Earth Today | Innovation fund provides small grants for better marine resources management

NINE CIVIL society organisations (CSOs) from several Caribbean countries were recently awarded small grants totalling US$80,000 to support practical projects for enhanced protection of coastal and marine biodiversity.

The grants were provided by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) to Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago, as part of efforts to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards, and support development of sustainable community livelihoods.

The grants are a key component of the regional project, Powering Innovations in Civil Society and Enterprises for Sustainability in the Caribbean (PISCES), which is being funded by the European Union EuropeAid programme.

They were awarded under the Caribbean Sea Innovation Fund (CarSIF) facility established by CANARI in 2019 to address priority needs and actions in the Caribbean on marine and coastal resources governance and management.

Over the past 12 years, CANARI has managed and administered a number of small grant programmes for civil society organisations in over 18 Caribbean islands, on behalf of various donors working in the Caribbean, in the areas of biodiversity conservation, climate-change adaptation and resilience, sustainable livelihoods, participatory governance, and organisational capacity-building.

CANARI is using the CarSIF as an important capacity-building strategy to increase CSO capacity for participatory natural resource governance and management in the Caribbean.

The successful CarSIF grantees are the Environmental Awareness Group (Antigua and Barbuda), WildDominique (Dominica), Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversité Marine, (Haiti), Plateforme pour l’Amélioration de la Pêche Artisanale et du Développement Intégré, (PADI) (Haiti), Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation, (Jamaica), Newcastle Bay Foundation (Saint Kitts and Nevis), Mayreau Explorers Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd (Saint Vincent, and The Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversité, Marine, based in Haiti, received a small grant under the CarSIF.

Projects are diverse and range from coral gardening in Haiti and Jamaica, to developing sustainable livelihoods through mangrove-based agriculture and seamoss farming in Haiti and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, respectively, to community-based conservation of the Union Island gecko in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

All projects are expected to be completed by the end of November 2020. The CSOs will receive technical support to implement their projects from CANARI and in-country CSO mentors, who have been trained by CANARI in CSO organisational strengthening under the PISCES project.