Green Antilles

Mr. Renwick Rose, of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was yesterday announced as the winner of the 2011 Guardian International Development Achievement Award. Mr. Rose has been a strong and stalwart advocate for farmers’ rights and is also recognised as a Caribbean Fairtrade pioneer. In the excerpt below, you can read how Mr. Rose describes his work, in his own words:

To have been considered for nomination for this award, much more becoming a finalist, could not have been further from my thoughts five or six months ago. What an honour for a simple man from a small-island chain with a population more than 100 times smaller than that of the London metropolis. To go on to win such a prestigious award is nothing short of miraculous.

The award makes an important statement. In my case it is a validation of the long years of work with, and on behalf of, our embattled farmers in the Eastern Caribbean islands – farmers with tiny holdings based on family labour. In the case of the organisation with which I have worked these past 22 years, the Windward Islands farmers Association (WINFA), special mention must go to the struggles of our women farmers. Many of them are heads of single-parent households, whose lives represent living chapters in an unending story of the pursuit of life with equal opportunities, dignity and honour.

My own part in this noble effort has been to support, to help to give organisational form and leadership and to try and be a channel through which the long muffled voices of our farmers can at long last echo across the world in their clamour for justice. We have worked together since the 1970s, fighting for the right to access to and ownership of the land. On this land, our farmers produce, feeding our people and providing valuable foreign exchange which has fuelled our still limited social and economic development.

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The farmers of the Caribbean are calling to the international community to live up to its responsibilities to ensure a fair deal for all. Our vulnerability to natural disasters is dramatically demonstrated year after year and the threat of climate change and its harmful effects can have enormous implications for us. We are deeply honoured to have been recognised through the Award but for us it must become a platform on which we can all build and collectively play our part in the achievement of a just and sustainable world.

For more, read the full article, as well as this profile of Mr. Rose,and this brief video highlighting the contributions that the the Fairtrade organisation and the Windward Islands Farmers’ Association (WINFA) make to communities in the Eastern Caribbean.

Previously on Green Antilles: Vincentian Renwick Rose nominated for International Development Achievement Award.

[Photo: via guardian.co.uk]

Renwick Rose, of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has been nominated for the Guardian International Development Achievement Award. This nomination recognises his achievements as a Fair Trade pioneer in the Eastern Caribbean banana industry:

Despite his 40 years of work in civil society development and trade justice, Renwick Rose is not a globally recognised name. Yet, among the small farming communities of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean, he is a celebrated figurehead affectionately known as the “Banana Man”. In the 1990s, Rose spotted the value and necessity of organisation and cooperation at a time when the banana trade was entering a downwards spiral. He earned the trust of small-scale farmers who were struggling to make it onto the supermarket shelves and guided them through the process of Fair Trade Certification. The establishment of the Windward Island National Farmers’ Network Association (WINFA) has generated security and progress which radiates out into the wider community. Through their partnership with Fair Trade, the WINFA farmers earn a premium of a dollar for each box of bananas, which is invested democratically back into the community. In this way, the social, educational and trade infrastructure of the islands has begun to bloom. Rose’s attempt at retirement in 2010 was thwarted by the devastating impact of the hurricane that destroyed farms across St Lucia and St Vincent. He returned immediately to lead the farming community on the uphill slope towards recovery, and, with his support, Windward Island bananas were back on the supermarket shelves within eight months.

Visit the competition website to vote for Mr. Rose (voting closes Sunday October 2). (Get more information about the awards at the Guardian website.)

Watch Mr. Rose’s speech at the 2009 Fairtrade Foundation Conference in the video below. He spoke on the topic The global food crisis and Fairtrade: Small farmers, big solutions?

Mr. Rose’s work has featured previously on Green Antilles in this post, which quotes an article he co-wrote for the Guardian’s Poverty Matters blog: Call for the UK to back Windward Islands banana farmers.

[Photo: via bangospeaks.blogspot.com]

A new species of bat has been discovered in St. Vincent; it has been dubbed Micronycteris garifuna:

At first glance, the bat captured in St. Vincent looked like a common type found in South America.

But after closer inspection, Texas Tech University biologists discovered a new species found only on the Caribbean island and whose origins probably trace back to a dramatic marooning after glaciers receded and sea levels rose.

The discovery was made by Peter Larsen, a post-doctoral research associate in the Department of Biological Sciences, and Lizette Siles, graduate student of zoology. It was featured in the online version of the peer-reviewed journal, Mammalian Biology.

