Latin American Fisheries Fellowship Program, UC Santa Barbara

A new generation championing healthy marine ecosystems, abundant fisheries, and thriving coastal communities

Photo: Jeff Litton/Marine Photobank

A new generation championing healthy marine ecosystems, abundant fisheries, and thriving coastal communities

Photo: Octavio Aburto/Marine Photobank

A new generation championing healthy marine ecosystems, abundant fisheries, and thriving coastal communities

Photo: Jason Valdez/Marine Photobank

A new generation championing healthy marine ecosystems, abundant fisheries, and thriving coastal communities

  • Premise

    Latin America is home to some of the most diverse and productive marine ecosystems in the world. Millions of people across the region rely on fisheries for their livelihoods and depend on seafood as a primary source of protein. At the same time, the region's marine resources face increasing sustainability challenges, ultimately posing risk to the well-being of coastal communities.

    The LAFF Network tackled these challenges through working to: 1) foster cross-sector collaboration, 2) forge cooperation amongst countries, 3) align incentives for long-term resource sustainability, 4) increase equality in resrouce management decision-making processes, and 5) elevate the importance of fisheries to policy makers.

     

     

     

    *FAO (2014) State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture; Photo: Van Dyck
  • Vision

    Our vision was of a collaborative network anchored with innovative environmental leaders across Latin America, championing sustainable marine environmental management that achieves abundant fisheries, healthy ecosystems, and thriving coastal communities.

    LAFF
  • Mission

    The mission of LAFF was to train a new generation of highly effective environmental professionals and accelerate their career impact on solving sustainable fisheries challenges throughout Latin America.

    LAFF

 

Graduate Fellowship

Bren Schol exterior

The Latin American Fisheries Fellowship (LAFF) Program (2011-2020) was a prestigious fellowship for early and mid-career marine environmental professionals seeking graduate training to enhance and accelerate their impact in tackling marine resource sustainability challenges in Latin America. Supported by the Walton Family Foundation, fellows earned a world-class graduate degree from UC Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. The two-year Master of Environmental Science and Management (MESM(link is external)) degree provides an interdisciplinary, solution-oriented curriculum that includes rigorous coursework, a masters project addressing a real-world environmental problem, a professional internship, and advanced training in communications and/or entrepreneurship. Fellows specialized in Coastal Marine Resources Management (CMRM) and further engaged in tailored opportunities around innovative approaches to sustainable fisheries management and marine conservation. Through short-courses and seminars, workshops, capstone projects, and directed research, fellows benefitted from unique mentorship under Bren Faculty while in their tenure as fellows to explore their interests and expand their capacity to tackle complex marine environmental problems as sustainable fisheries and marine conservation practitioners.

Fellows earn an interdisciplinary masters at Bren, building the advanced knowledge and skills to be highly effective environmental problem-solvers.

MESM Degree

Specializing in Coastal Marine Resources Management, Fellows are trained to address complex fisheries management and marine conservation challenges.

CMRM

Fellows gain real-world experience from completing a yearlong capstone project with an outside client, or by launching a sustainable business or nonprofit venture.

Group Project

 

Mission

Our mission is to train a new generation of interdisciplinary marine resource managers and conservation professionals, and accelerate their impact towards solving environmental challenges throughout Latin America.

Premise

Marine ecosystems of Latin America include some of the most diverse and productive in the world. Over 2 million people in coastal communities across the region directly rely on fisheries for livelihoods, while millions more depend on seafood and other ocean services for their wellbeing.
These environments also face immense sustainability challenges, often comprising complex problems that extend beyond international borders or disciplinary boundaries. We believe solutions to these environmental problems will arise from reaching beyond these barriers too—and our emerging network of environmental professionals in Latin America is poised to be
part of the solution.

Vision

Our vision is of a high-impact network, anchored with innovative environmental leaders, championing ocean management that achieves healthy ecosystems, abundant fisheries, and thriving coastal communities across Latin America.

