Port of Spain, April 22, 2014:  The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) has awarded three grants of US$5,000 to improve rural livelihoods through strengthening community businesses based on the sustainable use of forests.  Grants have been awarded to the Brasso Seco Paria Tourism Action Committee of Trinidad and Tobago, the North Leeward Tourism Association of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Smithfield Local Forest Management Committee of Jamaica. 

"We have been struggling for such a long time to get the right type of assistance to turn our dream into reality.  I think we finally have it," said Carl Fitzjames, a member of Brasso Seco Paria Tourism Action Committee.  The Brasso Seco Paria Tourism Action Committee is a rural community group engaged in ecotourism, reforestation and agro forestry.  The group has rehabilitated a cocoa and coffee estate and will use their grant to improve processing and marketing of products from the estate.  The group is moving towards intelligent, organic cocoa and coffee production, marketing and selling.

The North Leeward Tourism Association in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is a community based organisation promoting the ecotourism potential and heritage of the area.  They will use their grant to improve the sale of forest products as a way to improve livelihoods in their community. 

The Smithfield Local Forest Management Committee in Jamaica will use their grant to improve villagers’ knowledge on bee keeping and so improve the quality of honey produced.

Grantees were selected by a committee of Caribbean forestry experts from applications from Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

This small grant programme is being implemented under CANARI’s Forests Livelihoods and Governance Programme and funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).