Südsee: Paradies am Abgrund!

Check this out.

Faszination Erde by the ZDF is Germanic blue-chip nature programming, and Dirk Steffens is their Attenborough.

Very nice indeed.

Projects Abroad and Mangroves for Fiji 09:00ff, BAD 18:15ff.

Enjoy!

Look Who's planting Mangroves!

Source.

And if Ben can do it, so can you!

All you need to do is to get in contact with Projects Abroad or the Uprising Beach Resort, and they will show you how to offset the carbon footprint you've incurred when coming to Fiji.

But if you're diving with us, worry not - we're already doing it for you!

Vinaka Ratu Peni!

The Uprising Beach Resort joins Mangroves for Fiji!

Exemplary cooperation: Projects Abroad volunteers and staff of the Uprising Beach Resort.

Behold!

I must say that I'm very happy indeed.

Right from its inception, MFF was always meant to grow beyond merely being our vehicle for becoming completely carbon neutral - but we're not an NGO but just a Shark diving operator, and have frankly never had the manpower, time, or energy to go and do much outreach with other potential candidates.

So kudos to Projects Abroad's mangrove project.

Not only have they established a whole host of whopping mangrove nurseries and planted squillions of mangroves, but their continuous advocacy has finally convinced the Uprising under the leadership of James to do the right thing, ultimately very much also to the benefit of their reputation of being forward-thinking and eco-friendly. 

The mangroves will be grown at PA's headquarters in Pacific Harbour and planted by the volunteers in cooperation with the village of Navola.

At the same time, the Uprising will be establishing a small nursery in the resort, and educate their clients and invite them to partake in the project. To this effect, they have already installed fabulous signage, and also trained their own staff.

The signpost features individual carbon footprints incurred by the tourists when traveling to Fiji.

Way to go, very well done everybody!

Mangroves for Fiji - Social Media!

Love love love this logo - click for detail!

Finally!

Projects Abroad have been planting and nursing like crazy.

And it's about bloody time they told the public! The website has been updated accordingly, and here are the new Facebook page and blog - they are obviously still work in progress but expect many more news, videos and pictures (!) to start populating them soon!

And if all stars align, there will soon be major news.

Ever since we launched the project five years ago, MFF was meant to be open for everybody in Fiji wanting to offset their carbon footprint - but that requires a major marketing effort, and BAD is just to small, and also too busy to take on that task. Now we may have found a solution and if so, the depth and the outreach of that partnership will be simply spectacular.

So keep watching this space.

And do Like the FB page and above all, do come and do some planting yourself!

PS - Martin here. Badass huh - thanks buddy! :)
 

Projects Abroad - Actions speak louder than Words!

Source.

This is yesterday's news bulletin.
Watch the two segments at 14:00 ff.

See what I mean?

You can continue wasting even more time and resources on more experts, more committees, more reports and more conferences - or you can go out into the field and actually DO something!

Bravo - I'm proud of 'ya!

Mangroves for Fiji - Expansion!

There's people that talk talk talk talk.

Others do.

Case in point: Projects Abroad is picking up where we left Mangroves for Fiji and is now expanding the project all across the country. Obviously this is a long-term endeavor necessitating heaps of preparation - but they've already established several nurseries and started various awareness workshops. And as a real nice spin-off, they've even created a recycling venture that has enabled them to collect over 10,000 plastic bottles that are being used for germinating the Mangrove propagules.

Restoration will start next month, and the volunteers will be able to claim the resulting carbon credits against their individual footprints.

I say, well done - that's how you do it.

To be continued no doubt!

Award!

Mangroves for Fiji has scooped another award!

This time, it's an eco site award.

Four stars position us behind such groundbreaking endeavors as e.g. Eco Friendly Baby Products, Green Baby Shower Gifts, Organic Baby Clothes but firmly ahead of A Green Guide to Earthwise Harmony which is frankly a relief. 

You can find us here when scrolling down approx 3/5th of the page.

But I'm being facetious.

Nice that people are noticing and a big Vinaka vakalevu!

Green Apple Award!

Remember Mangroves for Fiji?
We've just received the following.

INTERNATIONAL GREEN APPLE ENVIRONMENT AWARDS

I am pleased to advise you that the judges have scored your entry and your project has been selected as an International Green Apple Award winner.
Congratulations.

