We recently told you that, as a partner in BirdLife International, Nature Canada not only works to protect birds and their habitat in Canada, but also raises funds and shares skills with our partners in the Americas.

The islands of Cuba and Hispaniola in the Caribbean are important stopovers and wintering grounds for migratory birds that breed in Canada, including Bicknell’s Thrush, Ovenbird, and Black-and-white Warbler, among others. We’ve joined forces with partners in the region to conserve bird habitat in these biodiversity hotspots.

Working with Grupo Jaragua in the Dominican Republic, Société Audubon Haïti in Haiti and Centro Nacional de Area Protegidas (CNAP) in Cuba, we promote sustainable livelihoods to reduce the impacts of communities in and around wildlife reserves and protected areas.

The Macaya, Turquino and La Bayamesa National Parks, the Delta del Cauto Wildlife Refuge and the Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve are critically important for many endemic species of plants, birds and other animals in the Caribbean and for many migratory species.

The Haitian, Cuban and Dominican communities living in and around these reserves predominantly base their subsistence on unsustainable uses of natural resources in fragile environments that are thus being degraded. In turn, the degradation of these natural areas increasingly reduces the ability of these communities to sustain themselves. Deforestation and ensuing land degradation diminish the ecological services these natural areas provide to these communities and to others beyond.

People in 24 rural communities in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba are gaining the technical and material capacity to improve their lives, by adopting environmentally sustainable economic activities such as agro-forestry, eco-tourism, and organic poultry production. They’re also taking steps to mitigate the effects of climate change, by avoiding deforestation, pursuing fire and erosion control, and protecting local watersheds.