Social media as a lever for restoring coastal marine habitats in fishing communities
The Bay Islands National Marine Park is a crucial wetland ecosystem, comprising mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs. These natural resources are threatened by land-use changes, particularly for urbanisation.
This IKI Small Grants project’s goal is to safeguard and restore vulnerable marine ecosystems. To do so, it uses various methods, such as awareness building, capacity development, and sustainable community development with a gender-sensitive approach. The project starts off with a survey on mangrove reforestation Afterwards, it promotes and demonstrates mangrove reforestation and seagrass restoration methods at a pilot scale. Another component focuses on livelihood development. Here the projecti ntroduces the processing of fish skin into leather. The value chain includes downstream processing and marketing.
The project’s findings and recommendations should be able to apply to the entire Mesoamerican reef system especially in Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico.
CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
IKI Small Grants supports Asociación para la Conservación Ecológica de las Islas de la Bahía (BICA) in their organisational capacity development through:
- A workshop tailored for implementing local initiatives
- Training on communications and fundraising for NGOs
- Peer-to-peer learning on water quality monitoring
ABOUT THE ORGANISATION
The Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA) is a private, non-profit, grassroots organisation founded in 1990. It was formed by citizens, who were concerned about the future well-being of the Honduran Bay Islands. BICA aims to initiate and coordinate efforts to protect the Bay Islands fragile natural resources and its ecosystem services.
BICA has already worked in Bay Island Communities over the past decade. Here, BICA supported communities on issues concerning drinking water, sanitation, and resource protection. BICA has run outreach campaigns on solid waste, its impacts on ecosystems, and human health on the island of Roatan to increase awareness. Additionally, BICA impacted the Bay Islands through mangrove, native hardwood, and pine forest restoration. It established a sustainable plant nursery on Roatan. In 2021 mangrove reforestation sub-program on the island of Guanaja started, focusing on the area that was affected by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.