Environmental Conservation

Since our work began in 1996, we have maintained a philosophy that community development must happen in harmony with the natural environment in order to be successful and sustainable. For our partner communities in the Lower Lempa region of El Salvador, this means protecting the Bay of Jiquilisco Biosphere Reserve, an ecosystem of global importance and a hotspot for biodiversity. Not only do local villagers have the right to stay where they are, but through a decree by the Ministry of the Environment, they are now officially recognized as local managers of the Protected Area.

Local Enforcement of Environmental Regulations

Our local partners are using their new power as local managers of the Bay of Jiquilisco Biosphere Reserve to stop wealthy developers from destroying major portions of the Protected Area. In 2005, the Salvadoran government announced that the rural villages near the Bay of Jiquilisco would be relocated in order to create a Protected Area. At the same time, there were rumors that wealthy land developers with connections in the government were surveying the lands with plans to build luxury hotels and expand sugar cane plantations. After three years of protest, advocacy and negotiation, our local partners reached an unprecedented agreement in April 2008 to protect this area and their land rights. In one case, they filed a lawsuit which stopped an agribusiness company from chopping down a tract of mangrove forest to plant sugar cane. In another instance, they prevented a wealthy family from building a luxury tourist resort in the middle of the Protected Area. These projects, which would have destroyed large portions of the fragile mangrove forest ecosystem, would have moved forward but for the vigilance of local community leaders who noticed the developers arriving with their construction machinery.

In addition, eight communities recently entered an initial pilot project covering 4,735 acres of mangrove forest. Working with conservation scientists, community leaders conducted a thorough assessment of the species living in these areas, and their vulnerability to environmental threats such as overfishing, deforestation and water contamination. Through this process, the communities declared this area a ‘local protected zone’ in which all activities are closely monitored and regulated, including chopping down trees, fishing or harvesting crabs and shellfish. Local community members are trained as ‘resource guardians’ or park rangers. They patrol these zones every day to enforce the local regulations. We are currently working with our local partners to assess the effectiveness of this pilot project with the plan to expand it to more communities in the near future.

Sea Turtle Hatcheries

The Bay of Jiquilisco Biosphere Reserve is home to four threatened species of sea turtles, including the critically endangered Eastern Pacific Hawksbill. Learn more about these sea turtles and the threats they face.

Over the last five years we have supported the creation of six sea turtle hatcheries in coastal communities near the Bay of Jiquilisco. Five of these hatcheries work mostly with Olive Ridleys, Green turtles and Leatherbacks, and one is exclusively for Eastern Pacific Hawskbills. Community members who used to illegally sell turtle eggs to fancy restaurants now sell them legally to the local hatchery for the same price.

Local people are hired as rotating security guards or attendants for the hatcheries. The hatchery attendants learn about the biology of sea turtles and how to care for them. They bury each egg in a secured location on the beach, and regulate its temperature to ensure that it has the right conditions to hatch.

The release of baby turtles into the ocean is an inspiring sight, and our supporters are welcome to participate! Sea turtle release is a feature of all Community Empowerment Tours from September through January of each year.

Our sea turtle conservation program is not just about sea turtles but about a better livelihood for local community members. By selling turtle eggs to a hatchery, Tortugueros (people who sell stolen turtle eggs on the black market) can now make an honest income while protecting sea turtles. Our local partners are also working with these men and women to help them find other sources of income to support their families, including sustainable agriculture, ecotourism [BUILDING A GREEN ECONOMY: ECOTOURISM] and sustainable fishing cooperatives [ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION: SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES].

Through the hatchery project we have supported the release of 450,000 baby sea turtles into the ocean since 2005. However, for every 1,000 sea turtles released, only one will survive and make it back to the nest as an adult to lay eggs. Baby sea turtles are killed by mostly by bombs from blast fishing [SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES], but also by nets from massive commercial fishing ships, predators like sharks, and rising sea temperatures. Our work is more critical than ever in order for sea turtles to survive.

Sustainable Fisheries

Studies from the UN show that the number of fish in the world’s oceans is declining at an alarming rate, threatening the livelihood and food security of 200 million people. The fisherwomen and fishermen of the Bay of Jiquilisco Biosphere Reserve are seeing big drops in number and size of their catch each year. A major reason for this is the practice of blast fishing: the use of homemade bombs and explosives to stun the fish to the surface.

This destructive practice is not just destroying fish stocks. It is also the number one threat to the survival of sea turtles, including the critically endangered Hawksbill sea turtle. Every bomb that explodes during turtle season destroys dozens of baby sea turtles. Of the thousands which hatch on the local beaches, only a handful make it to adulthood. For the survival of this endangered species, we must halt the practice of bomb fishing.

