About
Marine Gardens Project
University of Costa Rica
Funded by World Bank Development Marketplace Program (Global Competition 2007)
FOR A CULTURE OF THE SEA
Marine Gardens Project seeks to develop and implement, with and for men and women of the coast and islands, an integrated and diversified the sea to ensure the sustainability of the resource, combined with responsible fisheries and mariculture collection eco-friendly and small-scale thus promoting the rich native biodiversity and the recovery of Pacific waters, including the Gulf of Nicoya on Costa Rica.
Declines in fisheries around the world by over-exploitation, particularly where it has been practiced, which coincides with the home dedicated to coastal fishing. Agriculture, already affected by climate change, is facing new challenges and pressures to increase production, particularly by increases in demand for food and biofuel production. Therefore, mariculture is elsewhere growing by leaps and Central America must take this new way to generate wealth because:
-The larger bodies of water, especially in the Pacific Ocean, mariculture favor.
The land-quality agriculture to increase is exhausted and the irrigation water is scarce just when most needed.
-It represents the best line of defense against climate change as production at sea is all the water it needs and is not dependent on rainfall.
Marine Gardens to the Project and associated activities is to contribute to:
The socio-economic development, population and coastal island, which faces problems in the decline in fishing.
The smooth-marine resource management and productive.
-A process of recovery of the Gulf of Nicoya and biodiversity.
-Promote the supply and consumption of fresh marine products, quality and origin, with good post-harvest handling, providing a fair price to those in place.
The Gulf of Nicoya in Costa Rica in the Pacific, with thousands of square kilometers of water, is ideal for gardens, combining marine fisheries and mariculture responsible collecting small, benefiting many, starting with those who live there, and for them to rest the country with a steady and reliable supply of marine products of good price and quality.
"Marine Gardens" is a project of social and environmental, which aims to sustainable socioeconomic development through an intermediate product that makes good use throughout the year from existing resources, and is not intended to yield an immediate or a high level exceeding the ecological capabilities.
Working in partnership with different institutions and organizations interested in the country's sea and coast, public and private, mostly with low population and resources, individual and group.
It takes experience and the valuable human resources and materials developed to date. In this way the project is moving quickly to promote and strengthen the coastal sea areas selected for demonstration and experimental marine gardens, along with coastal residents themselves, documenting and disseminating the process for the benefit of others.
All this is accompanied by advice and training in nutrition and food handling, post-harvest techniques and adding value and marketing, in partnership with companies that provide fair trade and co-investment.
Marine gardens consist of:
Responsible fishing and harvesting (in itself a kind of open mariculture), identifying, demarcating and protecting areas where fishing is practiced only single hook (no use of trammel nets or lines of hooks, much less fishing shrimp drag) or selective harvesting of shellfish and other animals (collect only certain species, and a minimum size without damaging the roots or the rest of the trees by excessive extraction), thus maintaining the natural production level, and increasing re - thereby sowing-promoting biodiversity of the area and that these protected areas become breeding and repopulation, positively influencing the entire Gulf of Nicoya and possibly beyond.
Shrimp and fish farming in floating cages and enclosures with other networks, these cages not only serve to cultivate (this stage is to bring a youth to maturity, or small to large operations like poultry and pigs on land ) but also support in maintaining live bait fish (anchovies, shrimp) and storage products to achieve better living selling price (eg. to keep alive the best fish for a few days or weeks, waiting times and best prices for buyers , mainly due to fresh selling day of the sale, and sell them directly because they are skipping the intermediary pays the cost of transport to carry quantity).
Shellfish culture, such as mussels, oysters and clams in special bags or flashlights sour cherries floating lines, which is also a useful technology to save lives in water harvesting and collection of achieving the best price. Shellfish culture has a positive balance in environmental terms as they filter and do not need to be provided outside of food, take it to the middle. Thus, shellfish and algae (see below) complement the cultivation of fish and shrimp to help clean water from waste.
Cultivation of algae, which grow fast floating lines, with multiple uses (food, industrial products as ficocoloides, animal feed, biomass for energy), including the fact that act as filters around mariculture thus justifying its use to reduce crop contamination of fish and crustaceans;
Growing vegetables in water, such as tomatoes and peppers, in organic farming, essential for a balanced diet, harvesting rainwater and distilling sea water to irrigate vegetables or for other uses.
The approach is analogous to the marine gardens home gardens on the ground, which seeks to improve and optimize the use of natural resources for the family and community.
In every coastal community men and women may participate actively developing production units may be several units per community.
The goal of the project in its first stage is to involve some 10 communities in the Gulf of Nicoya and nearby fishing and mariculture practice / responsible harvesting. To that end, following a strictly participatory and equitable approach, we implemented a form of research-extension of minimum intervention, maximum use (MIMA), which requires identifying the most sensitive solution which will produce the greatest impact.
The sea is the new frontier
Mariculture is the new agriculture
Desarrollémosla with equity and long-term vision
Our previous work is sumarizado in an article in the journal Agronomía Costarricense:
Link article in Agronomía Costarricense
Our approach is in a recent article in the newspaper The Nation:
Translator
By N2H