Introduction

The predominant Achilles heel of leadership research in the last century has been researchers’ overreliance on data and models from the minority world¹ (Henrich et al., 2010). Such reliance has often been paired with research in leadership that reifies messianic notions of leadership and traditional power structures of domination (Shriberg, 2012; Western, 2013). It is more common than not for scholars to focus on the minority world, and research on leadership for sustainability does not provide an exception to this pattern (Cui, 2017). A few exceptions in the realm of leadership for sustainability in addition to this volume should be noted (Gallagher, 2012). Focusing research efforts in majority world countries has the benefit of both understanding leadership for sustainability efforts more thoroughly, but also better understanding these efforts from a critical, alternative lens. While research privileges minority world efforts, an unseen revolution is taking place at the local level in the majority world. Our aim in this chapter is to explore numerous unseen sustainability leadership efforts that are taking place amidst the tropical biosphere in Belize.

Sustainable development has included a tripartite emphasis on social, economic, and environmental factors since the report of the Brundtland Commission (1987). In exploring the distinction between sustainability leadership and leadership for sustainability, Wilson and Kosempel (2016) reinforce the notion that leadership for sustainability must include economic, environmental, and social dimensions. However, current bodies of research often place greater emphasis on the environmental dimension of sustainability and in fact, specifically narrow the focus to just climate change to the neglect of other environmental problems (Gallagher, 2012). Taken alone, environmental leadership has been defined as “a process by which Earth’s inhabitants apply interpersonal influence and engage in collective action to protect the planet’s natural resources and its inhabitants from further harm” (Gallagher, 2012, p. 5). Expanding upon Gallagher’s argument for the need to think beyond climate change, we contend that those who study leadership for sustainability need to focus outside just the environmental dimension. In the developing world, issues of economic and social development take on an even greater concern, and as such, need to be considered for anyone taking on the topic of leadership for sustainability.

Leadership for sustainability demands attention to the multiple efforts of diverse stakeholders from many perspectives. Edwards (2005) describes the work of multiple small entities simultaneously effecting change with respect to sustainability; what we would call an “unseen revolution.” These efforts range from a village in Borneo replacing diesel generators with hydro-generators to a model public transportation system in Curitiba, Brazil. At the heart of these efforts is leadership: leadership at the local community level. Western (2010) laments the preponderance of top-down approaches to leadership for sustainability and espouses the need to progress to a new paradigm called eco-leadership. Rather than limiting leadership to a few individuals in high positions in government, Western (2010) suggests that “Eco-leadership redistributes leadership and power from the center to the edges, recognizing the impossibility of ‘going it alone’ when we are independent of each other and on planet Earth” (p. 42). Western suggests that eco-leadership relies on a spiritual approach, something akin to solidarity among members of an organization. He describes it as either a religious or spiritual belief or a compassion for justice and belief in the capacity for human good. Gallagher (2012) also emphasizes the point that environmental leadership does and should take place at all levels of organizations, from “conference rooms … [to] … small towns in China” (p. 9).

Applying a critical lens to leadership for sustainability similarly emphasizes the need to focus on local approaches. Alvesson and Spicer (2012) argue that a critical approach requires asking whether leadership is always desirable and to consider the notion that leadership efforts may exist simply to create conditions of domination and control. They further describe the need to maintain healthy skepticism that leadership is needed and to expose the blind faith that is often put in the hands of the power of leadership. Additionally, the critical study of leadership yields an understanding that leadership can become an ideology of its own and exclusionary in its practice given the focus on specific leadership roles. As such, leadership needs to be understood and transformed in more democratic and critically grounded ways due to its ideology being rooted in hero worship and positional authority (Bendell & Little, 2015). Exploring leadership at the local level, particularly as enacted in majority countries, is an essential part of this necessary transformation (Alvesson & Spicer, 2012). Additionally, research is needed to determine if the patterns of domination and exclusion are prevalent in other non-Western countries, and to identify alternatives to hegemonic leadership models. In this chapter, we answer the call to examine leadership efforts in the developing world. More specifically, we seek to understand how these leadership efforts reflect the characteristics of the approaches suggested by Western (2010) and Gallagher (2012).

One of the most vital areas to examine and learn from leadership focused on sustainability is in the intersection of the developing world and the tropical biosphere. Countries like Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Brazil play an essential role in environmental stewardship and leadership given the importance of their ecosystem to the rest of the planet. These areas include tropical rainforests that have been described as the lungs of the planet for their abundant ability to absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. The minority world has much to learn from the majority world related to protecting our environment. In Belize, important examples exist of community, government, and business leadership paying close attention to environmental sustainability. Specifically, this chapter will explore several cases of Belizean leaders and leadership aimed at increasing the resilience of this ecosystem.

