Posted on June, 01 2000

Layasiksa, Nicaragua: In this Miskito community on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, women have begun to take up woodworking - an unusual activity in the region. "At the beginning I didn't even know how to use a hammer or saw," says Clothilde, a Miskito who is now learning the new skills.

The local economy was traditionally based on harvesting natural resources such as bananas, rubber, resin, turtles, lobster, shrimp and fish, with occasional extraction of raw materials from the forest to build homes or construct dugout canoes. But those traditions could not withstand the establishment of a mostly foreign owned timber industry in the Miskito homeland.

Poor communications and lack of transport isolated the Atlantic coast from the more developed regions of Nicaragua for years, but Miskitos needed paid employment and some had no option but to work in timber extraction. Layasiksa looked for an alternative, believing it would be better to exploit its own 40,000-hectare forest sustainably, since the community had lived close to it for many generations.

They started to put this idea into practice two years ago. The local non-governmental organization Fadcanic and the conservation organization WWF met local people to discuss plans aimed at sustainable forest management, and this year they are harvesting the forest for the first time under a management plan approved by forestry officials.

Woodwork training courses became part of the project to help increase income and generate job opportunities. Little by little the inhabitants of this remote Nicaraguan community have witnessed the growth of something that could improve their quality of life and increase the value of their surrounding ecosystems and coastal habitats. Currently, six women are now full participants in the woodworking programme, along with 12 men. Others are set to launch the first sustainable forest management plan.

Nelson Harmer, a carpenter, studies at the Technological Institute of Bilwi - a three-hour boat journey. He knows his future depends on improving his techniques. "I used to see all these beautiful things and then I realized I could make them," he says. "That's why I like coming here." The students' work has been in such demand that they have started selling furniture to neighboring communities.

Layasiksa is making final preparations for the exploitation of its forest. Initially they intend to use 3,000 hectares over the next 30 years. For the past two years they have been learning forestry techniques, how to design a management plan, to estimate production costs and, most importantly, how to log the forest in a sustainable way.

Bonificacio Memember, the group leader, says that the 12 Miskitos who have received training as forestry technicians are ready to launch the operation. "It is the first time we have had a plan. Now we know we must protect the forest, water, fish and other animals. Wood is only part of it," he says.

For Fausto Cepeda, WWF's project officer, it will be even better if other Miskito communities can learn from the Layasiksa experience: "We hope this can have a multiplier effect. Several communities are following the Layasiksa's plans with interest. In the neighbouring community of Lapan they also want to develop a management plan for their forest."

Work will be hard because of the lack of transport - the trip to the forest, for example, entails almost five hours on the River Layasiksa, and taking wood from the forest means sending it down the river or opening a path to the main roads. But the community now recognizes the value of the forest and understands that its rational use is the key to conservation. Everyone in Layasiksa seems to agree, and is looking the future with as much hope as Clothilde. "I will make bigger and better things," she says.

(618 words)

*Sandra Ramírez is a journalist based in Costa Rica