With a bright blue sky overhead, six members of the Anjolique Dance Company are swaying to a Caribbean dancehall beat atop a narrow ravine in St Kitts and Nevis. The sextet are wearing billowing blue and yellow outfits, and as they dance a narrator describes environmental initiatives in the small Caribbean nation.
This video, created for World Environment Day 2021 and the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, is posted across the dance company’s social media platforms. It’s designed to raise awareness about the erosion of the natural spillways, known as ghauts, that course through the island of Nevis, and the work of local conservationists to save them.
"There are many ways to control erosion in our ghauts," said the company's director, Tricia King. "We are all the guardians of the ghauts and must treat them with care and respect."
The dance company is part of a wave of individuals and groups across the Caribbean who have recently embraced the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global push that began in June 2021 to reverse the decline of the natural world. Across the region, people have done everything from cultivating mangroves, to planting micro forests, to letting their backyards grow wild.
Many Caribbean environmental champions recently shared their stories online, responding to a public call from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Global Environment Facility-funded IWEco Project, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the Cartagena Convention Secretariat Office.
A dire problem
The UN Decade comes as humanity has pushed ecosystems, from forests, to savannahs, to coral reefs, to the breaking point. Humans have altered 75 percent of the Earth's surface. One-third of the world’s farmland is degraded, and one-third of commercial fish species are overexploited. Degradation is already affecting the well-being of an estimated 3.2 billion people, or 40 per cent of the world’s population.
Experts say while large, government-backed projects can help reverse that destruction, small-scale efforts by local people also have an important role to play. “It is great to see this kind of collective action by communities who want to begin effective change in their localities,” said Vincent Sweeney, Head of the UNEP Caribbean Sub-Regional Office. “In order to meet the goals of the UN Decade, it is necessary for everyone to pull together to halt this assault on nature and biodiversity.”
Nature photographer Zeph Luc, based in Trinidad and Tobago, showcased his re-wilded yard, which has become a haven for pollinators, like bees. While they play a crucial role in many ecosystems, pollinators are under pressure from climate change and the degradation of their habitats, especially in cities.
“Most people have long seen yards as merely green areas to be used for their own enjoyment or useless plots that can be turned into an apartment,” said Luc. “What they fail to realize is that the grassy plots are actually environments as complex and relevant for Trinidad's ecosystem as any other.”
Nature returns
Curacao-based foundation Hofi Chiki is also helping to create a refuge for wildlife in urban areas. The group plants what it calls “tiny forests” – dense collections of plants, trees and shrubs – inside the boundaries of Caribbean cities. Along with acting like a magnet for wildlife, including pollinators, these micro forests can also improve air quality, combat heat stress and increase water storage capacity. The latter is crucial on an island where tropical showers drop a lot of rain in a short time.
Hofi Chiki’s tiny forest at Curacao’s Klein College has at least 450 indigenous shrubs and trees, some of which are extremely rare.
Both inside and outside of cities, mangrove forests are also an essential aspect of many Caribbean ecosystems. The trees have unique root systems that reduce coastal erosion, protect from storm surges and provide shelter for local animals.
The Mangrove Maniacs is a non-governmental organization committed to the preservation of mangroves on the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean Netherlands. Its members keep mangrove nurseries, plant seedlings and help restore waterflow around wild mangroves.
Back in St Kitts and Nevis, King said everyday people have a crucial role to play in reviving the natural world. Reaching people can be challenging, though, which is why her dance company focuses on eliciting an emotional response to environmental threats. Innovative approaches like that, she says, “can inspire a generation of restoration”.
