Under the auspices of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) and the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, Wolfs Company organized the workshop “From Ecosystem Services Valuation to Action – Informing Decision Making in the Caribbean” on Bonaire on 16-18th September 2014.

The workshop idea was conceptualized in November 2013, at the 28th ICRI General Meeting, where it was agreed that a capacity building workshop on policy-oriented economic valuation and sustainable financing of protected areas, targeted at Caribbean countries, was needed. The Blue Solutions and VALUES projects (under GIZ coordination), the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA), the World Resources Institute (WRI), the French Coral Reef Initiative (IFRECOR), the Wolfs Company, the Blue finance project (under Marine Ecosystem Services (MARES)/Forest-Trends organization), the VU University Amsterdam and ICRI agreed to provide funding and technical assistance for this workshop. Twenty resource managers from fifteen countries of the wider Caribbean attended the workshop. The primary objective of the workshop was to provide tools and knowledge for participants to design, implement and communicate the results of their own socio-economic valuation studies.