Project Detail

Grand Bahama Beach Dune Restoration Project

The Grand Bahama Sea Oat Restoration Project is a project that has the potential to help with restoration of sections of coastline that were destroyed during the passage of hurricanes Matthew and Dorian. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Sea Oats are an extremely valuable plant for coastline and barrier island protection. By harvesting plants that come from a similar ecosystem on the island, the rate of growth and adaptability of these plants should be very good, requiring minimal care for them to repopulate and start new colonies where needed. Harvesting plants locally also reduces costs that may be associated with importing plants from foreign nurseries. The project is also designed so that local science teachers or leaders of environmental youth groups could easily leverage this project as an outdoor classroom to give children experience with scientific field work that has a positive purpose and has a direct positive impact to their local community. On a more global scale, the project has clear ties to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and directly support items #13 and #15 of that overall initiative. The project will allow for an implemented rehabilitation system designed to monitor and manage the restoration of a coastal area within a national park that will be beneficial to people and wildlife, increasing the value of the environmental services by planting sea oats to rebuild sand dunes. In addition to the direct beach restoration to take place, the project seeks to create a go-forward manual for Sea Oat-based Beach Restoration which can be used throughout The Bahamas by CBOs and Government. We also hope to work with Government toward improved beach management policies.

Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Water Keepers Bahamas

Country:

Bahamas

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity
Climate Change Mitigation

Operational Phase:

OP7 ?Y2 (Jul 21-Jun 22)

Grant Amount:

US$ 7,500.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 7,500.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 18,000.00

Project Number:

BHA/SGP/OP7/Y2/CORE/CC/2022/66

Start Date:

2/2022

End Date:

6/2023

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

- Develop products, materials and A/V that increases awareness on status of coastal areas and why project is important to the general public and to key stakeholders capable of influencing policy. - Develop consistent, clear and persuasive messaging materials - Work with local press - Build strong social media presence

Capacity - Building Component

A part of the project will be the creation of a digital storage of assessments and reports, this will require training of staff or project leads as well as accessing or subscribing to relevant products. These needs will give us the opportunity to build capacity within the organization and also partner with other CSOs to share expertise, expand our network for information sharing and reporting. It was noted in the Capacity Assessment that these types of training must be institutionally-drive, which position us well for helping to create a good model and templates for these activities.

Policy Impact

Early collaboration with government and decision makers will be priority and necessary to introduce the project and the outline intended goals inclusive of the projected outcomes and how confirmation of these outcomes should be significant evidence for policy development. The outcomes will show benefits to beneficiaries and how environmental services will contribute to livelihoods and basic needs.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

N/A

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

Provide networking opportunities for women, youth, unemployed or low-income volunteers and community participants which allows them to understand the full benefits of coastal areas management and the products or services that will contribute to the success of it. Networking will also bring other CSOs, project managers, and decision makers together to assess the socio-economic opportunities for restoration of other damaged ecosystems island-wide.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

Questionnaires, surveys, and assessments will be useful documents for us during this project to build a stronger template for further community-based projects. As it will be designed to include youth and adults, their views on project mechanics will be good tools for knowledge management. Allowing for peer review by other CSOs and NGos will be incorporated into the project and a great tool for creating a database of resources for our project participants and others who may be conducting similar projects.

Gender Focus

The project will be managed and led by two passionate and active women who have facilitated several youth programs including the previously mentioned Cadet program. Very often, women are actively involved in community-based projects that seek to engage a cross-section of residents. Interviews and questionnaires will be carried out from men and women to work on ways to engaging a larger presence of male participation. However, men in the community are typically practical workers, with higher numbers in fisheries, so will benefit from coastal restoration.

Notable Community Participation

Waterkeepers Bahamas has 15 active and involved student Cadets who will be targeted to be trained as project leads. Our Cadets have the training to conduct fieldwork, including the analysis and development of data into practical and theoretical summaries. Further, we will provide other youth from local schools, church groups and civic organizations to be a part of most of the field assessments with Cadets as the leads.

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