The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) family says farewell to its co‐founder and
former executive director, Yves Renard, with great sadness but also with gratitude for his role in
shaping the organisation and his considerable contribution to natural resource management and
people‐centred development in the Caribbean. Yves passed away on 20 January 2023 in Athens,
Greece.
Yves was firmly rooted in the Caribbean and its culture; his commitment was as much through his
work advocating for putting people at the centre of natural resource management as through his
efforts promoting the arts as a vehicle for community development. He began his professional life as
a teacher and community worker in Guadeloupe, but with his involvement with the Eastern
Caribbean Natural Area Management Programme (ECNAMP) between 1980 and 1991, his work
became Eastern Caribbean‐wide in scope. When ECNAMP evolved into CANARI in 1992, Yves
became the executive director and served in that position until 2001. Under his leadership, CANARI’s
mandate expanded to include the broader Caribbean region, and the organisation became firmly
established as a champion for the development and adoption of policies and programmes in support
of increased participation and collaboration in natural resource management. After stepping down
as CANARI’s executive director, Yves continued his affiliation as an associate, contributing to
institutional development and programme implementation.
Analytical and visionary, Yves had the gift of ensuring people were heard and seen. A gift that
expressed itself in his commitment to social justice and the principles of participation and equity,
and which served him well as he navigated spaces that ranged from the village square to the board room to intergovernmental meetings.
CANARI is just part of Yves’ legacy in the Caribbean. He put time and energy into building
organisations and communities, with notable effort in his home village of Laborie, Saint Lucia. He
was instrumental in setting up the Laborie Development Foundation and he was a co‐producer of
Jazz in the South. This annual cultural festival, coordinated locally in Laborie, was dedicated to
Creole Jazz and World Music and conceptualised as a means of supporting community economic
activity, business opportunity and social cohesion. He was also an active supporter of the Laborie
Steel Pan Project, which develops musical and artistic talent in the community and offers extracurricular
programme at schools in Laborie.
Yves served on the governing bodies of several international, national and community‐based
organisations. He was the President of the Caribbean Conservation Association between 1995 and
2000 and served as the Caribbean representative on the Council of the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He also served on the Board of
Trustees of the London‐based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and
the Advisory Board of the Institut de l’Énergie et de l’Environnement de la Francophonie (IEPF). At
the time of his passing, Yves was also a Director and Interim Coordinator of Panos Caribbean.
In saying farewell to Yves, our thoughts are with his family and many friends and colleagues across
the Caribbean. We treasure our memories of Yves, who inspired us all and has left an amazing
legacy. We at CANARI continue the journey he laid out for us, working together to deliver equity,
well‐being, sustainability and resilience throughout the Caribbean.