How to save mangroves and fisheries: Lessons from Isla Chira

Fall 2018 participants in the Sustainability and the Environment Program at Monteverde, Costa Rica traveled to a tiny island to learn about mangrove ecology and the art and science of sustainable fishing. Chira Island is located in the Gulf of Nicoya, where fisheries, and the communities that depend upon them for their livelihood, experienced great challenges in the 1990's. That's when fish stocks dropped, and people's main source of income was jeopardized. That is all changing now, after 20 years of valient efforts by local people. They returned to artisanal practices of fishing that their grandparents once used, and they promoted mangrove protection. Their efforts are helping to restore fish stocks and stabilize livelihoods, slowly but surely. The communities from Chira are credited with being models for similar initiatives around Costa Rica and beyond. 

Here's a nice video (Spanish) that tell about the amazing efforts of the island community to save their natural resources: