Heroes of the Swamp

In March 2013, the Leadership Learning Community was hired by the MAR Leadership

Program (MAR-L) to evaluate their program. The evaluation team conducted site visits to

spend time with fellows and the people who work with them daily to learn firsthand about

the challenges, achievements and impact of their conservation projects.

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Name of Fellow:

Mariela Ochoa

City, Country:

Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras

MAR-L Cohort Year:

2012

Project:

Mangrove restoration

on the Island of Guanaja

Key wins:

Planted 50,000 red mangrove seeds and 50,000 black and white mangrove seeds

over the last year.

Involved 245 volunteers in an environmental education program and mangrove

planting and maintenance.

Secured funding for 2013 from New England Biolabs Foundation ($7,420) and Fly

Fish Guanaja ($2,500). In 2014, BICA will be contributing a boat designated solely

for mangrove nursery transportation purposes.

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The story of mangroves is a story of place. The roots of

mangroves are wild and strong; they grow into the

earth and bring essential nutrients where they grow.

Mangroves weave together a story of life and

sustainability. The mangrove ecosystem is a place for

fish to reproduce, and mangroves ground the earth’s

soil so that it grows stronger, is protected from natural

disasters, and releases oxygen into the atmosphere.

The roots also lay the foundations of sustainability and

relationships for family and community. MAR-L Fellow,

Mariela Ochoa (2012), through her work of

repopulating the red, black and white mangroves on

the island of Guanaja has brought together a diverse

group of community members. This is a story about

community, sustainability, and relationships.

I. Chapter 1: The Story of Place

“Guanaja” means the island of the Caribbean pine trees. Guanaja is one of the Honduran Bay Islands of striking

and diverse geographical beauty, covered in the deep green Caribbean pine trees endemic to the region. When

viewed against the turquoise blue water of the Caribbean Sea, it becomes clear why many call this island

paradise.

The three main towns on the island are Bonacca, Mangrove Bight, and Savannah Bight. The majority of the

population of Guanaja, approximately 10,000 people, lives in Bonacca, which is actually on a cay off the main

island. Bonacca has been called the Venice of the Caribbean because of the bridges and canals that connect the

community. Passing the island, we can see young kids laughing and jumping into the water from the boat dock.

Guanaja was devastated in 1998 by Hurricane Mitch, a Category 5 hurricane that pounded the island’s coast for

three days. Strong winds destroyed one-third of the islands, including homes and hotels, and many were without

power for months. Most of the residents of Guanaja have rebuilt their homes; however, many still talk about life

pre- and post-Hurricane Mitch, given how much it changed the island. The mangrove population, which used to

be thriving, was wiped out entirely. It is estimated today that 95% of the mangroves have not recovered. The

skeletons of the mangroves, now black and white, still remain rising high above the water. Among the

devastation, small green leaves can be seen poking out of the water; the mangroves are growing back thanks to

the heroic efforts of a growing group of dedicated volunteers who have become stewards of the swamp.

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II. Chapter 2: The Story of Mariela

MAR-L Fellow Mariela Ochoa, a 32-year-old intelligent, tenacious, and jovial woman, is a central character in this

story. Mariela’s ability to impeccably plan our site visit demonstrates how proud she is of her work and of the

volunteers. She organized boats for travel around the island, presentations, and interviews with community

stakeholders and fishermen, as well as traditional meals such as the delicious tapado, or fish coconut soup, and

lobster and lionfish ceviche, scheduled for us over the two days that we were visiting Guanaja.

Mariela moved to Guanaja two years ago for a job with the National Marine Park of the Bay Islands, leaving most

of her family and support network back in La Cieba. Though Mariela has many family members who migrated to

New York, including her mother, she has found her second family in Guanaja and among the MAR-L fellows. Since

moving to Guanaja she has been working to replenish the

mangrove population of the island.

