Three years of coastal implementation and sustainability

By: Neylin Calderón

URACCAN, through the Institute of Natural Resources, Environment and Sustainable Development (IREMADES), successfully completed the project "Strengthening population conditions and capacities for the conservation and sustainable management of coastal ecosystems on nicaragua's Caribbean Coast", funded by the European Union and Horizont3000.

Enrique Cordón (PhD), vice-chancellor of the Bilwi compound, said that to discuss coastal ecosystems is to talk about the "livelihoods of indigenous peoples; we are talking about all those important elements that are part of the life of communities, which have to do with daily life, with food."

Sustainability of resources on the Caribbean Coast

Cordón said that this project, which involves the maritime strip, strengthens peoples because it is "where all the resources that can be captured are, that can be harnessed and, moreover, preserved for the lives of the community; we talk about fishing, shrimp, lobster, mangrove that is the habitat where all these live are elements that make up an ecosystem, hence communities get what they need to feed themselves and get resources to market."

The idea of this project is that leaders and community leaders "know how to manage their potential, the resource that exists in their communities; we are not going to use the resources to market them, here we are talking about the Good Living, the sustainability of families and the communal environment; then, we take care of, conserve and take advantage of these resources," Cordón explained.

Collaborative work with the Regional Government

Nytzae Dixón, director of the Secretariat of Natural Resources (Serena) of the Autonomous Regional Government of the North Caribbean Coast, congratulated the entire URACCAN team on the constancy and willingness to work. In addition, he noted that the coolaboration between universities and state agencies "is building capacities in communities, but not only there, but also there, but the university as an academy is strengthening its capabilities to be able to conduct such processes."

Dixón added that this valuable effort creates "timely the idea of joining URACCAN's coastal management project, gave us the opportunity as advice and government to continue the process to update the management plan, also to delve a little deeper with territorial consultations."

In addition, the director of the Serena explained that this project includes substantial elements of the Strategic Development Plan of the Caribbean Coast "also of the National Plan for Human Development and it is important that those strategic guidelines that are included in the management plan have a broader discussion about how we want to develop our Cayos Miskitus Reserve and how we want to strengthen territorial governance".

Intercultural community accompaniment

Finally, Cordón stated that through this project men and women were trained and trained "to be able to identify, order and manage natural resources; a comprehensive management plan for the Miskitus Keys reserve was also built; all of this has to do with working with communities on harnessing their resources; we as an academy also participate in this whole process, integrating all students into the training, training and training and research process."

This important project was supported by Bluefields Indian & Caribbean University (BICU).