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[music playing] Puerto Rico abounds in food, oceans, sky, joy, life.

For such a small island, it has everything.

From glorious beaches to the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan, and the teeming forest of El Tuque.

And if you are lucky enough to cross the mountains into the Southwest region of the island, you'll find the land holds even more beauty.

We're traveling along the coast to Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge, a place where salt flats, mangroves, and coral reefs come together to create one of the most biodiverse regions on the entire island, most of which is underwater.

We're here to explore the complex nature of conservation as it comes face to face with storms, earthquakes, climate change, and coastal gentrification.

[music playing] Los Salinas, the salt flats.

The anchor of the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge.

It is an ecotourism site that is simultaneously a national wildlife refuge for migratory birds, explosion of biodiversity, and a 1,000 plus year old commercial venture.

To help unpack this confluence of forces, we met with Renee Estevez at the observation tower on the edge of the salt flats.

He is a director and resource coordinator with University of Puerto Rico Sea Grant.

Sea Grant is a coastal and marine resource conservation agency whose emphasis is community engagement and education.

These efforts put them at the center of research and public outreach for the area.

And as we'll find out, all of Puerto Rico.

Tell me.

What is Sea Grant?

So Sea Grant, it's our university based programs with the purpose of serving as a bridge between the community and the academia for solving issues related to coastal and marine resources.

A big part of why we're so effective is that it's all educational.

So we're neutral.

Are there a lot of projects that you guys do?

I mean, again, we're on an island so you're surrounded by the sea.

By federal definition, coastal communities are anything within 50 miles of the ocean.

So the whole island.

So we teach farmers how to manage their land so they reduce sedimentation, which then minimizes the impact on the reefs.

We do coral restoration projects, we organize communities for co-management projects of different marine areas.

We work together with other federal and state agencies to promote correct practices.

So anything related to the coast and the ocean, we've got our fingers on it.

So right now, we're at the salt flats.

As many times as I've been to El Faro, the lighthouse at Cabo Rojo-- I've driven by it.

I never really understood what this was.

Salt was happening here naturally.

The people came up, identified it, and just made little adjustments to maximize the production of salt.

It's an area of land which naturally gets flooded.

And then you cut that path and let the sun do the job.

So the sun will evaporate the ocean then you get the salt.

Is it a commercial operation?

Yes.

It's the longest, continuously running commercial operation of the northern Caribbean region.

And it's one of those special examples of a commercial venture that is also very good for the environment because it promotes a lot of biodiversity, especially related to migratory birds.

But overall, I mean, ecologically, why is this important at all?

I mean, the migratory piece I see.

But what happens if it weren't here?

It's all connected.

It's all connected.

And migratory species are one of those examples where you see the connections more clearly because they use a wider range.

In the marine environment, you see that too because something like 90% of all marine species have a larval stage where they're just floating around the ocean.

And they make it to and from with the help of currents.

So the largest concentration of coral reefs within our archipelago is found on here.

The island extends out about 10 miles into the ocean and then it drops abruptly.

So you have that interchange of the open ocean environment with near-shore environment.

That creates a boom of biodiversity and productivity that we all benefit from.

But that connectivity is also translated to our human condition.

So even though you were born and raised in Thailand, you see a lot of similarities just because of the Island Nature and the tropical nature of what's going on here.

So that's what we try to focus on.

We try to focus on what makes us more similar and celebrate our differences.

You're originally from San Juan?

Yes.

Yes.

But you're raising your family here in this area.

Why is this interesting to you?

As I would explain to my mother, I'm like, mama, I go to the supermarket.

And it would be a 20 minute traffic to make it to and from the supermarket when we lived in San Juan.

Here is a 20 minute conversation.

Yeah Because it's a community everybody takes time to just chat, slow down.

That human warmth is all over.

So anybody that comes down here immediately senses that and falls in love with it, including me when I'm raising someone.

I mean, do your friends understand that?

Do they appreciate the work that you're doing out here?

They do.

They do and they come visit often.

Many times without calling me.

As friends are prone to do.

Family and friends continually show up to recharge and they all say the same thing.

I know exactly why you guys are here.