When asked what sparked her passion for the mangrove

plants of Honduras, Mariela shares her story about

growing up in a small town in La Cieba in the Garifuna

culture. She knew little about the environment or

conservation. It was not until she began her university

studies in Tourism and Ecology that she was randomly

assigned to explore the mangrove ecosystem. As she

learned more about the mangroves, she was taken with

their beauty and impressed by what she learned about

their growing conditions and environmental importance.

Eager to share what she learned, Mariela organized a field

trip for her classmates to see the mangroves. Needless to

say, Mariela aced her class.

Mangroves are essential because they provide nurseries for spawning lobster and crab, and they are important

renewable resource for community building because mangrove wood, being durable and water resistant, is good

for building homes. In Guanaja the mangroves are a particularly important part of the ecosystem because they

help prevent the island’s erosion from ocean waves. Mariela’s MAR-L project focusing on mangrove restoration

was a perfect coupling of her passion for mangroves and working with the community, including fishermen.

Mariela’s project focused on repopulating the mangrove forest in the southern part of Guanaja, which was

hardest hit during Hurricane Mitch. Her project donor was Scott Peterson of Fly Fish Guanaja, and over a dinner at

his hotel on our first night in Guanaja, the mangrove volunteers discussed how this project has been a labor of

love. As Mariela explains, “There weren’t even enough seeds to collect to be able to replant the trees along the

coast. When we started our project we had to go to other Bay Islands to get seeds to plant here on Guanaja.”

Then began the process of trial and error. They moved their garden way from the beach where seeds were being

devoured by blue crabs. As they moved their mangrove gardens inland, they were faced with the everyday labor-

intensive challenge of transporting the salt water required by the plants to their inland home.

“Mariela is dynamic—she leads

and many follow. Mariela is a

grand teacher. Mariela is

teaching us; we have learned and

the fishermen are learning about

the ways they should involve

themselves in the protection of

resources.”

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Through ingenuity and hard work, Mariela, together with school children and community volunteers, perfected

their approach and now have the most successful garden to date, producing 100,000 mangroves last year: 50,000

red and 50,000 black and white. The MAR-L hopes of replication have taken seed with Mariela. She has received

funding to create a manual of mangrove restoration, with Guanaja as a case study. Mariela sees this as an

opportunity to help others learn from and adopt the process used in Guanaja. She hopes that her work with the

mangroves will be replicated not only elsewhere in Honduras but also in the MAR region.

III. Chapter 3: The Story of the Project

Mariela would be the first to acknowledge that the new

mangrove sprouts are the work of a community. Her

passion for the mangroves and her spirit are contagious.

The volunteers see themselves as one big family. You

need only follow the laughter and you will find Mariela

right in the center, the heart of the family. As they jostle

each other and kid around, you might think that the work

is easy, but it is not. The work of planting and tending the

mangroves is grueling and takes a community of support.

As one volunteer, Cristina, recalled, “Sometimes we don’t

have a boat to get us to water the gardens, sometimes

we don’t have gas in the boat; the plants are very delicate

so you really have to be dedicated and committed to

tending the garden every day without fault. And when we

finally plant the mangroves, we have to enter the swamps

under the hot sun, we’ve lost shoes in the mud, we’ve

gotten stuck, we’ve found ourselves neck deep in mud!”

Cristina and her daughter began volunteering with the mangrove restoration project as part of their high school

social service requirement. A 5-foot-tall powerhouse who is a quiet but mighty community association leader in

Guanaja, Cristina decided to go back to school with her daughter Laura, and they graduated at the same time.

Folks in the room laughingly commented, “Cristina calls Mariela to wake her up, she feeds her as they work in the

mangrove garden, and she organizes all the logistics! She is a mom to all of us, not just Laura!” Cristina has been a

main contributor to the mangrove project and has also involved her other children and her husband. The

collaboration and bond among the volunteers is palpable; they laughed, sang, and ate together as they told the

story of the mangroves. The growing community of mangrove gardeners and guardians now includes high school

students, volunteers, and even government officials.

