The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted livelihoods and presented unprecedented challenges to communities around world. Over the past year and a half, limited mobility has resulted in significant economic impacts for developing countries. Impacts include the closure of markets and spaces for trade, steep declines in travel and tourism, increased health risks for occupations unable to work remotely, among many other pandemic-related stressors. In addition to economic livelihoods threatened, these regions also face challenges related to the governance of communal resources when local organizations and associations are unable to gather for in-person discussions.

Despite these pressing obstacles, examples of economic resilience throughout Blue Forests Project case study sites – namely in Ecuador, Kenya, and Indonesia – illustrate how opportunities for alternative livelihoods and community organizing have persisted throughout the pandemic.

The cornerstone of the Ecuador Blue Forests Project is to facilitate a long-term mangrove conservation agreement program aimed at the conservation and protection of the gulf’s abundant mangrove forests. Community mangrove concessions, known as “custody agreements”, empower ancestral communities and traditional users by granting these groups exclusive access to mangrove resources like red crab, black cockles and artisanal fishery in exchange for the protection and sustainable management of these ecosystems. In addition to exclusive access of resources, the fisheries associations operating under these community concessions also receive financial incentives from the Socio Manglar Ecuadorian government contingent upon the hectares of mangroves to be protected.

Read more on community mangrove concessions in Ecuador here: https://www.blueforestsolutions.org/conservationagreements

Due to the organizational structure of regional fisheries associations, monthly community meetings are customary to discuss the territorial management of these mangroves and exchange knowledge between associations. However, this community has been forced to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic with in-person meetings no longer feasible. Considering the high costs and technological barriers to entry, web conferencing platforms also seemed to be an unlikely solution until a partnership was formed between the associations and the German-based Schutzwald Foundation, who provided associations with a common Zoom account so that regular meetings could be held and the management of local mangroves could continue throughout the pandemic.

Another significant challenge presented in Guayaquil during COVID-19 has been the wide-spread shut down of large markets, namely fish markets, where fisheries associations would ordinarily be selling their catch. The closing of markets have also increased local food insecurity for communities residing in mangrove-rich areas where traditional agricultural practices are not possible, thus necessitating small-scale trades and barters throughout the Gulf. For example, some fisheries associations like in Cerrito de los Morreños will trade their usual seafood and shellfish catch from the mangroves (shrimp, crab, cockles, and fish) with native vegetables and fruits from the nearby town of Naranjal. Practices like these demonstrate the adaptability of fisheries associations to maintain food security in their communities despite market closures.

In response to these challenges, CI-Ecuador developed a dynamic to understand the impact of the pandemic on "essential people", which led to the users of mangroves learning new things and developing their resilience capacity, through the following experiences:

Contingency plans: Senior leaders were able to use the funds collected by associations to address urgent (unplanned) partner needs related to food, medicine, and transportation.

Solidarity: Leaders of fisheries associations were able to coordinate necessary assistance for communities by contacting state, private and civil society organizations. In this sense, leadership displayed solidarity through their outward management and internal delegation of logistics among partners.

Networks: The Coalition of Red Crab Fishermen from the Gulf of Guayaquil provided a space for dialogue and planning promoted by Conservation International. The contacts made between the leaders and partners of these organizations were of high value during the crisis. Both organizational and family-level networks were key elements for survival in times of pandemic. As previously alluded to, this allowed organizations and families to share food and barter according to the production of fish, meat, or other types of food, to go from the scarce-null circulation of money.

Gender roles: In the context of the pandemic, many users of the mangroves were able to testify to the value of the women's work and the roles and responsibilities in the home. With more time spent in the home during the pandemic, men belonging to fisheries associations were able to participate more in household responsibilities, caring for children, and other domestic activities.

New leaders: Without much experience, many young fishermen had to assume leadership positions within of their associations. Thanks to the help of partners and former leaders, they were able to move forward, with their main support being the strength of their spirituality and approach to God in the hard times of the pandemic.