I need to make them move.

But you know how difficult change is.

It's tough.

So you say it.

Especially if the work's there.

Correct.

Economic opportunities are mostly in San Juan.

And when you come visit, you help the local economy to make a living and to continue towards a more sustainable relationship with the resource.

Yeah.

Well, let us know your cell phone and we'll let you know what we're here.

Yeah, and we're going to crash on your couch.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

You bring some room.

OK. Perfecto.

Our next vacation planned, Renee took us into the refuge proper to meet up with Ana Roman of US Fish and Wildlife.

One of the many entities Sea Grant partners with in the region.

Ana is a conservation and preservation veteran who has worked in and around Cabo Rojo for over 27 years, she and her organization are charged as the caretakers of the refuge.

She took us to see a recent breach that damaged the mosaic of habitats.

That contribute to the region's extreme biodiversity.

That biodiversity is critical to the resilience of the ecosystem.

Yeah, what you see here is that these ponds create some habitat for migratory birds to come and resident birds also.

It is very important to manage them and naturally try to manage the water.

The inundation periods that create this mosaic of habitat for them to feed, nest.

I noticed there's a lot of, are these feathers as we walk out here?

Actually those are remnants of the flooding.

There was a beach berm over there.

You can see there is a breach.

That water enter without control because sulfates are managed by canals and water control structures.

But that situation creating a flooding situation, flooding all these areas.

So you can see remnants of shells, and fish, and every other algae that you don't commonly see in the Inland.

What are the reasons why you have a breach?

You talked about a storm but I happen to know that they're hurricanes that happen in Puerto Rico because I read the news.

It's super smart.

But you also have the effects of a rising global ocean and-- We think that it's a little bit of everything.

The continuous effect of the storm, and the sand, plus the sea level rise, plus maybe seismic causes subsidence of the soil.

I mean, what happens if you have a breach like that to this kind of area?

What's the impact?

If you have the area completely flooded, you don't have that structure.

You only have one class of habitat.

So it's good maybe for fish, but not for the birds.

The birds.

And we acquire the land because of the migratory birds.

And US Fish and Wildlife, your job really is to try to maintain it in the condition that it was?

Yeah, we're trying to keep this for a purpose.

To fix the berms so we can again manage the water.

Right now it's like that because it's low tide.

So when it comes a high tide or is raining this place is going to be flooded all over again.

What have you seen in the 27 years that you've worked in the space and stuff?

What I'm seeing here is just rapid changes.

Changes that we never thought that was going to occur.

When you talk to your grandfather when they used to rake the salt, yeah, this place was like this.

All the place was like that.

You don't see it like that anymore.

So you know that it change.

But when you're here for 27 years, you don't expect that change to occur so fast.

Ana, are you optimistic?

I try to be optimistic all the time.

But I try to be real though.

Sorry.

No, It just feels like a topic, like climate change is so heavy and your average person doesn't know how to deal with it.

It's always interesting to see guys that are actually impacted by it but also getting to do something about it.

The rest of us kind of look at it and just hope that they're smarter people than Craig and I. Yeah.

Look around.

That's everyone.

That's right.

But that's the beauty of working together because you don't know everything.

So when you get different opinions and different alternatives from different sectors, you get all the elements.

I've seen every winning team.

Each one of us knows our roles and we try to leverage our strength.

Our long-term relationship with the community are our experts in translating the hard science into Arroyo Estrella, which is everyday language.

And making use of examples such as this one to really drive the message that climate change is real and that we need to adapt.

We need to plan.

We need to be ready for it and hiding our head inside a hole in the sun is not the way to go, no?

Right.

Well, we're walking up to this area, I mean, you mentioned this was one of the areas that had the breach.

Does it feel fragile to you though or does it feel resilient?

It is a very fragile ecosystem because just thinking about the short burst, free fair water levels to feed and it's a very sensitive habitat.

Even though it's natural, they have to be in balance for the whole habitat to be of good quality.

Right.

Many tourists come to the island.

Oh, yeah.

How can the public be helpful?

Here in the Southwest we provide people to do biking and hiking, and they contribute a lot to the economy of the area.