Examples of the Unseen Revolution

The country of Belize is a hidden gem of a natural paradise situated on the eastern coast of Central America. Formerly British Honduras, this young nation’s land is covered with over 60 percent forest and is bordered by Guatemala to the south and west, Mexico to the north, and the Caribbean Sea on the east. Its great biodiversity includes a 600-mile-long coastline, home to the world’s second largest barrier reef, that is sprinkled with 1,000 cays, coastal lagoons, and three atolls: Turneffe, Glover’s, and Lighthouse. Known as the Mesoamerican Reef, this area boasts over “500 species of fish … 60 species of coral … and diverse marine species including sea turtles, sharks and dolphins” (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, n.d.). The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (BBRRS), a UNESCO World Heritage site, includes seven protected areas and attracts accomplished divers from all over the world, particularly at the Great Blue Hole. Unfortunately, human impact in the form of overfishing, human-made land, and air pollution from increased coastal habitation and agriculture, poor tourism practices, and mangrove deforestation is threatening this unique ecosystem.

The models and approaches suggested in current research are being enacted in multiple local sustainability efforts in Belize. Friends for Conservation and Development, Long Caye at Lighthouse Reef Atoll, and The Nature Conservancy-Belize are three such efforts that make significant contributions to sustainable development within the tropical biosphere. Their work is largely unseen by the larger world, but essential to their nation and our world. Understanding how they manage these efforts is important for scholars and practitioners dedicated to leadership for sustainability.

Friends for Conservation and Development

Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD) is a nongovernmental organization that comanages² the Chiquibul National Park, one of the most complex and complicated protected areas to manage. To begin with, the national park is one of the utmost isolated and rugged terrains, making it difficult and expensive to monitor. Second, it is part of a larger ecosystem in which multiple state and non-state agencies are involved. It is part of the Chiquibul forest that includes the Chiquibul Forest Reserve managed by the Forestry Department, the Caracol Archaeological Park managed by the Institute of Archaeology (IA), and the Chiquibul National Park managed by FCD, together accounting for 7.7 percent of the total area of Belize. The Chiquibul forest also contains one of the largest cave systems in the western hemisphere, under the jurisdiction of IA, and a hydroelectric dam with its reserve managed by a private company. The protection of the Chiquibul cannot be accomplished without coordination and partnerships with the multiple agencies that have jurisdiction in the larger Chiquibul forests.

Perhaps the factor that makes management of the forest particularly complicated is that the Chiquibul is located along a disputed border with Guatemala and most of the threats come from the Guatemalan side. The Chiquibul has a long history of use by Belizeans, but several buffer zones stand between the park and the communities, making it easier to manage. From the Guatemalan side, individuals enter Belize and the park illegally to log, mine, poach, and farm. Mostly these are landless peasants, some of whom may be connected to bigger interests and at times these peasants are armed. Protection of the Chiquibul therefore involves FCD in questions of sovereignty, national security, and international politics. FCD must work with immigration officers, the Belize Defense Force, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and National Security agencies.

The Chiquibul area contains resources, timber and non-timber products, minerals, water, and tourist attractions that many see as unexploited economic opportunities. That Guatemalans are illegally exploiting the Chiquibul makes justifying conservation of the protected area difficult among some Belizean sectors and increases demands for opening it for Belizean economic exploitation. Currently the Ministry of tourism is developing a tourism initiative in and around the attractions in the Chiquibul forests.

FCD acknowledges the inherent complexity and has engaged it by recognizing the need to think creatively, the need to act with urgency and integrity and above all the need to act collectively. FCD has been able to build alliances both within Belize and across Guatemala. In Belize, it has been able to engage with environmental organizations, communities, private agencies, individuals, and state agencies including national security agencies and foreign affairs. The national borders and international politics have not stopped FCD. Recognizing that the protection of the Chiquibul goes beyond the border, it has been able to engage Guatemalan state and non-state environmental agencies to work with their citizens to create alternative livelihood opportunities.

FCD has been able to mobilize state and non-state actors by communicating a sense of urgency about the protection of the Chiquibul. FCD has made Chiquibul a household word and drawn attention to the problem from the relevant state agencies. It has done the latter in a non-antagonistic manner by sharing the beauty of the Chiquibul and communicating in objective but forceful ways the reality on the ground. A major part of its strategy has been to infect people with their passion for the protection of the Chiquibul by what people at FCD call infecting them with the Chiquibul-FCD bug. In 2014, for example, it was able to raise over $300,000 through a telethon with donations from individuals and organizations – a staggering amount for a country with a population of just over 350,000.

