Strengthening nature-based enterprises and livelihoods in support of the global environment facility-integrating water, land and ecosystems management in Caribbean small island developing states (GEF-IWEco)

Nature-based small and micro enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of Caribbean economies and can make an essential contribution towards protecting the natural resources upon which their businesses depend. Thus, strengthening and sustaining these SMEs is important for overall environmental protection and economic sustainability in the Caribbean. Support needed by these SMEs include business strengthening, organisational capacity building, ecosystem stewardship of the natural resources they use, “greening” and climate proofing of their enterprises.

About the Project

CANARI’s work under this project focused on supporting SMEs under four intervention areas:

• Enhancing ecosystem stewardship to support sustainable livelihoods of surrounding communities
• Strengthening community enterprises to ensure sustainable use and enhance socio-economic benefits to surrounding communities
• Building resilience of livelihoods to climate change
• Knowledge sharing for sustainable nature-based livelihoods

The main SMEs that CANARI worked with in four IWEco Project participating countries were:

• Negril Area Environmental Protection Trust (NEPT) (Jamaica)
• Hanover Bee Farmers’ Co-operative Society Ltd. (HBCFS) (Jamaica)
• Madeira Valley Heritage Park Inc. (MVHP) (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines)
• Nevis Turtle Group (NTG) (St. Kitts and Nevis)
• Fond St. Jacques Development Committee (FSJDC) (Saint Lucia)
• Jacq-Co Valley Products Ltd. (JCVP) (Saint Lucia)

 How has this project benefitted the Caribbean region?

The Sustainable Livelihoods activity under IWEco contributed to a reduction in environmental stress in target countries, enhanced livelihood opportunities and triple bottom line benefits for target stakeholders and their communities, strengthened climate change adaptive capacity and improved knowledge bases on ecosystem stewardship, business strengthening and climate proofing of nature-based enterprises.

What activities did we undertake to achieve this?

Enhancing ecosystem stewardship to support sustainable livelihoods of surrounding communities:

• Conducted ecosystem stewardship virtual training sessions for SMEs and CSOs.
• Supported six SMEs through technical mentoring and a micro-grant scheme to implement stewardship actions.

Strengthening community enterprises to ensure sustainable use and enhance socio-economic benefits to surrounding communities:

• Selected suitable enterprises in targeted IWEco country sites to participate in enterprise strengthening activities.
• Identified and trained a pool of in-country small business experts to serve as small business mentors.
• Conducted virtual training sessions for identified small business mentors and country IWEco project staff on the Local Green-Blue Enterprise Radar and greening strategies for businesses.
• Provided capacity building support to selected SMEs through business mentoring and a microgrant scheme.

Building resilience of livelihoods to climate change:

• Conducted climate proofing virtual training sessions for mentors and SMEs.
• Supported selected SMEs in the targeted IWEco country sites to conduct enterprise/livelihood vulnerability assessments, identify and implement climate proofing actions though technical mentoring and a micro-grant mechanism to support practical actions.

Knowledge sharing for sustainable nature-based livelihoods:

• Conducted training on “Effective Advocacy for Caribbean Civil Society Organisations” and “Participatory Information and Communication Tools (ICTs) and approaches”
• Developed and disseminated knowledge and communication products on tools, best practices and innovations for ecosystem stewardship, business strengthening and climate proofing of nature-based community enterprises

What did we achieve?

• Ecosystem stewardship capacity was built within participating SMEs and Civil Society organisations (CSOs) such as the Caribbean Youth Environment Network (CYEN). Stewardship activities such as tree planting for slope stabilisation in St. Lucia, clean-ups along rivers, tree planting to support pollinator populations, and revegetation of turtle nesting beaches in Nevis were implemented by the SMEs using microgrant funding.

• Community enterprises were strengthened to deliver triple bottom-line co-benefits (environmental, social and economic) and improved business performance. This included both capacity building through mentoring and practical actions (such as marketing, purchase of software, equipment and facility upgrades) funded through a microgrant scheme.

• Capacity building and practical activities to support climate proofing were conducted, beginning with climate vulnerability assessments and followed by supporting interventions, such as the construction of rainwater harvesting systems, implemented with microgrant funding.

• Best practices, lessons and innovations on ecosystem stewardship and business strengthening were captured and shared for replication throughout the region.

Project-related publications

• Geographic Information System (GIS) Storymap on Best Practices for Community Based Restoration, jointly funded by this GEF-IWEco project activity and the Natural Infrastructure for Caribbean Resilience (NICaR) programme.

• Mentoring Manual: toolkit outlining CANARI’s best practices and lessons learnt in using the approach advocated by this activity. This toolkit is co-funded by the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) under a CANARI initiative entitled, “CSOs for Disaster Resilience: Empowering civil society and local communities to build resilience to hurricanes and climate extremes in the Eastern Caribbean”. The draft toolkit is available at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/tnf9oncvm5wuvkhy0kcwi/AOkqRlqLP1LcKFP9ktrBItg?rlkey=d328yczjp6071shzfdxvue4vj&st=humsdap5&dl=0 noting that under the current IAF project, further edits will be made.

• Building sustainability through business strengthening: a case study of Caribbean nature-based enterprises – Case study of the business strengthening activities under the GEF-IWEco livelihoods project

• A Social Media Resource Guide: A tool to help Caribbean Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) build and sustain engaged online communities

Project news and information

• Launch of the capacity building programme and introduction to nature-based enterprises
• Assessing capacity of community nature-based enterprises and planning for capacity-building
• General principles of ecosystem stewardship
• Introduction to CANARI’s Local Green-Blue Enterprise Radar toolkit
• Climate Proofing Nature-based Enterprise – session 1
• Climate Proofing Nature-based Enterprise – session 2
• Training course on Participatory Information and Communication Tools (ICTs) and approaches

For more information about this project

• Project summary
• Contact Dr. Natalie Boodram, Senior Technical Officer, at natalie@canari.org

Related projects and programmes

• Biodiversity and Ecosystems
• Equity and Justice
• Grenada National Ecosystem Assessment: Linking Science and Policy Project