But people can contribute by knowing the place and protecting it and taking the message to others that these places need to be protected.

So education is always important-- Oh, yeah.

--and it's constant?

We work together with Sea Grant and the community.

You talked about the importance of education, but how do you guys work with organizations like Sea Grant?

What's their role?

Do study something-- We're in constant communication with each other.

And that's another really positive thing of being an island, no?

It's a half a degree of separation.

Not only familiar wise or relative wise, but agencies.

People from the mainland come and the fact that we work so close together, it comes as a surprise because many times on a bigger scale, sister agency, sister programs, same aim, same goals, they don't even talk to each other.

Yeah.

That sense of community, I always think it's interesting.

Both of you guys have traveled internationally when you run across another person from Puerto Rico or even your city.

What is that like because it feels like you guys are almost like family?

Yeah, and actually you're sometimes family.

Yeah.

That's right.

And culturally, It's the nature of being an island that you depend on your neighbor.

And for good or for bad, we know everything about our next neighbor.

Earl and I we're fortunate enough to go from one side of the island to the other.

The topography completely changes.

You go from rich, lush forests to very dry, arid once you cross over the mountains.

You think of Oriente as a rainforest as been this biodiversity, but it also happens here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know I'd like to say our true wilderness at a large scale occurs on the water.

And the way we leverage what Anna and her team's doing is so we serve as that facilitator.

We start a communication reaching out to the community and making them part of the whole process.

Making them a participant.

What a solution, nature-based solution is going to be the best fit cultivate that sense of ownership that is so critical for our conservation goals?

Just like you guys rely on each other, I think Craig and I and the rest of the world rely on the work that you guys do as well.

Absolutely.

Thank you to you for coming here to take the message to the people.

It's not hard to hate.

The unique partnership between Sea Grant and US Fish and Wildlife is encouraging.

But preservation and conservation is still a daunting issue.

As climate change transforms our oceans and increases extreme events, we'll have to make hard decisions about what to preserve and what to let go in a kind of ecological triage.

Near the salt flats is Faro Los Morrillos in Cabo Rojo.

A 19th century lighthouse perched on the red limestone cliffs that lend Cabo Rojo its name.

On our drive there, you could see further disruption of this delicate ecosystem in the cracked and mangled mangroves killed by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Like so many other parts of the island, it's a grim reminder that some scars take a long time to heal.

We woke early to meet back up with Renee so we might learn more about the critical role mangroves play in the Puerto Rican ecosystem.

We traveled to a seaside village, a nature preserve about 30 minutes North of Cabo Rojo.

Once there, Renee took us out kayaking to get a view of the mangroves from the water.

Renee, where are we?

Tell us where we are right now.

So Bienvenidos paguera.

Welcome to Paguera and to the mangrove channels.

Paguera comes from the name Pagrus because there's an abundance of that family of fishes, which are snappers.

Originally it was built because of the access to rich populations of fish that were edible.

But now, it's mainly a tourist attraction for boaters, kayakers, and it's been turned into a nature reserve.

And all of these along here are mangroves?

These are rhizophora mangle.

The red mangrove.

We have four species of mangrove.

This is the only one that exists with the root system submerged in the saltwater.

The evolutionary advantage mangroves have over other vegetation is that they can handle salt.

So it used to be that we avoid it, places where mangroves grow because there are natural floodplains where mosquitoes and other insects are bound.

And we found out later that wetlands are one of those places key to biodiversity.

It seems like when we got close to the mangroves, it stung a little, or?

So there's a number of organisms that use the root system of the mangrove as structure to where they attach and they grow.

Many of these organisms are family-- Like a jellyfish?

Jellyfish and they had that stinging cells called nematocysts.

And that same structure is the base of a food chain for a number of species that you eventually go and see in the reef.

One way to understand the importance of this ecosystem and the biodiversity it facilitates comes from an outsider.

The other thing I notice, Renee, is that there's a lot of iguanas.

Yes.

They're invasive?

Yes.

That's an invasive species natural to Central America and South America.

The thing with the iguana is that without any natural predator, it just took over.