We would like to invite you to collect your trophy at the presentation ceremony in
The House of Commons, London
on
Monday, November 12, 2012

I must confess that I know very little about this.
The entry was submitted by a friend and the website is rather spartan, so hopefully more once I find out some further details.

But great to see that the world is noticing!

BAD Stuff!

Sorry no rants this week! :)
We're incredibly busy with a shoot and all the other stuff, so there's simply no time for lengthy opinion pieces and especially, for collating all the required documentation.

Anyway, we're being asked about our achievements.
Having put together a short fact sheet, I thought that I might as well share it with you. This has obviously been a team effort, with Andrew and the staff going out and actually doing the work whilst I continue to hide behind the computer desperately trying to become famous by making others look bad, or whatever.
So there.

Beqa Adventure Divers is a dive operator based in Pacific Harbour that specializes in offering encounters with numerous species of Sharks.
Since their inception in 2004, they have been pursuing an agenda of pairing tourism with research, conservation and cooperation with local communities at the grass roots level.
Their various conservation and eco-tourism initiatives are too numerous to enumerate and can be viewed here.

Achievement highlights are

• 2004 establishment of Shark Reef Marine Reserve, Fiji’s, and quite possibly the world's first MPA dedicated to Shark conservation and Shark research, this in close co-operation with the then Ministry of Fisheries and the qoliqoli owners.
  A user fee goes to the qoliqoli owners, the village of Galoa, in exchange for not fishing there. Marine park levies since disbursed to the village total over FJD 150,000.00. A youth program provides for education and sustainable income by training unemployed youth to become dive professionals. So far, all successful candidates have been subsequently hired by BAD. Fish wardens trained in cooperation with the Department of Fisheries ensure enforcement of the fishing ban.
  Furthermore, BAD pay voluntary reef fees to Wainiyabia village on Viti Levu, Rukua village on Beqa Island and Yanuca village, this in order to have them partake in the benefits from the dive industry.
  We are also sponsoring numerous research projects that have already resulted in a whole list of scientific publications, many of which can be viewed here.
  


• 2006 establishment of the Fiji Shark Corridor, a 30 mile no-fishing zone for Sharks on the southern coast of Viti Levu which comprises the complete qoliqoli of Deuba, Wainiyabia and Galoa villages, for which a further levy is since being disbursed.


• 2006 AON Excellence in Tourism Award, Diving


• 2009 development and coordination of Fiji Shark Conservation and Awareness Project, Fiji’s contribution to the International Year of the Shark, the only such national event world wide and Fiji’s first national Shark conservation campaign.This project was supported by the vast majority of Fiji’s dive operators, NGOs but also interested Government Departments.
  BAD also produced Fiji’s first Shark conservation PSA

• 2009/2010 drive for the Shark Free Marinas Initiative together with Matava, where Fiji remains one of the foremost participating countries with 24 adherents.
  


• 2010/2011 Mangroves for Fiji.
  This is a world first aiming at offsetting one’s carbon footprint by sponsoring the planting of mangroves, a critical and endangered habitat and an excellent carbon sink.
  As of September, 2011, we are the planet’s first completely carbon neutral dive operator, this after sponsoring the planting of 330,000 mangrove trees. Open to anybody, this is also Fiji’s first and only local carbon offsetting program.
  The program also makes us a major contributor to the Fiji Department of Forestry’s 1,000,000 tree initiative. Currently we are planting more mangroves to offset the carbon footprint of our clients traveling to Fiji, again a world premiere. The project has been conducted in cooperation with numerous local Fijian communities and individuals all across the country that have been paid an aggregate sum of approx FJD 30,000.00 and thus earned a sustainable income on top of being educated in ecological awareness. The list of mangrove planters can be viewed here.
  


• 2011 Beqa Island Trips.
  Once again, this initiative focuses on creating sustainable income and ecological awareness at the grassroots level. BAD have sponsored the training of snorkeling guides from the two villages of Naceva and Naiseuseu on Beqa Island and are now conducting regular trips to the island where tourists can conduct guided snorkeling tours in a locally managed MPA, enjoy a meke and lovo and buy local handicrafts. This is providing for sustainable income for two villages where previously there has been none.


• 2012 initiated The Great Fiji Shark Count.
  This is the first national Shark count anywhere in the world and it unites the tourism industry, Government and various NGOs. The purpose is to create a recurring tourism attraction but more importantly, to start long-term monitoring of Fiji’s Shark, Ray and Turtle populations in order to collect long-term data and thus facilitate the optimal management of these precious resources. The first count will happen this April, followed by November and after that, twice yearly in the following years.


