La Encrucijada
Ana Elisa Peña Del Valle Isla
Creating a sense of belonging to local ecosystems
CONANP has acknowledged that “without peoples’ interest, you won't get anywhere” in terms of promoting sustainable community use of local ecosystems. It is therefore not only important to raise awareness within local communities of the relevant connection between mangrove ecosystems maintenance, fisheries and local livelihoods, it is of vital importance to create a sense of identity and belonging of those communities to those ecosystems. Identity can be developed by raising the awareness of the benefits of sustainable management of the resources directly in terms of benefits to local livelihoods. However, identity can also be further strengthened by encouraging the self-organized engagement of all members of the community in not only making use of different parts of the ecosystem to sustain livelihoods, but also in engaging in its nurture and rehabilitation. The rest of the building blocks in this solution all aid this further development of identity of the local communities as a part of their local ecosystems.
- The good functioning of the other building blocks in this solution;
- a network of NGOs who can effectively work with communities in promoting a sense of belonging and identity;
- the ecosystem is still healthy enough to be a potential source of community pride, and to return quick results (the mangroves are some of the best on the American Pacific coastline);
- a sense of entrepreneurship in the local communities.
The major lesson learned here was that, whilst initially the work with the fishermen was going well, the qualitative leap in progress and generation of synergies within the communities for raising the levels of commitment and effort for a transformation in attitudes and practices regarding the mangrove ecosystems in which they lived and its sustainable use, was the inclusion of their wives and children in the process.