grantees » Anuar Romero

Anuar incorporates a passion for the environment into everything he does. His enthusiasm and energy have been crucial to the development of the Mangrove Restoration project in Honduras. Anuar works long hours in challenging conditions and never hesitates to wade through mud up to his waist to go searching for crocodiles in the middle of the night, or lead planting expeditions at 5:30 in the morning. He has recently finished his Bachelors degree in Forestry and completed his thesis on the restoration process for Black Mangroves, a species which has disappeared from the Cuero y Salado reserve.

His nominator, Jean Arnold (Falls Brook Centre, Canada), gives this assessment of Anuar’s progress since receiving the JWH initiative grant: “We saw potential in him and wanted to train him in Analog Forestry, leadership skills, mangrove restoration and improve his very limited English. We also wanted to expose him to our work in Cuba on restoration of old sugar cane fields, using Analog Forestry as the methodology. He was invited to participate at the 2011 World Forestry Congress in Havana.  [With the help of the JWHi grant Anuar got] further training to qualify as a formal trainer and he came to Canada for leadership training workshops. He has really been on a steep learning curve, and is now a great presenter; he is a community leader within the NGO sector and the forestry world of La Ceiba and has confidence to use the skills he has learned to benefit the people he works with.”