Busy Busy

June 19, 2008 -- Kingston RI

We've had a busy couple of days here at Camp Coastal. Yesterday started with a de-brief of the oyster farm field trip and a discussion of the difference between the definitions of sustainable livelihoods and "just business". Some felt that "livelihoods" dealt more with subsistence level issues and what we saw was a more sophisticated economic development, or business model. We also talked about concerns with aquaculture development that might argue against using it as a one-size-fits-all tool in coastal management. Finally we wrapped up that session with some discussion about the features of "sustainable aquaculture" before moving into a discussion about the value of "voluntary compliance" versus law enforcement. I really don't think a lot about it but we have a high level of voluntary compliance in the US compared to other places.

We moved on to the issue of eco labeling, ecological certifications of products and the market values of such things. One of the major areas of discussion was seafood labeling and programs like Seafood Watch. There is a Marine Stewardship Council that certifies seafood from the producer side which is different than the consumer side focus of Seafood Watch. It is interesting to note that some types of eco labels have become more of a "price of entry" into the market place wherein producers without the label (like "dolphin safe tuna") can't even compete. In these cases, the eco label does not ensure a higher price, it simply means that they can join in the competitive marketplace with other products that also have the label.

After the eco labeling exercise we began a negotiations module by doing a relatively simple non-resource management exercise and the moved on to a more complicated and complex problem dealing with an Ecuadoran estuary named Cojimies Estuary. The site has lost most of its mangrove forest to shrimp farming and suffers from extreme poverty. I got to play the part of an eco-tourism business owner whose interests include protecting the resources, establishing basic infrastructure, improving the health and safety of the residents and getting the chaotic land development patters under control. It was a good role, but it was difficult to figure out where to start with all the problems in the area. We continued the exercise on into the next day for the morning session before wrapping it up and having a long de-brief about the outcomes, and the facilitation process. Two of our group had volunteered to facilitate the sessions and I think that before we were done, they had to wonder why they put themselves through that.

We ended Wednesday with a feast hosted by the Narragansett Indian Tribe. They also put on a great program for us that included storytelling, dancing and music. They were very generous with their time and their culture, including giving us all small medicine pouches and a feather from a Canada goose.

Today, in addition to finishing up the Cojimies exercise, we worked on a very fast example of a facilitated coastal management program project addressing the southern part of the Riviera Maya area in Mexico, south of Cancun, focusing on the area around Xcalack, Mexico. We plan to finish this exercise up tomorrow with a comparison of our plans with what CRC actually did when they worked on the project there.

We ended the day at Champlin's Seafood restaurant at Point Judith, RI. I had white chowder, stuffed flounder, red potatoes, and coleslaw (along with a couple glasses of Samuel Adams Lager.) It was good. We all had a great deal of fun and lots of pictures were taken. I loaned out my camera cable to another coastal camper so I'll have to wait for another time to load up photos from the past day or two. Stay tuned.