The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative

Case Received: February 7, 1998

Author: Andrew F. Seidl

Tel: +1 970 491 7071

Fax: +1 970 491 2067

Email: aseidl@ceres.agsci.colostate.edu

This case study is located in the Bay Islands, Honduras. The Bay Islands are located about 56km off of the north coast of Honduras. The Bay Islands constitute the northern most and sole insular department of the country of Honduras. Of the eight islands and over 60 cays comprising the archipelago, Roatan is by far the largest and most populated. Among the 3 principal islands, Roatan comprises 57% of the total land area (12,740 ha. of 22,516 ha.), and 2/3 of the human population (16,000 of 24,000). Guanaja's population is 6,000 (25%) on a land area of 5,616 ha.(25%). Utila supports a population of 2,000 (8.3%) on 4,160 ha (18.5%) of land.

The principal renewable resource in question in the coral reef ecosystem surrounding the islands. However, human activities both on the islands (e.g. deforestation, infrastructural development, and waste disposal) and in the water (dredging, construction, lobster, shrimp and conch fishing, SCUBA diving) impact reef health.

A variety of cultural, political, environmental, and economic features are relevant to this case. The Bay Islands have a colorful history evidenced by the highly diverse human population. Although currently a part of Honduras, significant populations of Afro-Antilleans, Afro-Carib ("Garifuna"), Mosquito Indians, Anglo-Antilleans, and Anglo-Europeans live in the Islands. Many Islanders speak Caribbean English and Spanish equally well. Race relations are not always amicable and ethnically homogenous enclaves are common. Relatively wealthy Americans and Europeans and Spanish speaking Hondurans are the most recent arrivals to the Islands. English speaking Bay Islanders are commonly thought to be separatists by the national government. Honduras is a poor country, only Haiti is poorer in the Western Hemisphere, with a corrupt and ineffectual government. Environmental issues are not high on the national government’s agenda. A system of national parks is a relatively new addition to the Honduran landscape. All economic activity in the Islands depends upon the reef and the sea for its survival. Fish is a principal source of protein for Bay Islanders and lobstering and shrimping are the traditional and dominant form of employment for Islander men. Tourism, based upon SCUBA diving, is the most recent boom.

The author conducted a case study of the institutional innovation to this situation, the Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA). The study attempted to reveal the features BICA and the institutional and natural resource environment of the Bay Islands which contribute to its ability to manage the Islands’ natural resources from the perspective of its membership.

Prior to the formation of BICA, the aquatic and terrestrial natural resources of the Bay Islands were unmanaged as open access resources or strictly exploited as private property. External effects of individual behavior, the common property management of shared resources, the public nature of a cultural heritage and economy closely linked to the natural resource base were not addressed by any governmental or nongovernmental institutional arrangement.

Management of the coral reefs, surrounding waters and steep forested lands of the Bay Islands as open access resources became a visible problem in about the late 1980s. At that time, tourists began to know the Islands as a new "in place" for SCUBA diving, expatriate North Americans and Europeans began to see the Islands as "the next Belize" and as imported plastic products or products packaged in plastic became popular. Tourism development enticed mainland Hondurans to migrate to the Islands in search of work. Expatriates and a few of the wealthier Islanders purchased and developed lands for tourism businesses. Mangroves were cut, harbors were dredged from pristine beaches, coral was used construction materials and hillsides were stripped of their foliage. No infrastructure for sewers, electricity, or the provision of fresh water existed for much of the Islands. Sedimentation, eutrophication, diminishing fish, shellfish stocks, terrestrial species and fresh water supply resulted.

The marine and terrestrial ecosystems of the Bay Islands show high levels of degradation. The principal reasons for difficulties in maintaining marine biodiversity are the destruction of habitat, the extraction of dead coral and sand for construction, and overfishing or overhunting of commercial species. The primary causes of terrestrial environmental degradation are the establishment of pastures on unsuitable land and housing development. The decrease in fish species, deforestation, control of garbage and human waste, water issues, tourism development and increasing strain on the fragile resource bases are the principal areas of concern for the long-term development of the Bay Islands.

