A new vision for a new time

Cari-Bois Environmental News Network rejigs its online platform with an expanded regional outlook on the health and wealth of the Caribbean’s natural resources.

Today, January 1, marks the relaunch of Cari-Bois, now a Caribbean-wide network of environmental content creators dedicated equally to educating the population about the Caribbean’s vast biodiversity; to telling some inconvenient truths about climate impacts of the development paths pursued by countries of the region; and to celebrating the wins of sustainable practices and progressive actions.

On Sunday, January 8, and every Sunday thereafter, a new story will be published to the site www.caribois.org and shared across Cari-Bois social media channels. Each month, stories (including one short video documentary) from three Caricom countries will be featured along monthly rotating themes of Preservation and Conservation of Biodiversity; Ecocide in the Caribbean; and Climate Change and Frontline Communities.

January’s content creators are Belizean conservationist-adventurer Carolee Chanona; TT emerging photographer and filmmaker Corry Latapy; Guyanese journalist Vishani Ragobeer; and TT science communicator extraordinaire Attish Kanhai.

The stories of a further eight citizen journalists from Suriname, Guyana and this country will also find a home on the Cari-Bois platform starting January 2023. These young people were trained through The Cropper Foundation’s partnership with Climate Tracker, which was facilitated by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (Canari).

Led by The Cropper Foundation, Cari-Bois was originally founded in 2020 as a national reporting initiative in TT that sought to empower communities, activists, academics, scientists and journalists to tell their own stories about the environmental impacts of TT’s extractive industries and wider unsustainable development.

Two and a half years on, 100-plus stories later, with an estimated 30 community-based citizen journalists trained to report on issues affecting their areas, Cari-Bois’s success at highlighting local environmental concerns is set to translate at a regional level.

The relaunch happens to follow the conclusion of the two foremost global environmental conferences (the UN Convention on Climate Change and the UN Convention on Biodiversity) in November and December 2022, respectively.

In both cases, alarming details of the planet’s ill-health were reiterated alongside the manifest impacts of altered eco-systems, and more dire potential threats to humanity. Many recommendations, as well as ambitious decisions and commitments have been identified as outcomes to be implemented over the next year and beyond.

For Omar Mohammed, CEO at The Cropper Foundation, the expansion of the Cari-Bois network in the context of the global environmental agenda is sacrosanct. He says, “We see the Cari-Bois space as vital to participatory, rigorous, substantial environmental reportage in these times, where climate justice ought to be understood as an inalienable human right, and where accountability of our very own Caribbean states, organisations and people is imperative.”

Cari-Bois’s recently appointed coordinator and editor Tyrell Gittens says, “As a journalist, environmentalist, conservationist and geographer, I absolutely believe in the importance of environmental education to shaping more environmentally conscious behaviour amongst the general public. The Cari-Bois platform does just that. It’s a space for credible and reliable information about the environment in the Caribbean. And I applaud The Cropper Foundation for acting on its vision to include the wider Caribbean in this initiative.”

To learn more about opportunities to join the Cari-Bois community as a citizen journalist, and for all other updates, be sure to follow Car-Bois on all social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).

Submitted by Cari-Bois Environmental News Network.