As described in the project activities, posters, coloring books and jigsaw puzzles will target youth (and others). Videos will be created, the website updated with new videos and new learning tools, and social media pages kept up to date. FoH has many community consultations in several locations each year; a minium of one a year plus an AGM in Placencia. FoH also attends national and regional workshops and conferences regularly, where knowledge is shared.
As part of the coral restoration, FOH takes into consideration the efforts that youths invest in the protection of the Belize Barrier Reef. Youths will be engaged in the dissemination of work, and will be engaged in the building of awareness. Youths will also be engaged in the updating and maintaining of the FOH website, training and participating in the production of videos.
Gender Focus
FoH is led by a woman, and recently won the UN climate change Momentum for Change award in the Women for Results category, based on the number of women trained in the past (tour guide, dive master, lagoon ecology, etc), often through GEF funding, and currently assisting with coral restoration. In 2017, Ms. Abigail Parham-Garbutt led the Independence Junior College environmental science student team component for Sandwatch and subsequently attended formal Sandwatch training in Trinidad (October 2017) representing FoH. Additonally all three primary schools are now led by women, with many but not all teachers being female. FoH is confident that attendance sheets and more specificlly, the formal socio-economic study/report included in this proposal, will highlight our consistent track record of gender mainstreaming.
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
Most of this proposal is about communication and replication of results: communicating the socio-economic value of reef restoration work to the Placencia peninsula community, communicating the importance of seascape and biodiversity conservation coupled with our restoration methods and results to youth in Belize via school site visits, videos, hands-on educational materials, the website, etc. and in Jamaica via site visits/exchange of knowledge. The SANDWATCH program is already a replication of another project, the communication materials series two of the first version (more corals=more fish), and the Jamaica visit will demonstrate replication regionally. There is always potential to repeat all of these activites.
Project sustainability
The evaluative findings suggest that Fragments of Hope Belize Ltd., like many other not for profit organizations, require donor support to fully maintain its mandate. The organization however has a history of successfully leveraging additional resources from agencies financing similar program activities thereby securing funding to contract a full-time executive director/biologist and sub-contract consultants to assist in its education and outreach activities and communication strategies. However, the growth and expansion of FoH will greatly depend on its ability to attract qualified staff and increase full time staff positions to distribute the growing amount of work as
FoH grows.
In terms of ecological sustainability, the knowledge transfer that occurred from FoH to the personnel engaged in reef restoration in Jamaica, has proven to be sustainable as the methodologies learned in Belize have been adopted in Oracabessa and Boscobel Fish Sanctuaries. The use of FoH?s methodologies has now expanded to three other fish sanctuaries in Jamaica. Jamaican counterparts have reported a general increase in survival of out planted corals which demonstrates that sustainability of the resource in the future is promising should restoration efforts continue and environmental conditions remain favorable. FoH also continues to effectively promote ecosystem-based conservation through their Sandwatch program targeting youths in the Placencia Peninsula. This program aims at cultivating a generation of environmentally conscience citizens, future marine scientists, and stewards of the environment.
Capacity - Building Component
The grantee partner has the capacity to manage and implement grant funds, as they have managed a GEF SGP grant before, which was successfully completed. Project Steering Committee meetings will be conducted to ensure proper implementation of the project and to mentor grantee partner.
Replication of project activities
The knowledge transfer that occurred through this project, from local to a regional scope, clearly speaks to the ability of expansion and replicability to the rest of the Caribbean and the world. This project remains highly relevant as countries across the world experience coral reef loss due to the impacts of climate change, unsustainable building practices, and diseases such as the coral tissue loss disease currently plaguing the region amongst other anthropogenic and natural causes. Reef restoration efforts, as seen at LBCNP, provides a hope to counteract and improve on reef health in Belize and beyond.
As it pertains to the Sandwatch program, based on the available manuals and lessons learnt, the program can easily be replicated in other parts of the country such as in other coastal communities and even schools further inland. The project factored replication of outputs in its design by making teacher resources readily available on FoH?s website and using activities that can easily be replicated.
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
This project will be indirectly contributing to the socio economic as this project will contribute towards a powerful quantitative tool of FOH to communicate to stakeholders and potential future funds the crucial role of the community in reef restoration efforts.
Project Results
Based on the outputs listed in the approved project proposal, ten of the eleven or 90% of the outputs were fully met and, in most instances, surpassed established indicators. Output 1.1 was fully achieved. At the end of the project a manuscript written by Maya Trotz, Christine Prouty and Lisa Carne entitled, ?Fragments of hope: The Benefits of Coral Restoration efforts to stakeholders in Belize? had been prepared and submitted for publication. The study
captured the impact Fragments of Hope has had on local communities through the implementation of various projects and reef restoration work during the period of 2013-2018. Output 2.1 was fully achieved. The Sandwatch program was executed at three primary schools on the Placencia Peninsula, namely the Peninsula International Academy (PIA), St. Alphonsus RC and St. John?s Memorial. A total of 75 students benefited from the Sandwatch program which was conducted during the time period of October 2018-April 2019. In addition to these students, Fragments of Hope, Belize Ltd. was able to conduct two (2) summer camps with a modified Sandwatch curriculum in July 2018 and July 2019 thereby increasing the total number of students benefiting from the Sandwatch program to 123 students. Output 2.2 was fully achieved. At the end of the Sandwatch program three (3) trips to Laughing Bird Caye National Park were conducted. In addition to these field trips, two additional field trips (one for children from Seine Bight and the other for children from the Placencia Village) to the Placencia Lagoon were conducted for the summer camp session in July 2019. Additional field trips and summer sessions were possible through the attainment of private donations.
Output 2.3 was fully achieved. 750 posters were printed surpassing the targeted 500. This was possible through FoH?s ability to attract donors from the private sector. Output 2.4 was fully achieved. A total of 2000 coloring books were printed surpassing the project?s target of 1000. This was possible through the donation received by FoH from the private sector. A total of 1540 coloring books to seven schools had been distributed by the third reporting
period.
Output 2.5 was fully achieved. A total of 180 jigsaw puzzles were created, surpassing the target of 100 puzzles. The additional puzzles were made possible through private donations received from the private sector. A total of 153 puzzles had been distributed to four schools. Output 2.6 was fully achieved. The pre-existing website was updated and maintained during the project period. FoH?s outreach officer was trained to update and maintain FoH?s website.
Output 2.7 was fully achieved. The target of one video was attained. The video was created for the GCFI?s 71st conference in San Andres, Colombia in November 2018 for the Cinefish competition whereby the Belize/Jamaica exchange program was highlighted along with other successes achieved by FoH. The video is readily available on the updated FoH website (http://fragmentsofhope.org). A second video demonstrating the highlights of the Sandwatch program was also created and uploaded to the website thereby surpassing the target indicator of one video.
Output 3.1 was fully achieved. Three Jamaican counterparts (2 from Oracabessa and 1 from Boscobel Fish Sanctuaries) visited FoH?s restoration sites. The Jamaican participants completed all activities of the FoH?s reef replenishment training course and were certified by the Belize Fisheries Department.
Output 3.2 was fully achieved. The target of three (3) Belizeans visiting Jamaica was surpassed by having five (5) FoH members visiting and assisting Jamaican counterparts with reef restoration. A total of 1586 coral fragments were out planted in Jamaica over the course of two
days.
Output 3.3 was not achieved. This activity was being planned and coordinated by GEF SGP office. Partial co-financing was being negotiated with SGP Cuba to facilitate south-south exchange.