The spoils of this development largely fell to the Islands' elite and the expatriate community. In sum, mainland Hondurans have probably benefited from their immigration relative to the difficult life of peasants on the mainland, but their living conditions are still not good by developed country standards. It could be easily argued that the majority of Islanders have not benefited in sum from the formalization of the Islands' economy through tourism. It is no longer easy simply to live off of the land and the sea. Purchased goods are expensive. The land is all owned by outsiders and land tenure relationships have changed to reflect the preferences of the new stewards of the Bay Islands natural resources. The Islanders' relative poverty and lack of education is unavoidably evident to them through interaction with tourists and satellight TV. After several years of unbridled development, it became apparent that the tourism goose would not continue to lay golden eggs if the natural environment upon which the boom was based was destroyed due to a lack of management. Everyone, except those with the financial wherewithall to permanently leave the Islands and, perhaps, those who would be able, in time, to return to a simple life of living off of the land and sea would continue to suffer had the situation continued.

In 1990 the Bay Islands Conservation Association/Asociacion Para La Conservacion Ecologica de Las Islas de La Bahia was founded over concerns about the Islands' fragile natural resources. The Association's long term mission is to create an environment which will provide economic opportunities for Bay Islanders and at the same time maintain the unique flora and fauna of the Bay Islands. BICA implements a variety of programs and engages in a number of activities in order to make progress toward its long-term mission.

A core group of expatriates and elites involved in the tourism industry formed the organization. Among the strongest personalities involved in the formation of BICA was the representative to the national senate from the Islands. He was principally responsible for facilitating the granting of legal NGO status to BICA and in securing official management responsibility of the organization for the Islands' reef ecosystems. He also owns the oldest, most famous, and among the most expensive resorts on Roatan. His wife served as the president of BICA from its formation until 1996. The leadership and most active members of BICA are largely acting in their economic self interest through their participation in the organization.

BICA opened its Roatan office in 1991 with equipment from the Instituto Hondureno de Turismo (IHT) and USAID and support from local individuals and businesses. The Association obtained legal status (Personaria Juridica) from the government of Honduras as a non-profit, nongovernmental organization via government resolution 45-91. BICA consists of three chapters. Each chapter has a junior or student association. A semi-autonomous subgroup is in place on each of the three principal Bay Islands. In addition, the Sandy Bay Marine Reserve operates under the direct supervision of BICA-Roatan. The Reserve is an unofficial NGO established in 1988 to protect the reef around Sandy Bay. It maintains a separate budget and board of directors, hires its own staff and makes its own policy.

In 1990 there were approximately 68 BICA members located in the Islands, the mainland and abroad. By late 1995, the mailing list maintained in Roatan had grown to more than 350 individuals and organizations. Members receive an annual newsletter detailing BICA activities and requesting another year's membership. BICA-Utila has its own newsletter.

BICA's main office is in the center of the main settlement of Coxen Hole, Roatan. BICA-Roatan is run by a seven member board of directors. The Roatan office employs two paid (through local donations) secretarial staff and a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), who is paid by the US government. Neither the director nor the sub-director are financially compensated.

BICA's other two branches are located on the islands of Guanaja and Utila. BICA-Guanaja was formed of the Guanaja Ladies Club (GLC). Historically, the GLC is a social club of Bonacca Town's more prominent women. BICA-Guanaja now consists of expatriates involved in the tourism industry, GLC members, and several other prominent citizens. Guanajans have been in active in BICA. They recently decided to establish an office and distinct presence on Guanaja. BICA-Utila maintains an office in the chapter president's living room. It has recently elected a new board of directors, and reopened its renovated and expanded visitor center. The Utila branch has a paid director/president ($150/month) and no secretarial staff.

