In Trinidad and Tobago, the Blue Tourism Initiative (BTI), in partnership with CANARI, builds on existing work to strengthen small-scale, community-based ecotourism in the Nariva Swamp Protected Area,  the largest freshwater swamp in the country.

Building on existing local initiatives, BTI works with communities and small businesses to strengthen nature-based tourism activities such as boat and kayaking tours, hiking, and birdwatching. These experiences are designed to operate well below carrying capacity, ensuring that tourism development remains low-impact while generating sustainable livelihoods.

At the heart of this approach is a micro-grants mechanism, combined with tailored business support, aimed at empowering local ecotourism actors. Through this mechanism, small service providers receive support for business formalisation, marketing, and service development—helping them improve both the quality and visibility of their offers.

In parallel, BTI supports the development of a local ecotourism cluster that brings together tour guides, agro-tourism operators, and other community actors. This collaborative approach enhances coordination, joint promotion, and knowledge sharing, while also supporting the cluster’s transition towards a cooperative model with improved access to financial services.

Through the Experience Nariva Community Conservation and Ecotourism Fund (ENCCEF), micro-grants have been mobilised to finance concrete actions on the ground, including:

• Establishing and improving trails and tour routes
• Developing and diversifying ecotourism experiences
• Strengthening site promotion and marketing
• Creating pollinator gardens and supporting biodiversity conservation
• Conducting environmental monitoring activities, such as bird censuses

These actions are complemented by training in customer service, sustainable tourism practices, and marketing, as well as efforts to map biodiversity threats and ecotourism opportunities.

Overall, this experience demonstrates how targeted micro-grants, combined with capacity building and a participatory, bottom-up approach, can effectively support community-led tourism while contributing to biodiversity conservation and resilient local economies.