So here's my question, if you look at a natural adaptation of animals and evolution, they end up in places adapting to the places that they're at.

It almost feels like because iguanas thrive here, they should be here.

Correct.

Correct.

And there is a school of thought that definitely doesn't look at an invasive species situation in a manageable way, it will find its own balance.

Why do we worry about invasive species at all?

So at certain points in the food chain, if there is no controls and exploitation, or too many of one organism, can result in fewer of other organisms.

So if one has come, they don't have a top predator to keep them in check the expansion of their population then creates havoc to our species and the habitat.

So if you have more than one species taking care of, let's say, algae growing over the reef, that reef system is less likely to suffer significant damages from man-made or climate change impacts.

The diversity itself is what strengthens the ecosystem and protects it against negative impacts.

Not the least of which is us.

Human beings are not only changing the climate, but directly impacting the wetlands of La Parguera.

It's no simple problem.

So Renee, tell us about the relationship between the mangroves and the people, the community, the culture.

As a scientist, I might go out every day for a couple of weeks and then I have a couple of months in the lab trying to figure out the data, but they go out every freaking day for their whole life.

And their dads did that and their grandparents did that.

So there is a wealth of ecological knowledge just by being in the community that knows the system the best.

Our mission basically is to keep everybody that has an interest on areas such as this one as informed as possible so they can make the right decisions and they can be part of the policy and the decision making process at the management level.

The argument whether actively managing or just setting it aside, don't touch it, right, and it'll grow back up.

It's an ongoing one because the second alternative it's exclusive.

Only a number of people can go there before the system kind of suffers.

If we limit the access to the actual users, they won't care.

So we're trying constantly to look at the alternative where you can then include the community and include the financial benefits because at the end of the day, conservation and socioeconomic positioning are hand to hand.

So Renee, you were telling us too that this is not like anything new.

So initially nobody care about the mangroves because you couldn't farm the area that's flooded by saltwater.

So about 100 years ago, there was a category four hurricane that went right through the island and all those mountain coffee growers, they got just hit really hard.

So they had to make it down to a Coast to find food and shelter.

And where do they place the people?

In the mangrove areas because you couldn't farm it.

So we don't care about that land.

A lot of us saw it and we learned that mangroves have this great ecological value.

Now, external capital is coming into the island and really interested in purchasing those properties.

so you say, hey, guys, there's going to be another storm.

This place is going to flood again.

It's going to be dangerous.

We need to move back and they're like, what you mean?

This guy is going to buy my house and then because he's white and rich, they're going to build a wall.

Our work is being made a little bit harder because of this other economic phenomenon.

So it's coastal gentrification basically.

Correct.

Correct.

Correct.

At a massive scale because you had the 100-year storm and the earthquakes come, boom, boom, so blots in the street.

Policy wise, there's an incentive for rich people to come to the island and invest.

And our fear is that will then lead to privatization of the coastal environment.

And that it's an exclusive approach to the management of the coast where we truly believe that it needs to be inclusive.

The efforts that Sea Grant, US Fish and Wildlife, and other organizations are making to educate and engage communities are critical because these communities and the environments they live in are equally impacted by climate change and development.

As Renee said early on, it's all connected.

As more and more communities are impacted by climate change, we will need more partnerships, education, and inclusion to keep everyone moving in the same direction.

This movement towards inclusivity is a mirror of the biodiversity that strengthens any ecosystem.

The more communities, people, and organizations invested in the planet, the stronger and more resilient our response.

There's so much more to explore and we want you to join us on the good road.

For more in-depth content, meet us on the internet at the ggodroad.tv.

Hear more great stories, connect to organizations, and make sure you download our podcast fill anthropology.

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Let's go places.

Technology changes the world but not on its own.

Hardware needs heart.

Software needs soul.

When we match compute power to instinct, and acceleration to imagination, tomorrow comes alive.

For us, it's not what we achieve alone but sharing a vision to solve the world's most important challenges because together, anything is possible.

AMD, together we advance.

And by Uncommon Giving.

The generosity company.

At Plow and Hearth, we believe that the place you are can become the place you want to be.

Philanthropy Journal, stories about bold people changing the world.

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