With the Caribbean being one of the world’s most biodiverse regions with sensitive ecosystems and a high vulnerability to climate change, there is a need to shine a spotlight on issues related to climate change, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development, in an effort to identify how these issues affect the region’s ecological wellbeing.
With this in mind, The Cropper Foundation did extensive research and consultation on the state of environmental reporting in the Caribbean and created the Cari-Bois Environmental News Network in 2020.
The platform aims to raise awareness amongst the region’s citizenry on these issues, build their capacity to communicate the effects of these issues, and foster discussions on solutions, as a strategic means by which the discourse surrounding these issues can be advanced.
In its first two years, Cari-Bois worked with civil society organisations in several communities across Trinidad and Tobago to train residents to recognise environmental issues and effectively report as citizen journalists on how these issues affected their communities.
In these formative years, Cari-Bois published over 100 articles on topics including climate change, agriculture, pollution, mining, oil and natural gas, forestry, fishing, biodiversity and environmental governance.
On January 1st, 2023, the project was reimagined and relaunched with a new mandate to publish environmental news content from the entire Caribbean.
Since then, Cari-Bois has published over 80 articles – and several mini-documentaries – from Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, St. Vincent and The Grenadines and Suriname.
Cari-Bois also launched its “Climate Breakdown” and “State of the Environment” webinar series in April 2023 while it launched its “Lunchtime Convos with Cari-Bois” series in June 2024.
Combined, the three educational webinar series have attracted over 250 attendees and fostered a wide range of conversations on topical environmental issues.
To ensure greater inclusion of youths in the project, Cari-Bois launched its inaugural climate focused Youth Journalism Project in August 2023 and provided journalism training to eight young people from four rural communities across Trinidad and Tobago.
Given the wide-reaching implications of environmental issues in the Caribbean, the Cari-Bois platform is committed to building a diverse coalition of stakeholders to raise more awareness of these issues and support discussions to springboard solutions.