Located in southern Kenya, Gazi Bay and Vanga Bay are home to two internationally recognized community-based mangrove carbon finance projects: Mikoko Pamoja and Vanga Blue Forest, respectively. Both voluntary carbon market projects, certified through the Plan Vivo standard, sell carbon credits to support mangrove conservation and restoration activities, as well as provide community benefits like access to education, clean water, and sustainable resources. 

Read more on Mikoko Pamoja and Vanga Blue Forest projects here: https://www.blueforestsolutions.org/kenya

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges for carbon offsetting projects – particularly the aviation industry buying fewer credits due to the global decline of travel – community organizations formed through projects like Mikoko Pamoja and Vanga Blue Forest have demonstrated their resilience by showing how resources can be mobilized to provide communities with support during the pandemic. 

In 2020, the Mikoko Pamoja Community Organization and the Vanga Blue Forest Community Organization merged efforts to support 148 households from the organizations' villages with food and sanitary provisions. Funds were also donated by the two projects with facilitation from Association of Coastal Ecosystem Services (ACES) in a bid to cushion the arisen socio-economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic that was then majorly affecting the region and the country at large. Staples like basic food items, sanitary materials (e.g. soaps and masks) were distributed throughout the communities via door-to-door deliveries. Small events to increase awareness on preventive measures against COVID-19 were also held. 

With the communities living adjacent to the mangroves, it was possible to engage small groups in conservation activities i.e. woodlot establishment, forest monitoring, etc., which not only served as awareness programs for the communities, but also provided a decent income for the supported communities. Mikoko Pamoja and Vanga Blue Forest project members majorly rely on the fisheries sector. Not only did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the fish market through enforced cessation of movement in counties, but it was then also a low season for fish production. Such incentives helped create casual employment for the community members. 

Mikoko Pamoja is also working towards engaging the local communities in the conservation of seagrass ecosystems. This shall be merged with mangrove conservation using a bundling approach. Herein, buyers of carbon credits will have the option of paying additional money that will go towards the conservation of seagrasses. Therefore, local artisanal fishermen will then have a supplementary source of income from revenue collected in relation to the conservation, thus a good adaptation and mitigation measure to unprecedented occurrences. Fish production is also aimed to increase as a result. Community consultations are currently underway. 

Vanga Blue Forest, through donations facilitated by ACES, was able to distribute reusable sanitary towels worth USD700 to the residents of Kiwegu, one of the three villages that the project supports. This went on to assist needy students in the local primary school at their puberty stage, positively impacting the girl child by providing them with essentials thereby creating room for their studies and awareness on sanitation and self-acceptance.

Coastal communities that depend on eco- and traditional tourism for income have been particularly affected by COVID-19 as international travel has steeply declined. However, healthy blue forests can offer alternative opportunities for economic resilience.

In Nusa Lembongan, residents are resorting back to an industry which once dominated the island before it became a popular tourist destination: seaweed farming. Due to steady COVID-19 cases in Indonesia and the global halt of recreational travel, islands like Lembongan are experiencing severe economic loss from the decline of tourism. To stay afloat, Lembongan locals have pivoted to seaweed farming to support their incomes during the pandemic. Though not as lucrative as tourism, seaweed cultivation still serves as a significant supplemental source of income for many.

By harnessing the value of ecosystem services from blue forests, communities can become more resilient and diversify sources of income instead of relying on a single industry for economic prosperity. In this way, communities can build back nature-based industries for continuous economic prosperity beyond the pandemic.

Overall, despite the far-reaching effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – including mass unemployment, economic precarity and loss of human life – stories like these from Ecuador, Kenya and Indonesia have illustrated how communities around the world continue to adapt and exhibit resilience despite extraordinary circumstances. In these examples, local organizing has served as a through line, where efforts to distribute knowledge and resources have assisted with community responses to the pandemic.