ECO-Preneuring

Wildlife Trust helps create
economic opportunity in
Dominican Republic.

By Mary C. Pearl

Wildlife Trust is a rapidly growing (14% CAGR) nonprofit organization that creates innovative solutions to the negative consequences of environmental change. With partners in nearly 20 countries around the world, it responds to well-defined local needs by drawing on global strengths. In the Dominican Republic, Wildlife Trust is working with local biologists and the community of Miches to restore fishing and create new jobs in ecotourism. In other parts of the world, we analyze risks of infectious disease transfer among wildlife, livestock and humans. Wildlife Trust seeks partners who are interested in cause-related marketing or investments in environmentally sustainable economic development in poor countries.

Visit www.wildlifetrust.org to learn more.

Much as entrepreneurs are the innovation engine of enterprise, scientists in free-standing research institutions are at the forefront of innovative solutions to environmental problems. In the Dominican Republic, Wildlife Trust scientists have designed a solution to declining fisheries and high unemployment in one of the poorest municipalities in the country, Miches.

Perched on white sand beaches along the northeastern coast of the country, and graced by scenic mountains and rivers coursing down to the sea, Miches is beautiful, and its citizens are warm, hospitable people. Micheros know that change is coming to their corner of the island, and determining how to grow economically while preserving nature is a major concern.

Surprisingly to some, marine mammal management – manatees and humpback whales -- will be the key factor in Miches’ economic development.

While the area is rich in natural beauty, Miches is beset by economic poverty typical of many tropical islands, including unemployment and a declining natural resource base. Local fishing has been in decline ever since an exotic weed called hydrilla began covering and choking out life in the two large lagoons, Limon and Redonda.

In assessing the problem, the head of Wildlife Trust’s Aquatic Programs, Dr. James “Buddy” Powell, discovered that manatees, a large marine mammal that consumes huge quantities of marine vegetation each day, had disappeared from Miches.

“Manatees, historically present in Miches, will bring the lagoons back into equilibrium by keeping the growth of hydrilla in check,” Powell noted after a field trip to Miches from Wildlife Trust’s St. Petersburg, Florida, office.

The author of several books on manatees, and the former director of marine mammal and sea turtle conservation for the state of Florida, Powell is one of the world’s authorities on the natural history and management of these creatures. Wildlife Trust has conducted manatee conservation and research in Florida, Belize, Cuba, and even across the Atlantic in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. This track record assures success in the D.R.

In addition to manatee reintroduction and management, Wildlife Trust and its partners, the local and national governments of the Dominican Republic and the Center for Environment, Economy, and Society at Columbia University, plan to build new businesses based on nature conservation, and on tourism, the D.R.’s second-largest source of foreign income (after remittences). As part of the manatee restoration project, Wildlife Trust will collaborate with local scientists to design a manatee breeding center. In addition to the direct benefit of providing manatees to areas throughout the country where they have been lost, the center will also be a tourist attraction.

Locals will be hired as nature interpreters and guides, and operators of the facility.

“With increasing interest in nature tourism, Miches is in a good position to reap income from daytrips by tourists staying at the massive hotel complex of Bavaro and Punta Cana, located 55 minutes by car south of Miches,” according to Dr. Don Melnick of Columbia University, who invited Wildlife Trust into the project.

The citizens of Miches have a strong sense of community, and want to ensure that their economic development does not come at a cost of alienation from their coastline. In community meetings, some have expressed the concern their homes and livelihoods not be displaced by large hotels. The mayor is determined to foster growth that enhances local businesses and builds employment opportunities.

Miches is blessed by more than white sand beaches: close off the coast is Samaná Bay, a migratory corridor for the movement of humpback whales from their breeding grounds in the Caribbean to their feeding grounds off New England. Happily, this migration occurs from November through March, matching the tourist season in the Dominican Republic.

To learn more about opportunities for win-win investments in conservation, visit www.wildlifetrust.org •