EmPOWER Women-led Caribbean Green-blue Enterprises

The ASK: Contribute. Communicate. Champion

In recognition of International Women’s Day and this year’s theme #EmbraceEquity, CANARI is excited to launch its first ever crowdfunding campaign focusing on supporting Caribbean women entrepreneurs to scale up their nature-based businesses and improve the lives and well-being of their families and local communities while conserving biodiversity.  

We are asking you to…

CONTRIBUTE: give what you can to support this effort (all contributions are tax deductible in the U.S.).

COMMUNICATE: spread the word about this campaign far and wide.

CHAMPION: advocate for others to support Local Green-Blue Enterprises.

The BACKGROUND STORY

Caribbean rural communities depend on nature for their livelihoods and well-being. Entrepreneurs in these communities create nature-based businesses, for example, community-based ecotourism, natural crafts and jewelry, fisheries and mariculture, or added-value agricultural products such as honey and chocolate. For almost 35 years, the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) has been supporting nature-based livelihoods and enterprises throughout the Caribbean region. This work has emphasised stewardship approaches to achieve conservation and wise use of the Caribbean’s biodiversity while supporting sustainable livelihoods and providing economic opportunities for rural communities. Local green-blue enterprises (LGEs) are a special type of micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) which strive to deliver triple bottom line benefits for their community, environment and local economy i.e., People, Planet and Profit. CANARI has specifically focused on nature-based community micro-enterprises.

The BENEFICIARIES

CANARI will support 20 female owned and operated LGEs creating positive economic, environmental and social impacts for their communities and the Caribbean at large. Throughout this campaign you will meet incredible women and businesses that will be supported by this campaign via our campaign videos.

First up, MEET Lonella Nandoo! Lonella and her parents own and operate Nandoo’s Mango Estate, a small family business which produces a variety of mango products from their estate on the edge of the Nariva Swamp Protected Area in Trinidad. After graduating with a degree in food science and technology, Lonella expanded Nandoo’s production using 15 different varieties of mangoes and started tours on the estate, allowing visitors to taste their products. As they continue to grow and expand, CANARI is supporting their involvement in a community-based ecotourism cluster toward a more environmentally sustainable and inclusive model, collaborating with other community enterprises for stewardship of the ecosystems of the Nariva Swamp and sustainable development of communities around it. 

The BENEFITS

Your contribution will help CANARI:

• set up specialised incubator and accelerator programmes to be a one-stop shop for tailored financial, legal, advisory and capacity building services for LGEs across the Caribbean over many years to come, targeting at least 20 woman-led and operated enterprises in this first stage
• establish a dedicated LGE fund which will allow CANARI to provide long-term and responsive support to nature-based community micro-enterprises across the Caribbean
• advocate for more enabling policies, laws, regulations, structures and systems that can better support LGEs, including with financing, capacity building and access to markets
• facilitate knowledge sharing via our Caribbean Local Green-Blue Enterprises (LGEs) Knowledge Platform 
• catalyse development of partnerships among LGEs and with others
• mobilise key partners and build a community of practice across the Caribbean working to support LGEs as a key pathway to inclusive, environmentally sustainable and climate resilient economic development

 The IMPACT 

The 2-year programme supported by this campaign will:

1. reduce rural poverty in the Caribbean by effectively reaching economically marginalised groups and provide social benefits through local employment
2. foster stewardship of ecosystems and biodiversity which sustain local livelihoods and deliver climate adaptation and mitigation
3. build climate resilience of local community livelihoods

 The ON-GOING WORK

CANARI has developed and piloted innovative tools and methods and mobilised and convened stakeholders to work together to support the LGE sector. We have supported more than 60 LGEs across the Caribbean. We are ready to scale out our impact across the Caribbean by establishing structured incubator and accelerator programmes and building capacity of others who want to support LGEs. We will also expand our work advocating for a more enabling ecosystem of policies, laws, regulations, structures and systems which can better support LGEs, including with financing, capacity building and access to markets.

To learn more about CANARI’s work in this space, please check out our Caribbean Local Green-Blue Enterprises (LGEs) Knowledge Platform.

Video Titles & Credits