Part of recognizing and responding to complexity has meant that FCD has adopted a notion of sustainability that goes beyond environmental protection to include the importance of social and economic dimensions. FCD recognizes the economic reality of peasants and the larger political context in which they exist and has sought to address these economic issues. It has recognized the economic opportunities that the Chiquibul has to offer and has engaged with economic actors to examine these opportunities in a way that guarantees the other dimensions of sustainability. Perhaps even more importantly, it has sought to address the institutional dimension of sustainability by acting with integrity in a Belizean landscape where the integrity of politicians, and sometimes NGOs, has been called into question. FCD is recognized as a leader by many Belizeans including the Prime Minister, who, in his 2013 Independence Day address, noted that “Enough cannot be said in praise of FCD. Their awareness-raising as well as operational efforts, have been phenomenal” (Barrow, 2013). FCD has established itself as a communal leader by demonstrating enormous commitment, persistence, and determination. They have demonstrated the highest level of integrity, professionalism, passion, and action largely by mobilizing local and international organizations around the importance and urgency of protecting the Chiquibul.

To understand the leadership of FCD, it is necessary to consider its roots. FCD was started in the mid-1980s as the Youth Environmental Action Group (YEAG), which was a group of young people from a small village with a population of about 2,000. This collection of energetic young people was concerned and wanted to do something about the well-being of their community and its surrounding environment. The group engaged in the exploration of their natural environment through hiking and camping in the Chiquibul, developing a connection to the place and, in the process, creating spaces for dialogue and reflection about the reality of their community and dreams for the future. They engaged in environmental education programs with schoolchildren about the value of the natural environment and the importance of caring for it; they engaged in cleanup and garbage collection campaigns to improve the quality of the environment surrounding the community and educating community members; and they also engaged in riverside cleaning and tree planting to protect the watershed.

The results of YEAG’s work were small and the process sometimes frustrating: cleared garbage dumps would be filled back again and planted trees sometimes uprooted; and the young people would at times be taunted that they had too much spare time and additional garbage would pile up during village cleanup campaigns. While the garbage dumps disappeared after many years, the impact of YEAG was much more in the thinking and behavior of the involved young people. Many gave up their slingshots and bird-shooting hobby and made changes in the management of garbage at home. Above all, they persevered with YEAG and developed a form of leadership and understanding of sustainability that today informs FCD.

In speaking to three founding members of FCD, who were once YEAG students who are now staff of FCD, plus a new staff member, they revealed key leadership characteristics that kept this work alive. The most important is a passion and sense of cause for the protection of the Chiquibul. They talk about the magic of the Chiquibul and about how there is an FCD-Chiquibul bug that bites everyone that comes in contact with it. They seek to infect partners, stakeholders, and staff with this bug often by taking them there. But the bug is not only the majesty of the Chiquibul but the passion with which they speak about what they do. Second, they communicate a sense of urgency and determination about its protection. They demonstrate relentlessness in getting their message across to everyone, from community members to the prime minister. This relentlessness has proven effective in making the Chiquibul a national concern.

Third is the question of integrity. For these members, FCD is principled, and one of the reasons they continue to be engaged is because they know that FCD will not sell out on its principles. Fourth is an orientation toward learning and adaptability. The Executive Director of FCD, Rafael Manzanero, explains their adaptive style in acknowledging that when starting FCD there were not many environmental organizations that they could learn from (personal communication, June 15, 2017). They practiced and learned; when they took over the Chiquibul it was similar, and today as they engage present challenges, they come up with ideas, put them into practice, and learn together. For Rafael and for the other members, FCD has been a truly grassroots initiative.

Last is the importance of alliances and partnerships. For three of the staff members, one of the greatest assets of the executive director and FCD is its capacity to convene actors and develop partnerships, in effect recognizing that to achieve the protection of the Chiquibul requires collective action.

Long Caye at Lighthouse Reef

Long Caye at Lighthouse Reef is another model effort of leadership for sustainability in Belize. It is an island community comprised of a for-profit business and a nonprofit conservation institute. It was founded in 1967 and has remained in family ownership since its founding. The business venture on the island is a combination of real estate development and an island resort. The nonprofit conservation institute seeks to maintain the island as a preserve and partner with other nonprofits and academic entities to conduct research. Currently, the island has three principal owners.

