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On the northeastern shores of Trinidad and Tobago, on the Matura coastline, more than 10,000 leatherbacks climb the beaches to nest each year. But there, the local community is deeply aware of one thing: "A living turtle is worth more than a dead turtle".
This is a lesson that the community learned almost three decades ago when the Government of Trinidad and Tobago first created a tour guide training course in the Northeast region. Dennis Sammy, treasurer of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), also a leader of the Matura community, was part of the course. But instead of working only as tour guides, the community had a broader vision of conservation, at a time when people were "killing a lot of turtles".
The Matura region is one of the few places in the world where leatherback turtles nest. Sammy told IPS that she is also easily accessible by a beach road, which puts tortoises at risk for poachers.
But in four years, people in the community, who had formed a conservation organization, were able to stop the turtle slaughter, Sammy told IPS. The residents themselves were part of the problem at first, he adds.
"They changed because the community became part of the solution."
By 2000, the turtle population had increased as a result of conservation efforts, which posed a problem for local fishermen, as up to 30 turtles per day were caught in their nets.
Now ecotourism is practiced and people pay to look at turtle nests.
Sammy is one of the participants at the conference on the blue sustainable economy, which is currently being held at Kenya and spoke to IPS as part of a side event on blue businesses.
He uses the above example of turtle conservation as a key example of an intuitive approach led by the community during the Blue Enterprise discussion titled "Inclusive Economic Development of SIDS through the conservation and social enterprise run by the community ".
"We saw a turtle, documenting it and marking it, so often seen, and we could identify the number of people seeing this turtle. And we've traced the value these people pay to come and see this turtle, and it's a very high value, "said Sammy.
He explains that for local communities, it is clear that "a turtle is worth more alive than dead".
Nicole Leotaud, executive director of CANARI, a non-profit technical institute that facilitates and promotes participatory natural resource management, said that to drive increased community engagement, the local green and blue enterprise radar, a tool that engages small businesses by questioning them. about their sustainability.
The radar is a list of questions, each question being an indicator linked to the SDGs. It focuses on poverty, environmental sustainability, well-being and good governance.
This is done through a streamlined process in which one asks each member of the business, not just the business leaders, questions of deepening.
"The blue economy and the green economy are very downward concepts that are imposed on us. How do we achieve this and how do we involve local communities and recognize small and micro enterprises in the context of economic development?
"You hear a lot about big industries, tourism and shipping, and [seabed] mining and how do you imply the real companies that exist and still do it? "
CANARI asked how local, rural and marginalized communities could become part of the movement that not only brought economic benefits to communities, but also how these communities could put environmental sustainability into practice.
"The radar is really designed for community businesses that use natural resources," says Leotard at IPS.
"They are already starting to make changes. We do not tell them to make changes, it's a self-discovery. "
Leotaud explains that the Great Riviera Turtle Conservation organization has experienced a similar discovery process.
"A community-based turtle conservation company has large tanks where baby turtles are kept, if they are born during the day," says Leotaud. She explains that thanks to the radar, the organization is then interested not only in turtle conservation, but also in water conservation and the use of energy. renewable.
"They said we could think about renewable energy. It would not only be good for the environment, but also a constant energy supply because [they are based] in an isolated village where they are cut [from electricity] All the time.
"They understood that they could do better in terms of energy and water. And they understood that they had some powerful leaders, but that they were not doing enough to hire other members of the company and have them come, they were only doing not enough to build partnerships, "said Leotaud.
"They said," Ah, now we see how much we are part of the blue economy. "
Mitchell Lay, from the Caribbean Network of Fishermen's Organizations, says that to help community businesses integrate into the blue economy and become even stronger, it is necessary to recognize the already active players in the space.
The small fishing sector, he said, has "more than 90 million people in the world of aqua fit. In the Caribbean region, in the Caribbean community alone, more than 150,000 people are involved in all production already in the blue economy. "
He says their contributions should be recognized. These contributions include "not only for SDG 14, but for other SDGs. Their contribution to the eradication of poverty, in terms of job creation, their contribution to human health and well-being. The contribution to the elimination of hunger. "
Lay says that support is essential because of the nature of the businesses because they are small and micro and their sustainable development needs to be promoted.
"So support from the policy point of view, other perspectives as well, capacity building, etc."
At the same time, Leotaud states that "Community businesses, especially because they are informal, are marginalized. They are not part of the decision-making, they are not part of the discussion. So how can we make them feel part of this movement, so that they transform themselves? And what do they call governments?
She explained that more enabling policies were needed and that CANARI was working to create a more enabling environment for microenterprises.
She said that community enterprises do not have access to financing and that the technical capacity available in the countries for business development was not adapted to their needs.
By Nalisha Adams for IPS
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