{"id":2933,"date":"2017-08-14T18:15:52","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T01:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coral.org\/news\/creating-win-wins-for-reefs-and-people-2\/"},"modified":"2021-09-30T09:45:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T16:45:32","slug":"creating-win-wins-for-reefs-and-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coral.org\/en\/blog\/creating-win-wins-for-reefs-and-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Win-wins for Reefs and People"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2017_BlogPost_MadhaviVisit_Header\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 2011 and Jenny Myton, CORAL\u2019s Associate Program Director for the Mesoamerican Reef, is diving in the murky waters of Tela Bay, Honduras. Her husband rolls into the water after her and hears Jenny scream. He panics: is she OK? As he swims down to her he also starts to yell but they are both yelling in excitement because\u2014astonishingly\u2014the bottom is covered in live coral.<\/p>\n

Coral cover has declined across the Caribbean, from near 80 percent in the 1970s to about 18 percent today. Somehow, the corals in Tela have defied that trend: live coral cover is an astounding 69 percent. Now six years later, I have a chance to see these amazing reefs for myself.<\/p>\n

\"2017_BlogPost_MadhaviVisit_DivingReefs\"My own journey to Tela starts with lunch in Miami. No, not that Miami\u2014this is Miami, Honduras: a ragtag collection of wooden houses perched on stilts and crowded onto a narrow strip of sand between the Caribbean Sea and Laguna de Los Micos<\/a>. This lagoon is an important nursery habitat for many species of reef fish. While Tela\u2019s reefs are amazing for their live coral cover, they have a noticeable lack of fish. This has many worried that the entire local system sits on the edge of an ecological precipice. For these corals to continue to thrive, they need fish\u2014especially herbivorous fish who help control algal growth. However, for the reef to have fish, it needs the lagoon.<\/p>\n

This lagoon also provides essential food and income for thirteen communities that ring its shores. These communities and others exert enormous fishing pressure on the lagoon, which means very few fish actually survive to make it to the reef. CORAL has been working in Tela for the last four years to reduce overfishing in a way that doesn\u2019t harm the lagoon\u2019s human communities.<\/p>\n

After my lunch in Miami, Jenny and I pile into a boat on the lagoon with some of Tela\u2019s managers. We are on our way to visit one community\u2014Marion<\/a>\u2014to see how people, the reef and lagoon interact.<\/p>\n

My first impression of the lagoon is that it is huge: it takes us forty-five minutes to cross it. Mangroves crowd its shores, their barnacle-clad roots sticking up from water that is bright green and soupy looking. Where the edge is sandy, it is full of birds, including egrets, herons and one pale pink spoonbill. As we near the far shore, there\u2019s a young boy waving at us from a sand bar. He stands next to a tree branch sporting a tattered piece of red fabric, which marks a channel entrance into the forest.\"2017_BlogPost_MadhaviVisit_ChannelMarker\"<\/p>\n

The entrance is so shallow that the boat has to be pushed into the channel. We slide over sand past thick reeds that crowd into the boat from both sides. Once we are afloat again, we motor slowly into the forest. The view of mountains is eclipsed by large trees and a deep hot hush settles over us. We step from the boat onto a muddy bank and start our kilometer-long walk through the thick heat to Marion.<\/p>\n

The first thing I notice when we reach the village is an abandoned house that\u2019s half buried in sand. Marion sits directly under a levee next to a river. In 2014, the levee burst and the village was quickly inundated. Not everyone survived the flood and those who did lost everything. Marion is a poor community without running water or electricity. Yet, as we walk down the wide sandy track through the middle of the village and past the brightly painted school, the feeling is one of happiness and joy. Kids play in the middle of the town, people stop to talk to us. It\u2019s peaceful here.<\/p>\n

We turn left down a small track toward our final destination. We are greeted by decorative palm fronds and balloons. Balloons! Marion is celebrating the opening of a new cooperative store. A $2,300 micro-grant from CORAL has stocked the shelves with bags of flour, rice and beans, pens and Coca Cola. The store\u2019s profit-sharing agreement provides members with an alternative form of income that helps the community endure the fishing closed season and the reductions in catch limits that will be required to rebuild the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\"2017_BlogPost_MadhaviVisit_MarionMainStreet\"The cooperative\u2019s members greet us with smiles and hugs, speeches and more than a few tears of gratitude. Such a small thing for us has made such a big difference for these people. They are still recovering from the flood, and opening this store gives them hope that their community will survive.<\/p>\n