Among the important activities of all NGOs are fund raising and the appropriate use of collected funds. BICA seeks financial support from local people and businesses, nonlocal people, the national government, and international organizations including NGOs and financial institutions. BICA's internal sources of funding include memberships, donations to specific projects and sales. BICA's external sources of funding or expertise include the USAID, Fundacion Vida (national level Honduran NGO), the United Nations, TACA Airlines, the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (international NGO), the National (US) Marine Sanctuary Program, the Canadian Agency for International Development (CAID), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Quebec Union for the Conservation of Nature (UQCN), the government of Switzerland and the Honduran Tourism Institute (IHT). In 1995 US dollars, BICA's operating budget, exclusive of in kind transfers, was $21,869 in 1991, $53,695 in 1992, $48,381 in 1993 and $67,742 in 1994. These funds were allocated among the organization's solid waste program, marine reserve management, environmental education program, buoy project, turtle project, green iguana project and administration.

A case study of BICA was undertaken by the author to attempt to reveal the features of the evolving organization which contribute to or impede its performance, or ability to reach its objectives. BICA was analyzed in terms of an extended conception of the economic firm consisting of inputs, productive processes, outputs, and intended outcomes and nested within a particular institutional context, managing a particular resource base. BICA implements programs in an attempt to meet its objectives. BICA was formed and functions within the natural resource base and institutional context of the Bay Islands, Honduras. BICA members have volunteered their scarce finances, time and effort toward the achievement of broad natural resource management and economic development objectives for the Bay Islands. While BICA members maintain a deep knowledge of their organization and the Bay Islands, they may not understand, individually, how their organization works collectively.

Survey research based upon a two stage modified ethnographic approach revealed both quantitative and qualitative information. Responses to 64 face-to-face interviews of adult, resident BICA members tested the perceptions of 5 input variables, 18 process variables (10 behavioral and 8 structural features of BICA), 8 output variables, 5 intended outcome variables and 10 institutional features. For example, members were polled on the adequacy and investment in human, financial and physical capital of the organization as input variables. They were polled regarding the success and appropriateness of each of BICA's programs listed above. They were asked to extent to which the organization has been successful fulfilling the broad social objectives (protect and manage the Islands' ecosystems, promote sustainable development, create environmental awareness, and conserve and restore native habitats and endangered species) stated in its mission statement and the appropriateness of each objective to the organization. Communication networks, commonality of interests, power and influence, corruption, conflict resolution, horizontal and vertical linkages were among the structural and behavioral features of BICA evaluated by members. Finally, governmental support, local propensity to organize, degree of local environmental awareness, degree of social and economic integration, local support for BICA, natural resource dependency, and economic interdependency were institutional features rated by members which might affect the formation, persistence and performance of NGOs.

Traditional statistical methods revealed the principal correlations among these performance features from the perceptions of the membership. While physical measures of changes in the health of the flora and fauna of the Bay Islands and the welfare of its people that are attributable to BICA are not available, the perceptions of BICA members regarding these parameters were collected. BICA's formation is seen to result primarily from financial incentives and ineffectual governance. Results indicate that BICA's available inputs are statistically related to its ability to meet its broad social objectives. The perceived quality of BICA's programs are significantly correlated with its ability to achieve its intended outcomes. BICA's structural features and the perception of its outcomes are related. BICA's behavior and its ability to implement its programs are also found to be statistically correlated. In general, the most consistently revealed correlates with BICA's performance include its ability to attract outside financing, the degree of member participation in its programs, its lack of corruption, its development of horizontal and vertical linkages with other organizations and agencies and the degree of common interests between BICA's members and Bay Islanders at large.

Primary policy implications and recommendations drawn from this case study apply to BICA itself. However, the case study also contributes to the information available to others interested in the performance of BICA and of NGOs in general (governments, researchers, other NGOs, and donors/partners). While organizational "blue prints" may not be appropriate, the methodology employed embraces the potential site specificity of local NGOs while providing a replicable conceptual and analytical framework from which commonalities and distinctions across this increasingly important and evolving institutional type might be organized, categorized, and understood. Finally, this study contributes to the growing store of information from which a general theory of NGO performance might ultimately be derived.