Graduate Fellowship

Bren Schol exterior FAQs

Supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Latin American Fisheries Fellowship Program (LAFF) offers a prestigious fellowship for early-career and aspiring marine environmental professionals to earn a world-class graduate degree from UC Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. The Bren School’s Master of Environmental Science and Management (MESM) is an interdisciplinary, solution-oriented curriculum that includes rigorous coursework, a capstone Group Project or Eco-Entrepreneurship Project, a graduate internship, and advanced training in communications. Fellows earn this degree specializing in Coastal Marine Resources Management (CMRM) and receive specialized training in innovative approaches to sustainable fisheries management and marine conservation through short-courses, seminars and workshops, Group Projects or Eco-E ventures, and directed research opportunities to explore themes of individual interest related to marine resource issues in the Latin American context.

MESM Degree

Fellows earn an interdisciplinary masters at Bren, building the advanced knowledge and skills to be highly effective environmental problem-solvers.

CMRM

Specializing in Coastal Marine Resources Management, Fellows are trained to address complex fisheries management and marine conservation challenges.

Group Project

Fellows gain real-world experience from completing a yearlong capstone project with an outside client, or by launching a sustainable business or nonprofit venture.

Latin America Focus

Fellows engage in specialized curriculum including intensive courses, seminars, projects, and field opportunities specific to CMRM in the Latin American context.

Apply Fellowship Application Deadline
January 15th 2015

Meet the LAFF Network

Who We Are

Fellows are interdisciplinary environmental problem-solvers dedicated to impactful careers in marine resources management; LAFF are emerging leaders, resource managers, conservation practitioners, entrepreneurs, academics, and policy makers.

What We Do

Fellows find, create, test, innovate, and implement solutions to marine environmental problems—they use systems thinking, market-based approaches, and interdisciplinary science to inform environmental management. LAFF do this in their tenure at the Bren School, and then into careers of impact.

Where We Work

Fellows come from, and return to countries across Latin America. They work with the smallest coastal communities and in the largest capitals—or international arenas. LAFF attain prominent roles spanning environmental organizations, academic institutions, civil associations, government agencies, and sustainable business.

What We're Learning

Annual Workshops

Fellows, LAFF alumni, program advisors and regional experts, as well as a select group of fisheries management practitioners and decision-makers conveine every year in a Latin American location to share new ideas and best practices from the field. Participants reconnect and engage as a network to strategically advance solutions to marine resource management challenges immediately facing practitioners.

Short Courses

Visiting experts are hosted each quarter at the Bren campus to instruct advanced courses in CMRM specific to resource management in Latin America.

Seminars

Fellows nominate inspiring leaders and practioners from the fisheries and conservation field to present innovative ideas to the UCSB marine science and management community.

Internships

Fellows build marketable professional experience, collaborate with mentors, and develop and apply new skills to diverse initiatives and organizations working in Latin America.

Specialized Projects

Fellows have unique opportunities to engage in collaborative projects with major initiatives and research groups associated with UC Santa Barbara's word-class faculty, and with LAFF Alumni in the field.

GPs and Eco-E

Fellows develop innovative approaches or entrepreneurial ventures to address real-world marine environmental challenges in collaboration with Government, NGO, or industry clients.

meet the network

Meet the LAFF Network

Who
we are

Fellows are interdisciplinary environmental problem-solvers dedicated to impactful careers in marine resources management; LAFF are emerging leaders, resource managers, conservation practitioners, entrepreneurs, academics, and policy makers.

What
we do

Fellows find, create, test, innovate, and implement solutions to marine environmental problems—they use systems thinking, market-based approaches, and interdisciplinary science to inform environmental management. LAFF do this in their tenure at the Bren School, and then into careers of impact.

Where
we work

Fellows come from countries across Latin America. They work with the smallest coastal communities, in the largest capitals cities, or even in the international arena. LAFF attain prominent roles spanning nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, government agencies, and sustainable business.