The next day, I head out to the reef. Rolling into the water, I experience the same thing Jenny did six years earlier. I too am yelling into my regulator in amazement: there is so much coral! Even now, two months after my visit to Tela, picturing those reefs fills me with hope. In Tela, corals have figured out how to adapt to and thrive in less than ideal conditions. By including this area in CORAL\u2019s Mesoamerican Adaptive Reefscape<\/a> \u2014a large network of diverse and connected healthy reefs\u2014baby corals from Tela can travel to other locations, taking with them the special genetic material that allowed their parents to thrive in murky waters.<\/p>\n

Communities like Marion also give me hope. Earlier this year, Honduras\u2019 first coastal managed-access fishery<\/a> was passed into law in Tela Bay. This approach to fisheries management ensures that each of Tela\u2019s communities has exclusive access to a portion of the catch. What they don\u2019t fish today will be available to them tomorrow. In conjunction with alternative livelihoods\u2014like the cooperative store in Marion\u2014these communities are able to make decisions to not fish. By including communities in solutions that help save coral reefs, we create win-wins that give everyone hope for the future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

********************<\/p>\n

Creaci\u00f3n de ventajas para todos, tanto para Arrecifes como a Personas<\/h3>\n

En el a\u00f1o 2011 Jenny Myton, la Directora Regional de Programa de CORAL para la Regi\u00f3n Mesoamericana, est\u00e1 buceando en las aguas turbias de la Bah\u00eda de Tela, Honduras. Su esposo se sumerge detr\u00e1s de ella y escucha a Jenny gritar. Entra en p\u00e1nico: \u00bfEstar\u00e1 bien? Al nadar hacia ella, tambi\u00e9n comienza a gritar, pero ambos gritan de emoci\u00f3n porque, sorprendentemente, el fondo est\u00e1 cubierto de coral vivo.<\/p>\n

La cobertura de coral ha disminuido en todo el Caribe, de tener cerca del 80 por ciento en la d\u00e9cada de 1970 a alrededor del 18 por ciento en la actualidad. De alguna manera, los corales en Tela han desafiado esa tendencia: la cobertura de coral vivo es un asombroso 69 por ciento. Ahora, seis a\u00f1os despu\u00e9s, tengo la oportunidad de ver estos incre\u00edbles arrecifes por m\u00ed mismo.<\/p>\n

Mi propio viaje a Tela comienza con un almuerzo en Miami. No, no ese Miami, estamos en Miami, Honduras: una colecci\u00f3n irregular de casas de madera encaramadas sobre pilotes y api\u00f1adas en una estrecha franja de arena entre el Mar Caribe y la\u00a0Laguna de Los Micos<\/a>. Esta laguna es un importante h\u00e1bitat de cr\u00eda de muchas especies de peces arrecifales. Si bien los arrecifes de Tela son incre\u00edbles por su cobertura de coral vivo, tienen una notable falta de peces. Esto ha causado que muchos se preocupen que todo el sistema local se encuentre al borde de un desastre ecol\u00f3gico. Ya que para que estos corales contin\u00faen prosperando, necesitan peces, especialmente peces herb\u00edvoros que ayudan a controlar el crecimiento de algas. Sin embargo, para que el arrecife tenga peces, necesita de la laguna.<\/p>\n

Esta laguna tambi\u00e9n proporciona alimentos e ingresos esenciales para trece comunidades que rodean sus costas. Estas comunidades y otras ejercen una enorme presi\u00f3n pesquera en la laguna, lo que significa que muy pocos peces sobreviven para llegar al arrecife. CORAL ha estado trabajando en Tela durante los \u00faltimos cuatro a\u00f1os para reducir la sobrepesca de una manera que no cause da\u00f1o a las comunidades de la laguna.<\/p>\n

Despu\u00e9s de mi almuerzo en Miami, Jenny y yo nos subimos a un bote en la laguna con algunos de los gerentes de Tela. Vamos a visitar una comunidad, Marion<\/a>, para ver c\u00f3mo interact\u00faan las personas, el arrecife y la laguna.<\/p>\n

Mi primera impresi\u00f3n de la laguna es que es enorme: tardamos cuarenta y cinco minutos en cruzarla. Los manglares abarrotan sus orillas, sus ra\u00edces cubiertas de percebes sobresalen del agua, de color verde brillante y de aspecto viscoso. Donde la orilla es arenosa, est\u00e1 lleno de aves, incluidas garzas, garcetas y un p\u00e1jaro pico esp\u00e1tula rosa p\u00e1lido. Cuando nos acercamos a la costa lejana, hay un ni\u00f1o que nos saluda desde un banco de arena. Est\u00e1 de pie junto a la rama de un \u00e1rbol con un trozo trapo rojo, que marca un canal de entrada al bosque.<\/p>\n

