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drew attention to the need to impose a ban on catching the crabs during their migration and reproduction period, and to establish a minimum catch size so that the crab population could con- tinue to reproduce without being de- pleted. While the harvesters are more or less in agreement on the minimum size, the seasonal ban on catching the crabs has caused much discontent. Harvesting the crabs is already made difficult by many natural factors, such as the rain, the full moon and the overly dry climate. If these are joined by an officially imposed ban, then inevitably the main activity of many of the island’s inhabitants will be jeopardized.The challenge, then, is to pair envi- ronmental sustainability policies with the search for alternative sources of income for the harvesters: fishing, ag- riculture, sustainable tourism, gastron- omy... And, together, to try to promote the consumption of crabmeat in Provi- dencia’s restaurants. After all, prosper- ity can only come with the protection of a resource, but the protection of a community is equally essential.103Find out moreThe black crab project is funded by IFAD (www.ifad.org), the Colombian Foreign Ministry and Coralina (www.coralina.gov.co/intranet),and implemented by the Fundación Acua (www.programaacua.org) and Slow Food© Paola VIESI