Senior Vice President of Global Programs, Paul Butler – the first Rare Pride campaign manager − takes a look at Olivia Carballo-Avilez’s Pride campaign in Belize. Initially facing apprehensive community members, Olivia’s persistence made a lasting conservation impact in the communities surrounding the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. Read how!
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Olivia proudly shows off her poster of the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary and the posterchild of her campaign, the Jabiru Stork.
Olivia Carballo-Avilez works for the Belize Audubon Society and focused her campaign on the important wetland area of Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary and on the Jabiru Stork – the largest bird in Central America. Olivia spoke of the challenges of being a conservationist in areas where traditional values and behaviors do not always align with conservation goals of sustainable development. This is an area where people want (and need) economic development, as much as they do pristine resources. Olivia’s challenge was to use her campaign to encourage the area’s cattle farmers to pen their cattle and prevent them from straying into the wetland area where their dung raises nutrient levels in the water leading to algal blooms and eutrophication. Other wetland areas have been degraded by land clearing and over-grazing.
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Initiating a culture of sustainable grazing was a goal of Olivia’s Pride campaign. She worked with farmers in the area, encouraging many to adopt sustainable practices.
Olivia noted that while visiting the community early on in her campaign, she had her vehicle’s tires slashed and was left stranded in the village. While not common, I have seen this before. Several years ago a campaign manager in Indonesia had his life threatened, while another in the Philippines was run off the road by a logging truck. Conservation takes passion, commitment and guts!
Olivia went on to talk about more positive aspects, including some of the steps she took to try and change the hearts and minds of the residents around Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. Several times she took local village leaders on a flight over the wetland (their first time on a plane) so they could see the area they lived in and some of the environmental impacts affecting it. Many of her materials (posters, her Pride mascot, and her Pride song) were equally well received. She spoke of going into a house and seeing a poster proudly displayed in the living area, and of children mobbing her mascot, Jimbo Roo the Jabiru.
Her campaign promoted ten ways that cattle farmers could help and encouraged them to sign pledges to adopt these practices – and one third of the resident farmers did. These “early adopters” will hopefully pave the way for more as Olivia continues to work in the area on these issues. But, due to her efforts in the past two years, trust in conservationists rose from 25 percent (pre-survey) to 50 percent (post-survey). Olivia concluded her presentation saying that on her last visit to Crooked Tree she was welcomed with a hug and not a cutlass.
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Jimbo Roo the Jabiru Stork was the mascot for Olivia’s campaign and a favorite among many in the community. Clicke here to see a video of Olivia and her mascot!
Click here to listen to Olivia’s Pride song about Jimbo Roo!
A highlight of Olivia’s presentation was her dancing in front of the audience to her song! It was magnificent! Next up to present was Shelly from the Bahamas…
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