La entrada es tan poco profunda que hay que empujar el barco hacia el canal. Nos deslizamos sobre la arena entre gruesos juncos que se amontonan en el bote desde ambos lados. Una vez que estamos a flote nuevamente, nos internamos lentamente en el bosque. La vista de las monta\u00f1as se ve eclipsada por grandes \u00e1rboles y un profundo silencio se posa sobre nosotros. Salimos del bote a una orilla fangosa y comenzamos nuestra caminata de un kil\u00f3metro a trav\u00e9s del denso calor hasta Marion.<\/p>\n

Lo primero que noto al llegar al pueblo es una casa abandonada que est\u00e1 medio enterrada en la arena. Marion est\u00e1 asentada directamente debajo de un bordo al lado de un r\u00edo. En 2014, el bordo cedi\u00f3 y la aldea se inund\u00f3 r\u00e1pidamente. No todos sobrevivieron a la inundaci\u00f3n y los que sobrevivieron lo perdieron todo. Marion es una comunidad pobre sin agua corriente ni electricidad. Sin embargo, mientras caminamos por el ancho camino arenoso que atraviesa el centro del pueblo y pasamos por la escuela pintada de colores brillantes, la sensaci\u00f3n es de felicidad y alegr\u00eda. Los ni\u00f1os juegan en el centro del pueblo, la gente se detiene para hablarnos. Este es un lugar tranquilo.<\/p>\n

Giramos a la izquierda por un peque\u00f1o sendero hacia nuestro destino final. Nos reciben hojas de palmera decorativas y globos. \u00a1Globos! Marion est\u00e1 celebrando la apertura de una nueva tienda cooperativa. Un micro-subsidio de $ 2,300 de CORAL ha llenado los estantes con bolsas de harina, arroz y frijoles, bol\u00edgrafos y Coca Cola. El acuerdo participativo en las ganancias de la tienda brinda a los miembros una forma alternativa de ingresos que ayuda a la comunidad a soportar la temporada de veda de pesca y las reducciones en los l\u00edmites de captura que se requerir\u00e1n para reconstruir el ecosistema.<\/p>\n

Los socios de la cooperativa nos saludan con sonrisas y abrazos, discursos y m\u00e1s de una l\u00e1grima de gratitud. Algo tan peque\u00f1o para nosotros ha marcado una gran diferencia para estas personas. Todav\u00eda se est\u00e1n recuperando de la inundaci\u00f3n y la apertura de esta tienda les da la esperanza de que su comunidad sobrevivir\u00e1.<\/p>\n

Al d\u00eda siguiente, me dirijo al arrecife. Al entrar en el agua, experimento lo mismo que Jenny seis a\u00f1os antes. Yo tambi\u00e9n grito en mi regulador con asombro: \u00a1hay tanto coral! Incluso ahora, dos meses despu\u00e9s de mi visita a Tela, imaginar esos arrecifes me llena de esperanza. En Tela, los corales han encontrado la manera de adaptarse y prosperar en condiciones poco ideales. Al incluir esta zona en el Paisaje Arrecifal Adaptativo Mesoamericano de CORAL -una gran red de arrecifes sanos, diversos y conectados- los corales j\u00f3venes de Tela pueden viajar a otros lugares, llevando consigo el material gen\u00e9tico especial que permiti\u00f3 a sus progenitores prosperar en aguas turbias.<\/p>\n

Comunidades como Marion tambi\u00e9n me dan esperanza. A principios de este a\u00f1o, la\u00a0primera pesquer\u00eda costera de acceso controlado de Honduras<\/a>\u00a0se convirti\u00f3 en ley en la Bah\u00eda de Tela. Este enfoque de manejo pesquero asegura que cada una de las comunidades de Tela tenga acceso exclusivo a una porci\u00f3n de la captura. Lo que no pescan hoy estar\u00e1 disponible para ellos ma\u00f1ana. Junto con medios de vida alternativos -como la tienda cooperativa de Marion- estas comunidades pueden tomar la decisi\u00f3n de no pescar. Al incluir a las comunidades en las soluciones que contribuyen a salvar los arrecifes de coral, creamos soluciones beneficiosas para todos que dan esperanza al futuro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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