Adam Murray, Rare’s assistant course manager in Kent, England, reports on a trip to a Pride campaign in St. Croix.

Before I get on to the reasoning behind the title of this tale of adventure, let me tell you a little of the background for the trip. I have recently returned from one of my first project support visits. These visits are for course managers, like me, to visit Pride campaign managers. It is an opportunity to learn more about the campaign site, help the campaign managers, and monitor the progress of the campaign on site.

This visit involved my going to the U.S. Virgin Islands, commonly known as “America’s Paradise.” These are a small group of islands in the beautiful Caribbean. A campaign is currently being run on St. Croix, the largest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. The local partner agency is the St. Croix Environmental Association, and one of their staff members, Karisma Elien, is running the Pride campaign here. I had come along with Rosemary Godfrey, senior course manager from Kent, for nine days in St Croix. I was really looking forward to the Saturday before we left – it was to be the grand finale of our visit.

Karisma distributes reusable grocery bags at the AgFair. 

Each year, St. Croix hosts an agricultural fair known as the AgriFest or AgFair. The fair runs over three days and has visitors from all over the island and neighboring islands as well. It is a very popular event for all ages. Karisma’s Pride campaign was going to make a spectacular entrance to AgriFest 2007.

One of the problems around St. Croix is the issue of litter. It is known that plastic grocery bags find their way into the sea after people have discarded them. Unfortunately for turtles, they mistake these plastic bags for tasty (well for the turtles anyway) jellyfish. A diet of plastic grocery bags is obviously not conducive to a healthy way of living. It has been reported that “a total of 177 marine species have been reported to ingest litter items. Ingestion of litter such as plastic bags can cause physical damage to oesophagus, mechanical blockage of the digestive system, and a false sensation of feeling full. This can lead to infections, starvation and death.”

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Oswaldo Contreras, Guadalaja course manager, recently visited a Pride campaign in northern Mexico.

Recently, I went on a monitoring visit to a Pride campaign in El Tokio in northern Mexico. It’s one of our TNC partnership campaigns, and Pronatura Noreste is the local lead agency. El Tokio is in the Chihuahuan desert and has the biggest prairie dog colony in the world. The change in land use from grasslands to agriculture and the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are some of the environmental threats this Pride campaign is working on.

The campaign manager there is Adorit Lopéz-Ventura, and she recently had a child. Kaled is her three-month-old baby, and now it is quite a challenge for Adorit to finish her Pride campaign with only three months to go in its last phase. Definitively, course managers like me must be ready for everything. During the whole monitoring week we were babysitting Kaled and completing tasks on her Pride campaign (she could not find a babysitter on time).

Adorit Lopéz-Ventura films her husband in a prairie dog costume. 

Fortunately, I love kids, and it does not matter to me making him sleep while Adorit was dealing with printers and designers. Kaled is a good child. Like a clock, he let us know when he had to sleep, eat or just be a good pal joining us on our daily tasks. Quite a challenge for Adorit, but she is doing her best.

On this visit, she showed me some nice pictures of when she was pregnant and doing school visits in several villages on the desert prairie. Her husband also works for Pronatura Noreste. He helped Adorit on these outreach visits, getting inside of the prairie dog costume of the campaign’s mascot. It was just great to see the couple working together on their Pride campaign—both very happy to be expecting soon her first child.

Personally, I think this experience shows us how important is the commitment of our campaign managers, and how they can enjoy their Pride experiences with their family. I saw that Adorit’s newborn child is not an obstacle for her job, but a motivation for her to do her best to make a better world for Kaled.

Rosemary Godfrey, Rare senior course manager at the University of Kent, visits a Pride campaign in Jamaica.

We know it’s not easy for communities around the world to find ways to use their own natural resources while protecting them at the same time. I am visiting Pride campaign manager Marsha Mason, who is trying to do just that. Marsha is passionate about helping her local community find solutions for sustainable use of its marine resources. I am here in Jamaica, with my Rare colleague Adam Murray, to see how they are getting on.

Marsha Mason in the Palisadoes-Port Royal Protected Area.

Today was an eye-opening day. We’re in the heart of the Palisadoes-Port Royal Protected Area (in the south of Kingston Harbour) with 15 local residents: fishermen, shrimpers, oyster harvesters, and water taxi operators. Marsha had inspired them to come together for a day to share knowledge about the environmental issues affecting them and to find possible solutions. Today was a long time coming. Marsha had spent many months building trust with the fishing community, so that they would agree to attend such an event. In the past, they said, others had made promises, but nothing had come out of it, and so Marsha had her work cut out to gain their understanding. She explained that this project was not about making false promises, but about the community taking control of its own future.

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