Saving the Caribbean is urgent and possible: meet the Gran Seaflower project
An international alliance has brought together governments, scientists, organisations and local communities to protect this Biosphere Reserve in the Southern Caribbean, and the third largest coral system in the world. But again, we’re running out if time.
October 12, 1492 marks a historically disputed date: the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the New World, more specifically to the island of San Salvador (baptized with that name by the explorer). He then moved on to the islands of Santa María, Fernandina, Isabela, Arena, Cuba and La Española, before returning to Spain. In quest of a shortcut to the Indies, he bumped into the Caribbean. As a matter of fact, his entire voyages to the new continent, America as we very often say, almost didn’t really touched the continent, with the exception of Venezuela’s Peninsula of Paria.
So Columbus was maybe the discoverer, for the old Europeans, of the Caribbean, and perhaps the beginning of its destruction. One of the many reasons why Spain’s National Day on October 12th, named with absurd grandeur as Día de la Hispanidad (Day of the Hispanicity), is always full of controversy and fair discussion. More so with the recent exploitation by Spanish far right parties to march in the streets of Madrid, proclaiming their epic pride about the conquistadores. But this year, the date received a completely different spirit, one of solidarity, progress and activism.
A multifaceted project called Gran Seaflower has finally seen the light, after several years of careful preparation, sending an international call for the urgent rescue of the Caribbean, the first treasure accidentally found by Cristoforo Colombo, which urgently needs to be rediscovered and protected. And not only the most popular concept of the Caribbean, but more precisely the Biosphere Reserve known as Seaflower.
Source: The Ocean Foundation
Why is the Caribbean in serious danger?
Many of us have a solid collection of clichés about the Caribbean: a paradise of white sand beaches, mojitos, rastafaris, reggae music, puerto ricans as seen in West Side Story, women looking like Rihanna and Jennifer López, salsa non stop… Unfortunately, many visitors to the Caribbean don’t leave their resort during the entire stay, so they’ll go back home with many of those myths reinforced. Some other tourists, instead, will have the chance to explore the diverse and authentic Caribbean, maybe diving in some of the most transparent and beautiful sea waters in the world. But all of them, at least, even the ones who haven’t yet been to the Caribbean (maybe postponing plans because of the Covid-19 pandemic) seem to agree on one thing: it’s an amazing treasure of nature, culture, food, history and leisure. Furthermore, “love” seems to be the word the best represents the Caribbean, cliché or not. Because we all understand that we must protect what and who we love.
Keeping in mind the loving feeling that the Caribbean inspires, the moment has come to explain how and why this huge and diverse region needs to be urgently protected. Apart from the obvious impact of climate change to the sea waters and wildlife of this area, the effects of mass tourism and over-population have created a serious wave of decay which could reach a point of no return within only ten years. The ecosystems in the Caribbean breathe as a sole entity, thanks to the underwater currents, which we could see as the reserve’s blood veins. If an area suffers pollution and destruction, the rest of the biosphere gets fatally sick. And this is not only a local issue, because the interconnection of these waters with remote regions as Scandinavia shows us how an ecological disaster in the Seaflower would easily translate as the end of life in the planet.
Let me give you some context about this issue. The Seaflower Biosphere Reserve is situated at the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, at the southwestern Caribbean, off the East coast of Nicaragua, halfway between Colombia and Jamaica. As a marine biosphere reserve, it covers approximately 10% of the Caribbean sea and it’s considered the coastal/marine area with the largest biodiversity on the western hemisphere, one featuring an incredible treasure of coral reefs, mangroves and fish diversity. But it also a unique melting pot of cultures and ancient traditions which is why any approach to protect the Caribbean needs to go beyond what we commonly identify as conservationism.
The Seaflower needs to combine environmental politics, science research, and local communities. A different strategy is needed, based on cooperation and dialogue, and the simplest idea: unity. This is precisely what the Franz Webber Foundation has created with the name of the Gran Seaflower. A transnational project based on a six countries alliance: Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Panama. An institutional agreement that will only work with the unavoidable support of the scientific community on the field, and the local society in its diverse forms.
The state of the damage
According to Leonardo Anselmi, director of the Franz Weber Foundation for the region, the moment of action is now: “today the Caribbean is one of the critical points on global environmental degradation, with an imminent collapse in the next 10 years, which could turn a sea of biodiversity into a great bathtub of water and salt. The current Seaflower, over 180000 square kilometres, is the third largest coral system in the world: 78% of Colombian coral areas are in this area, and is threatened by the lack of agreement between countries. Overfishing, climate change, sediments from agribusiness and the tourism model are waiting for the ecosystem that supports the identity, history and culture of the Creole peoples of the Caribbean”.
Should we wait until we face another point of no return in environmental destruction? Of course not, and we find ourselves frustrated, powerless and angry about this situation, and that is precisely why we must welcome, support and push the Gran Seaflower project.
To begin with, it’s a historical alliance between the creole people, the indigenous communities, and various NGOs from the six countries in the southwestern Caribbean, including ecological and scientific organisations. And the agreement would kick off not just with a moving manifesto, but specific requests from the citizens and academics behind, demanding “a great cross-border environmental pact to expand, recover, restore and conserve the ecological wealth of the region that, beyond its landscape and environmental power, represents the economic livelihood of seven million people”.
Is this the birth of a strong activist online Caribbean community?
The Gran Seaflower proposal has a clear institutional demand, where the presidents of the six countries involved are asked to sign a cross-border cooperation agreement, something that would mark an eco-geopolitical milestone. But it goes much further including the empowerment of communities. On the website, a space has been opened to register conservation, restoration, reconversion of sectors and activities, community and cultural development projects, as well as scientific research programs in the region, so that they can be financially supported by the international community. For the promoters of the campaign “this part of the proposal is fundamental, without it everything else would not make sense: it is the people who take care of the people and the Planet, they only need little pushes. With this project bank the campaign is more genuine and assumes all meaning and relevance.
Similarly, the proposal includes a dynamic of conversation, dialogue and exchange of knowledge between universities and scientific organizations, to generate a society of scientific knowledge around a common project, which is to avoid the environmental collapse of the region.
In this way, in addition to cooperation between governments, the campaign proposes a triple mooring adding a cultural civil framework and a scientific academic one, so that its survival and sustainability over time does not depend solely on institutional policy agreements.
One sea, one future
Looking ahead in time, this initiative could be as powerful and decisive as we want it to be. It’s not lying half dead on some politician’s desk, waiting for the golden minute in the news, then buried again until possibly never. Everyone related to the Caribbean, tourist or not, must follow, be informed, connect with this brand new platform, so that we stay alert, get informed, share and engage, and quite sincerely contribute to a deep lasting change in another emergency area in the planet. Regardless how tired and emotionally exhausted we feel about the speed of destruction in the globe, it’s only us citizens who can lead, act, and ultimately protect the irreplaceable world that we have in our hands, and the future generations.