Researchers from the University of Scranton, South Dakota State University and the University of Nebraska also contributed to the discovery.

As a way of honoring St. Vincent’s inhabitants, the researchers said this new species of the genus Micronycteris has been named after the Garifuna people – the blended culture of Carib, Arawak and West African peoples that trace their ancestry back to St. Vincent.

Larsen said he went to St. Vincent in 2005-2006 on two expeditions with a team of researchers seeking to categorize bat diversity on the island.

“We didn’t know at the time when we caught these particular specimens that it was a new species,” he said. “We thought it was a species that had been described already in South America. A year or so went by, and I happened to look at this species that we had collected and compared it to what we thought it was – a species from Trinidad. But the St. Vincent bat was huge comparatively speaking.”

Read more in this article from physorg.com as well as in this report from the Discovery news blog.

A previous bat-related story from St. VIncent and the Grenadines: Bats in St. Vincent offer insights into mammal hybridization.

[Photo: Peter Larsen and Lizette Siles, Texas Tech University via news.dicovery.com]

Via the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme:

The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (“GS/OAS”), through its Department of Sustainable Development (“DSD”), cordially invites eligible parties to participate in the bidding process for consultancy services under the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Program (CSEP). Details can be found in the Invitation Letter and the Request for Proposal Download (“RFP”) for the preparation of a Draft Geothermal Resource Development Bill for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Included are the instructions for the preparation and submission of the proposal, the rules that govern the bidding process, and the terms of reference. All proposals must be received by the GS/OAS no later than close of business (“COB”) 5:30 p.m. EST on Monday June 13th, 2011.

Marine park wardens in the Grenadines have recently completed a training course in coral reef monitoring:

Staff at two recently established Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Grenadine islands are now better equipped to monitor the health of their coral reefs, following a training course on the Reef Check (RC) methodology which took place on Carriacou, Grenada in early February.

The course was just one component of a larger project to strengthen the ability of MPA managers to effectively manage their valuable marine resources. Coordinated by Sustainable Grenadines Inc. (SusGren), a transboundary NGO that spans the countries of Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the southern Caribbean, the project is generously funded through a grant from the United States National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).
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Following an initial classroom session, participants were given a practical introduction to the RC methodology in a shallow area of the Sandy Island Oyster Bed MPA. They tried their hand at placing the transect line, recording substrate cover, and counting indicator organisms while snorkelling. On the last two days of the course, participants collected data in deeper areas of the MPA using SCUBA. Following a delicious meal of saltfish souse on the final day, participants successfully completed the required test and became certified Reef Check EcoDivers! This training will assist the MPA managers involved in implementing a standardized protocol to regularly monitor the effects of stressors such as tourism, climate change, and coastal development on the coral reefs of the Grenadines. Additional support for the implementation of reef monitoring is being provided through a year-long small grant program for each of the participating MPAs, which is also being delivered by SusGren and funded through NFWF.

See the original Reef Check news release for more.

Previously on Green Antilles: New network of Marine Protected Areas in the Grenadines.

[Photo: O. Harvey via reefcheck.org]

A Forestry Officer from St. Vincent and the Grenadines will be the first Caribbean conservationist to receive training as an Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leader:

Forestry Officer Bradford Latham has been selected to be one of twenty-two wildlife conservationists to participate in a two year intensive training course called Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders, in Florida.

A release from the Forestry Department says Mr. Latham will be the first conservationist from the Caribbean region to attend this course.

The course is sponsored by a wide variety of conservation minded groups, including US Fish & Wildlife Service, Howard Gilman Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Network, Bat Conservation International, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The course flies the selected participants down to White Oak Conservation Center in Florida twice over the two years, where they will be trained in successful wildlife campaigning and leadership skills by some of the top conservationists in the field.

Mr. Latham says he is honoured to be selected for this course which he says will give him the chance to enhance his skills and make a real difference helping wildlife in his career.

He says the training will be vital for the Forestry Department in carrying out its mandate to conserve and protect the national forest and wildlife resources for the optimum benefit of the entire community of St.Vincent and Grenadines.

Source: NBC Radio, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders programme is:

a training and mentoring initiative that brings together twenty new, emerging leaders in the wildlife conservation field for capacity building and intense training in campaign development and leadership skills, including implementation of a two-year group international wildlife issue campaign.

Find out more at the website of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.