Coral Cay Conservation Expeditions

Coral Cay Conservation (CCC) is a not-for-profit organisation at the cutting edge of eco-tourism. We send teams of volunteers to survey some of the world's most endangered coral reefs and tropical forests. Our mission is to protect these crucial environments by working closely with the local communities who depend on them for food and livelihood. CCC has been organising conservation expeditions since 1986 when a team of university students visited the Belize Barrier Reef to examine the effects of fishing and tourism on the world's second largest barrier reef. CCC currently has coral reef expeditions in Fiji, Honduras, Malaysia and the Philippines and forest expedition in Malaysia and the Philippines. CCC is invited by host countries to assist with existing conservation strategies, providing management recommendations and habitat maps. CCC is largely financed by volunteers from a wide range of ages and backgrounds, who pay to participate in an expedition, and are trained on site in diving and survey techniques.

 CCC is internationally recognised for its conservation achievements, receiving the first CMAS Marine Environment Award in 1992, the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award in 1993, and the World Aware Business Award in 1997. CCC has assisted in the designation of many protected areas, such as the South Water Cay Marine Reserve, Belize in 1993, the Belize Barrier Reef World Heritage Site in 1996, and Danjugan Island in the Philippines in 2000. CCC also has been integral to many community based conservation programmes such as the Negros Rainforest Conservation project in the Philippines, and village fishing reserves in Fiji.

The Coral Cay Conservation Trust (UK registered charity no. 1025534) was established in 1992 to support the charitable work of CCC Ltd. The CCC Trust helps to sustain livelihoods and alleviate poverty by providing resources, educational and training opportunities for communities in developing countries by funding conservation scholarships for local people, supporting alternative livelihood schemes, producing educational materials, and raising awareness of coral reef and tropical forest conservation issues.

Educational programmes targeting audiences from school children to government officials are another of the Trust's priorities. CCC recognizes the importance of including all resource users of a region within an environmental education and awareness programme. CCC targets a diverse range of audiences including local schoolchildren, village community leaders, resort guests, dive instructors and tourism guides.

Some examples of CCC environmental education projects include:

• Negros Rainforest Conservation Project Community Training and Information Exchange: involves community members from surrounding villages in all aspects of the conservation work, formalised training of mountain guides, assisting CCC staff with field surveys.
• Environmental Awareness Workshops at local schools in Fiji: Working in collaboration with teachers, CCC has developed a ten-week EAA programme that has been incorporated into the Class 8 curriculum. The course focuses on introducing reef ecology and biology concepts to highlight the fragile nature of the reef systems and the need for management. Concepts are promoted through worksheet exercises, word games, drama, art, group debates, and physical exercises such as litter surveys.
• Marine Ecology Workshop for the Professional Diver in Fiji: The main objectives of the Workshop are to Provide participants with a general background in the ecology of coral reefs; Emphasize conservation issues and ethics in a fun and practical manner; Give participants information in a format that can be easily passed on to their students and clients; Provide a forum for the exchange of information between CCC and the Fijian SCUBA diving community; Teach dive instructors and divemasters the Reef Check methodology for future coral reef monitoring.
• Southern Leyte Marine Education Open Days, Philippines: These Open Days are aimed at school children between the ages of 10-12. Activities include: Learning to snorkel and identify marine organisms underwater, Beach walk whilst identifying coral skeletons, macroalgae and other animal remains washed onto the shore, Touring the interactive displays with a guide, Trying out breathing from a regulator in a dunk tank on the shore, Watching a video documentary on 'Reefs at Risk', Drawing their favorite marine organism and creating a collage depicting an underwater seascape, which they can then take back to their school for display, A marine life quiz, A CCC-produced marine life puppet show entitled 'The Adventures of Fred the Fish' which reiterates the messages introduced during the day of environmental respect and awareness.
• Dive training with local fishermen, By Islands, Honduras: Aims to reduce risk of local divers suffering from DCS, To explain basic physiological effects of diving, To emphasise the importance of depths and time spent underwater, To provide knowledge of gasses behaviour under pressure and their effects, To discuss what the 'bends' (DCS) is, and how a recompression chamber works, To encourage safer diving using CCC profiles as an example, And secondly, Conservation work to educate the local divers about various aspects of reef conservation including coastal and marine habitats, ecosystem concepts, coral biology, natural and anthropogenic impacts affecting the worlds' reefs, fisheries management, sustainability, the importance of MPA's and eco-tourism in the future.

 Detailed environmental awareness posters are produced for host nations. To date these have been produced for the Carribean, Indonesia, Fiji, the Philippines, and are a very effective way of imparting knowledge and awareness to local populations.

 CCC recently launched a membership scheme, the Coral Cay Conservation Society, which is owned and run by the CCC Trust. Becoming a member of the Society provides the public with an opportunity to support coral reef and tropical forest conservation, knowing that their contribution will go to an action-based organisation with a track record of delivering tangible benefits to the environment and local livelihoods.

 CCC Society members also receive benefits such as newsletters, free membership of the EarthDive dive log, merchandise reductions on trekking and diving gear, and exclusive members only events, of which the Red Sea Liveaboard in May 2005 is the first.

Red Sea Live-Aboard 6-12th May 2005

On charter through the award-winning holiday company Regaldive, the conservation liveaboard will depart out of Hurghada (Northern Egypt) from the 6th to 12th of May, 2005. This is a new concept for CCC through which the organisation seeks to answer the public demand for more educational diving opportunities. During the week, alongside a full diving programme, lectures will be led by qualified marine biologists from CCC staff, giving recreational divers the opportunity to develop their species identification skills, and expand their knowledge of tropical marine biology, ecology and the threats facing these delicate and biodiverse environments. Divers will learn how to dive responsibly, and will see first hand some of the damage humans can cause to reefs.

 CCC hopes that this will be the first of many such trips which will not only enhance the experience of recreational divers, but also increase their awareness of, and commitment to environmental issues. Divers can also contribute to our understanding of the world's reef ecosystems by logging dives with EarthDive's indicator species programme (www.earthdive.com).

Birmingham City Schools Initiative

Thanks to sponsorship from PolyCam PVX video conferencing systems, Coral Cay Conservation s Red Sea Liveaboard trip will be linked to Birmingham City Schools. IT support will construct a web site about this trip, including still images, text and streamed video. Pupils in participating schools will be able to talk to participants and ask them questions about their diving and the coral reefs, and see live action from the Red Sea.

Weblinks

Red Sea Trip     http://www.coralcay.org/archives/2005/01/11/10.24.12.php

Society Membership   http://www.coralcay.org/membership/index.php

Who are Coral Cay and what do they do?    http://www.coralcay.org/introduction/

Work with Communities, Env. Education   http://www.coralcay.org/communities/