full time, which implied a series of internal and organizational challenges.

“This has been accompanied by the challenge of fulfilling all the commitments we have, both with our associates and also with our donors, to give strength to the TURF-Reserve program from new dimensions, complementing the work we had already been doing in other areas. It is important to see how everything is beginning to take shape and how the organization assumes a different role in working with the communities and with the different associated actors in the territories,” explained Rodrigo Sánchez Grez, Executive Director of Capital Azul Foundation.

2023 was also marked by the 1st International Conference of TURF-Reserves, an event that took place last October in the Valparaíso region bringing together members of artisanal fishing groups along with representatives of the public sector, academia and organizations of civil society to delve deeper into these sea areas for conservation purposes located within the TURFs administered by groups of artisanal fishers.

“This marks a turning point in the work we are doing because we had people who traveled from other countries to learn more about this conservation figure, and this excites us because this model can potentially be taken to other latitudes by the communities themselves who are evaluating new ways of doing conservation in their territories”, said Sánchez.

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