• Version
• Download 1603
• File Size 224.38 KB
• File Count 1
• Create Date 2nd December 2010
• Last Updated 2nd December 2010

The Turtle Village Trust, Trinidad and Tobago: Sustainability through strategic bridging, green alliance and enviropreneurship

KALIM U. SHAH AND ROBIN MARIN, UNIVERSITY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Abstract: The Turtle Village Trust (TVT) is a consortium of stakeholders including the Trinidad and Tobago government, the villages of the North East coast of the island and BHP Billiton, a major multinational corporation with operations in that vicinity. The central objectives of the TVT are conservation of the large populations of seasonally visiting leatherback turtles and the socio-economic enhancement of the North East region which has historically consisted of poor and rural communities, largely dependent on agriculture and fisheries livelihoods. This paper analyses the motives, incentives, costs and benefits of each of the key stakeholders in building, operating and expanding this collaborative sustainable development and conservation model. We discuss these relationships and stakeholder dynamics in the theoretical contexts of green alliances which focus on mutual benefits between partners; enviropreneurship which emphasises non-confrontational stakeholder engagement and operational effectiveness; and strategic bridging that establishes operational linkages, provides shared resources and avoids duplicity of efforts among partners. Emerging from this analysis is a sustainable best practice model for government-private sector-NGO collaboration which can be applied to conservation and socio-economic development efforts in other developing countries.
Keywords: strategic bridging; enviropreneurship; green alliances;

Attached Files