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Mariela’s humility opened the door to people from the

community. She says, “Communities have a lot of

knowledge; sometimes in conservation we think about

methodology and how to apply it to the field, but for me it

has been fundamental to engage the community, to do it

with them.” She has a strong commitment to building local

leadership. She hopes to take Laura with her to a

conference in Utila. Laura has a two high-school diplomas,

in teaching and environmental tourism, and Mariela is

working to incorporate her more permanently into the

mangrove project so they can work together to develop

the environmental education component of the project.

Both Cristina and Laura are now developing manuals and

information for teachers on the island.

Mariela is focused on sustainable leadership and resources for the project. With a grant from the New England

Biolabs Foundation ($7,420 U.S.), Mariela will be able to cover gas for the boat transport and to further develop

the environmental education program in schools and with volunteers. She has recruited environmental education

expert Martin Kelly, who will help to create a curriculum for Guanaja’s schools and to provide training to

volunteers and teachers. Like other MAR-L fellows interviewed, Mariela has entrepreneurial energy as she

explores creative funding options, such as getting people to sponsor mangroves or turning the educational and

planting efforts into an ecotourism opportunity.

Like most MAR-L fellows, Mariela is not resting on her

laurels celebrating the success of the mangroves

project. As a committed conservationist, she knows

how important it is to involve fishermen, with whom

she has been working closely. She organized the first

Fishermen Association of Mangrove Bight and North

East Bight, as well as the Center of Marine Studies to

declare the area where many fishermen live on the

south side of the island as a no-take zone. She hopes to

involve fishermen in collecting fishery data that would

“generate a scientific database to measure and

monitor the conditions of fisheries on Guanaja” and

create alternative livelihoods for fishermen (alternative

livelihoods being a common refrain in Mariela’s work).

She has clear compassion for fishermen who are trying

to feed their families, and this is a cornerstone for the

trust she is establishing with the fishermen.

Mariela is working closely with other fellows in the MAR leadership program to advance sustainable fishing in

Guanaja. Kim Ley (2011) will be visiting her to help develop her sustainable lobster fishing projects with Don

“Communities have a lot of

knowledge; sometimes in

conservation we think about

methodology and how to apply

it to the field, but for me it has

been fundamental to engage the

community, to do it with them”

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Manuel and other fishermen in the Association who have come to trust Mariela. She is also collaborating with

Kirah (MAR-L 2011) and Adriel (MAR-L 2012) on creating hydrographic compilation of how lobster shades are

functioning in the Caribbean and which communities are adopting them.

IV. Chapter 4: The Story of MAR-L in Mariela’s Life

When asked how her MAR-L experience has helped her implement her project, Mariela talked about how the

Personal Development Analysis (PDA) of the MAR-L program helped her do a deeper analysis for her own

personal growth and transformation. She would be far too humble to share the assessment of her skills and

qualities enthusiastically described by her current supervisor in this way: “Mariela is dynamic—she leads and

many follow. Mariela is a grand teacher. Mariela is teaching us; we have learned and the fishermen are learning

about the ways they should involve themselves in the protection of resources. The private sector is starting to

support us. We know this is due to Mariela’s charisma.”

The need for broad, cross-sector collaboration is built into the fabric of MAR-L, its design, and its recruitment

strategies. Mariela is a testament to this program goal. She has fostered collaboration between NGOs,

government organizations, private tourism operators and the community. She has the ability to win the trust and

confidence of a broad group of conservation stakeholders. She was affirmed by her colleagues for her patience,

tenacity, and passion and was praised for her ability to bring together different groups who were often in conflict.

In the words of an elected official from the ministry of Guanaja, “Her leadership has really pushed us forward to

organize our community. Mariela provided the leadership to get the community excited. This kind of leadership

was absent before Mariela.”

Mariela is making her mark and a name for MAR-L.

She has galvanized a community to action, and

there are now 100,000 new mangrove trees in

Guanaja that were planted by 245 volunteers. Her

project promises to be sustained by a new

generation of leaders and resources. Mariela

continues to tap the resources of the network as

she sets her sights on sustainable fishing and

building partnerships with fishermen in Guanaja.