Their organization follows their own model called the Lighthouse Model for Resilience and Sustainability, which attempts to balance community, culture, and conservation in all that they do. Their adherence to this model can be enumerated in multiple examples. First, the owners of the island community established comprehensive eco-guidelines initially in 2003 with significant revisions in 2010. The eco-guidelines are intended to balance the community’s needs for economic development with environmental conservation and resilience, and have been lauded as exemplary by the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute of Belize (n.d.). Some of the more significant guidelines include:

Additionally, the island owners have followed an operating principle of “the land drives the plan” rather than the opposite. An example of this principle in action is the protection of 1/3 of the island as an official preserve with the Government of Belize to ensure that it is never developed. On a smaller, and perhaps no less important a scale, no fences or landscaping are allowed on individual plots of land. Last, to create walkways on the island, the owners built the narrow walkways within a 40-foot-wide corridor, which allowed them to shape them around unique features of the island such as a large, old buttonwood tree or massive ferns. Decisions on development are made specifically with the natural design of the land as the driver in decisions.

The practices of this organization align closely with the approaches and models previously discussed. Western’s (2010) model of eco-leadership discusses the presence of a spiritual approach of solidarity toward the environment (pp. 49–51). The founders of Long Caye consider the Earth to be an island community not unlike their own island, and have solidarity around their mission and model. Solidarity was not easily achieved by the owners. In fact, the sustainability of the island was threatened when this solidarity was not shared by a co-owner who prioritized economic development over the environmental conservation of the island. One owner wanted to develop the lagoon portion of the island, whereas the current owners knew that it would be nearly catastrophic from an environmental perspective. An ownership change was necessitated and led to the current solidarity.

Being comprised of only three members, the leadership/ownership group of the island is small. As such, the leadership structure seems fairly traditional given that all decisions are made by those with positional authority. However, the ownership team’s decision making is entirely by consensus, which represents a more distributed form of leadership. One owner described how every decision is made through consensus with a focus on sustainability, from a decision to not allow plastic water bottles on the island to decisions about potential investors. Both the small size of the leadership team and the consensus decision-making style are potential exemplars for other sustainable development efforts.

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is an international environmental nonprofit agency operating in over 65 countries and committed to the mission of “conserving lands and water on which all life depends” (The Nature Conservancy, n.d.). In 1989, when the Conservancy began working in Belize, it was natural for them to take up a dual focus on marine and terrestrial habitats given the rich ecosystem. Largely, the focus of this leadership example will concentrate on the critical marine habitats, since they are of such great importance to the local and Caribbean region. As fishing and tourism are the backbone of Belize’s coastal communities’ economic health and food security, both need to be considered in approaches to sustainability efforts.

The coastal communities of Belize share a strong dependence on fishing for food and livelihood. Marked by low-tech and subsistence fishing, many fisheries experienced a significant decline in fish size and quantity from 1970–1990s, exacerbating coastal poverty (The Nature Conservancy, n.d.). The introduction of bottom trawling and other destructive fishing methods competes unfairly with traditional cast net fishing and increases discarded fish, threatens larger sea animals and reefs, and decreases the pristine appeal for tourism (Stiles et al., 2010). In addition, TNC scientists have discovered “more than 13 spawning aggregation sites of endangered reef fish” along the barrier reef (The Nature Conservancy, n.d.). The Conservancy realized early on that governmental regulations without fishers’ involvement did not create shared and sustained stewardship of the coastal waters. Moreover, the government ministries had limited resources to maintain and enforce regulations that would limit exploitation of the coastal natural resources. Ms. Julie Robinson, a Belizean and Conservancy marine researcher and conservationist, has spent nearly 20 years working with fishing communities to help them organize for diversification of their fisheries, develop stronger fishing practices, and organize for self-monitoring and innovation. Co-management of the waters using fishing cooperatives and associations alongside nongovernmental and government entities has facilitated fishers becoming what she calls “great ocean stewards” (The Nature Conservancy, n.d.). Fishers have played a prominent role in designing their own monitoring system, and with co-laborers from the cooperatives as well as the Conservancy, Belize has a self-management standard unique in the region (Cruz et al., 2015).

Innovating and developing diverse economies that relieve reliance on a fragile marine fishing environment has also been a focused goal of the Conservancy. One such successful project is the Belize Placencia Fisherman’s Cooperative and their development of an aquaculture seaweed industry. Robinson notes that this new industry provides promising alternatives to fishing reliance by offering a sea product that offers a new food source from the ocean with local and global acclaim, while providing balancing chemical stabilization properties to the reef system. In addition, this particular project has incorporated women, bringing greater gender equity to co-management and innovations for solutions (Julie Robinson, personal communication, December 4, 2016).

