CarSIF provides small grants for coastal and marine resource management in the Caribbean

NINE CIVIL society organisations (CSOs) from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago were recently awarded small grants by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) totalling US$ 80,000 to support practical action projects that demonstrate innovation and best practices to enhance coastal and marine biodiversity conservation, build resilience to climate change and natural hazards and support development of sustainable community livelihoods.

The small 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.

These small grants 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 twelve (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 (EAG) (Antigua and Barbuda), WildDominique (Dominica), Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversité Marine (FoProBiM) (Haiti), Plateforme pour l’Amélioration de la Pêche Artisanale et du Développement Intégré (PADI) (Haiti), Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation (C-CAM) (Jamaica), Newcastle Bay Foundation (Saint Kitts and Nevis), Mayreau Explorers Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd. (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Union Island Environmental Attackers (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) and Future Fishers (Trinidad and Tobago).

These CSOs will be implementing projects which focus on biodiversity conservation, sustainable livelihoods, climate resilience and environmental education and awareness. Projects are diverse and range from coral gardening in Haiti and Jamaica, to developing sustainable livelihoods through mangrove-based apiculture 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.