In response to this environmental threat, we are working with local communities to support the formation of sustainable fishing cooperatives. As of late 2009 there were four cooperatives with 90 members, and the number is growing. These cooperatives are made up of fisherwomen and fishermen who are committed to less destructive forms of fishing. They are spreading the word about the problems created by bomb fishing. They are also working with scientists from the University of El Salvador to track local fish species, and to create protected areas where the fish can reproduce. By constructing “reefs” of anchored wood to replace the lost habitat, the cooperative members provi de a place for fish to lay their eggs. They are patrolling these areas to ensure that no one fishes in and near them, and to report any use of explosives to the local authorities.

These fisherwomen and fishermen represent a new wave of environmental consciousness in some of the poorest rural communities of El Salvador. In the country with one of the highest levels of environmental degradation in the Americas, rural people whose livelihoods depend on the land and sea – farmers, fishermen, crabbers – can see that they must protect the few resources they have left.

Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration

For local species of sea turtles to survive, we must restore the mangrove ecosystems of the Bay of Jiquilisco that have been badly degraded by natural disasters, deforestation, soil erosion, and the modification of artificial canals through the wetlands. Over a period of five years, community members and our own volunteers planted mangrove propagules, or seeds, in deforested areas in the hopes of restoring these forests. However, a recent evaluation has found that this approach is not the most effective at ecosystem restoration. This year, we are working with local community members to restore the natural hydrology of the wetlands, while increasing soil and water retention in upstream buffer areas, creating the right conditions for mangroves to regenerate on their own.

Ecological Sanitation

Indoor toilets are almost nonexistent in rural El Salvador, as are septic systems and sewage treatment. Most families use a pit latrine or simply go out to their cornfields to do their business. In an area that is regularly overrun with floods, this results in a dangerous situation in which untreated human waste washes into all local waterways.

Contaminated water is quite possibly the number one source of deadly infectious diseases, particularly amongst children. Human waste flowing into the Bay of Jiquilisco also contributes to algal blooms, reducing oxygen availability in the water and thereby destroying fish and other marine wildlife.

Composting latrines can be an effective solution to the problem of untreated human waste. Families who build their own latrines gain a safe, private and virtually odorless toilet which, when used properly, neutralizes and transforms human waste into a rich soil conditioner for plants and trees. With our Salvadoran partner organization the Mangrove Association, EcoViva has helped local families build over 550 composting latrines in rural El Salvador since 2001. We have worked with student groups from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the Yale School of Public Health to assess the installation of these latrines and ensure that families can use them effectively.

Wood-Saving Stoves

Traditionally, people in rural El Salvador cook on open pit wood fires inside their kitchens because they can't afford anything else. All family members, but especially women and girls, are exposed to dangerous levels of smoke and pollutants, contributing to severe respiratory health problems and early blindness.

Traditional open pit fires are very inefficient, burning through up to ½ a cord per month (close to 100 cubic feet). Very often, children will have to dedicate a significant part of their time to gathering wood, instead of going to school. The burning of so much wood contributes to deforestation and global warming. Near the Bay of Jiquilisco, a significant portion of firewood comes from cutting down mangrove trees.

Since 2001, EcoViva has supported the installation of over 460 wood-saving stoves in rural households through our partner organization, the Mangrove Association. These concrete and tile stoves contain the fire and concentrate it onto a a burner and a plancha, the griddle which is used to make the tortillas and pupusas which are traditional to Salvadoran cuisine. The smoke is channeled into a chimney, significantly reducing exposure to smoke inhalation. Over the last two years we have worked with Engineers without Borders at Clemson University, the Monterey Institute for International Studies and the Yale School of Public Health to improve the design of these stoves and assess the effectiveness of their use.

EcoTourism

El Salvador is at the cusp of a burgeoning tourism industry. In September 2009, the New York Times published an article about surfing in El Salvador. Surfing is considered a bellwether of nascent tourism. Powerful forces from the public and private sector want to see tourism established in the Bay of Jiquilisco, as a way to attract large capital investments.

However, the ecologically destructive business model of typical commercial tourism would undoubtedly forever change the character and extent of the natural habitat and fragile ecology of the Bay of Jiquilisco, most probably displacing many communities and severely limit access to sustainable livelihoods like fishing and farming.

With EcoViva’s Community Empowerment Tours, we are working to establish an alternative model for tourism in the Bay of Jiquilisco, one that will bring the world’s attention to the beauty of the mangrove forests and the work of local communities to protect them. Tourists stay with local families, eat delicious food with organic produce grown on local farms, meet local community leaders, take boat rides through the mangroves and lounge on local beaches. The tours are conceived and run by local community members, who make a fair wage, and additional revenue supports the community development projects.

By demonstrating a viable alternative to mass tourism, we seek to establish a strong business model where low-impact development and real community involvement are considered competitive assets.