Management of Belize’s marine areas has demanded a style of leadership that best reflects eco-leadership, in that success has not been possible without generative and co-leadership efforts. The power to make changes has been vested in the members most impacted and who live in the area where firsthand feedback and knowledge of consequences are intertwined. Coastal Belizeans have developed agency and overcome the lack of government resources through more local, generative problem-solving.

Belize Natural Energy

A final example worth exploring that demonstrates unique leadership approaches within the majority world is Belize Natural Energy (BNE). We have previously written about it, so will not spend as much time in the space here (Kosempel & Olson, 2016). BNE is the single largest taxpayer in the country of Belize, and it is the only company to have discovered oil in Belize. BNE has been a model corporate citizen throughout its relatively short history. It was started in 2005, and in addition to its economic success, it has also developed numerous social and environmental initiatives and received national and global recognition for its efforts. It is especially unique in that it is a fossil fuel generating company that has been bestowed the Green Business Award from the University of Belize and national industry associations. Specifically, it was recognized for its environmental safety processes and its investment in a Liquefied Petroleum Gas Processing Plant. The driving force behind this plant was to reduce natural gas emissions that are created in the production of oil. It has since developed into a lower-cost source for butane and propane for Belizean citizens. BNE has also been recognized for its social and economic programs, such as its award-winning adult education program and development of the BNE Charitable Trust. Probably the most significant attribute of the company is its employment of over 95 percent Belizean citizens, a unique practice among foreign-owned oil companies in majority countries (Orr & McVerry, 2007) including the hiring of their Belizean CEO in 2006. BNE has surprisingly achieved significant results in terms of the tripartite emphasis on economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainability.

Implications

Examples of leadership for sustainability in the majority world abound, providing ample evidence in support of Edwards’ (2005) contention that an unseen revolution is afoot. In the country of Belize, we provided three examples of unique approaches to sustainability that reflect leadership practices essential for our world moving forward, leadership practices that are consistent with critical leadership perspectives. FCD provides an example of an organization that successfully negotiates relationships with multiple, highly diverse stakeholders in order to preserve a pristine environmental area of our planet. Their organization is reflective of Western’s (2013) notion that “leadership is not boundaried, it accompanies, complements, and merges with other relational interactions of followership, teamwork, collaboration and participation” (p. xiv). At Long Caye at Lighthouse Reef, “the land drives the plan” for development. Rather than situating humans at the center of this endeavor, the owners of Long Caye place the island ecosystem at the center of all of their decisions, demonstrating a better understanding of our interdependencies with nature (Western, 2013). Alvesson and Spicer (2012) suggest that a critical performative approach to leadership would include alternatives to leadership such as cooperation and collaborative communities. The long-term relationships between The Nature Conservancy, the Belizean government, and local fishing communities are evidence that such alternatives exist and are critical in moving forward sustainable initiatives.

Finally, BNE provides a unique example of a business in a majority country that makes strides toward sustainable development. Although their overall structure is fairly traditional with positional authority throughout, their practice of hiring mostly Belizeans and developing its workers in significant ways through all levels for personal fulfillment provides close alignment with Western’s quality of organizational belonging (2013, pp. 263–266). A key factor in BNE’s sustainable development is their strong national identity (Kosempel & Olson, 2016). This national identity is exemplary of Western’s (2013) contention that businesses and corporations belong to the social fabric of the community and cannot operate separately. These four organizations provide new and diverse examples from the majority world that illustrate the power of critical perspectives in leadership.

Notes

1    We are intentionally using the term “majority world” to describe what is normally thought of as the “developing world.” The term “developing world” is relatively problematic. Inherent in the term is an expectation that some parts of the world are still in progress. Perpetuating the use of this term has the potential to frame a country such as Belize as underdeveloped or inferior to the “developed world.” An alternative we considered was the classification system used by The World Bank based on gross national income (GNI) per capita. Given that it’s solely based on a statistical ranking, it has less potential for bias. The limitation to using this categorization is basically that it is too simplistic. Belize is classified as an “upper middle income” category country, which distinguishes it from high-income countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, but aligns it with qualitatively different countries like China, Russia, and Turkey. Belize is a country with over 40 percent of the population living below the poverty line, so a category such as “upper middle income” seems to lack validity on its face. We use the term “majority world” as a reminder that countries that are typically considered “developing” make up the vast majority of the world’s population. Correspondingly, the “developed world” is referred to as the “minority world” in this chapter.

2    Co-management in Belize is a system in which the Forestry Department that has the responsibility for and authority over national parks delegates the management responsibility to a nongovernment or community organization. The Forestry Department retains overall authority including the possibility of de-reserving. The nongovernmental or community organization on the other hand has the responsibility for developing and implementing management plans, including raising the necessary funds.

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