• 2012 Kutoa Community Impact Award for Best in Green Economic Development


• 2012 AON Excellence in Tourism Award, Sustainable Tourism
  

BAD only employs Fijian nationals and earns and re-invests all its cash flow in Fiji.
Our contribution to Fiji’s economy in 2010 has been approx FJD 1m in direct and an estimated FJD 3m in indirect revenues from the ancillary tourism businesses like airlines, accommodation, restaurants, tours, souvenirs, etc., and we expect to reach similar results in 2011.

We have been mentioned in countless print and video media by the most prestigious quarters and have helped put Fiji’s eco-tourism and Shark diving, an important niche product, on the global map.
Our shark diving blog enjoys global recognition.

There you have it!

AON Award - Awesome!

Coy? Nani in close proximity to the PM!

Did I say that we are proud?

The AON Fiji Excellence in Tourism Awards are Fiji's tourism Oscars.
In 1991 with the introduction of the first Tourism Week, the Fiji Visitors Bureau and the Ministry of Tourism introduced the first Excellence in Tourism Awards sponsored by the Fiji Times. Many years passed until 1997 when the Fiji Visitors Bureau under the directorship of Sitiveni Yaqona and Bill Whiting decided the Awards should be re introduced. Since then, the Fiji Excellence in Tourism Awards competition is run annually by a voluntary committee of industry members, overseen by the board of trustees to invite nominations, organize judging and hold a gala event for the prize-giving to honor those outstanding members in our industry.
The Mission is to recognize individuals and organization who have gone that extra mile to develop National Tourism and in so doing, have inspired others to share their vision of a buoyant and enduring service industry of supreme national importance.
The process is based on genuine peer review and the awarding ceremony regularly features the crème de la crème of local tourism along with high ranking Government representatives who congregate to celebrate the industry and honor the awardees.

This year was no different.
Having rather surprisingly scooped one of the last Diving awards in 2007 before the category was dumped, we were honored to find our name among the list of finalists but were not really hopeful to win as we were pitched against some rather formidable and highly deserving colleagues.

What can I say, we have won!
This time, the category is Tourism Sustainability and here is our official document!

Click for detail!

To be perfectly frank, we here are all rather overwhelmed.
It is really a great honor, and it is also deeply gratifying to see that all the hard work of the last years has not gone unnoticed - and on a personal note, it has been particularly satisfying to have the Prime Minister witness the honoring of the very same company he pretty much single-handedly saved two years ago.

Thank you thank you thank you!
This is really an awesome day! :)

H/T: our good friends from the Uprising for bringing back a second award to Pacific Harbour!

Trackback: Alex the Sharkman here. Vinaka!

And the Winner is!

As I never cease to repeat, we're mighty proud of Mangroves for Fiji!

Nice to see that others appreciate it, too, as per this Kutoa Community Impact Award for Best in Green Economic Development that has just come in whilst we were out diving.
Sweet! :)

Of course, we haven't stopped quite yet.
Our tally now stands at 39 hectares or 390,000 Mangrove trees, meaning that our clients are enjoying a carbon free holiday whenever they come diving with us - not quite 100% but already part of their footprint when traveling is being offset, whilst all of our local activities are now completely carbon neutral!

Now, if only more dive ops would adopt the concept and start planting Mangroves somewhere else!

Step one completed!

I must say, we're mighty proud!

Yes, we've finally done it, and this exactly one year after setting out - we are now completely carbon neutral!

May we be the world's first carbon neutral dive shop?
Dunno and frankly, don't care. The important aspect is that we've not done this by purchasing anonymous and thus suspect carbon offsets, but that we have been an integral part of the process by sponsoring the restoration of Mangrove forests, a vital and endangered marine habitat in close cooperation with Fijian grassroots organizations, villages and Government departments.
Mangroves may well be the world's best biosequester and whilst the blue carbon movement appears to be engaging in the usual games of meetings tourism, committees and working groups, we've gone ahead and shown that the job can be done with zero bureaucracy and zero squandering of money, but lots of personal initiative and dedication instead.
Like our Fiji Shark Project, our latest initiative is yet again an example of how business interests and conservation can co-operate to create results where all the parties benefit.


Yes as usual it has been quite a Process!
BUT - our tally now stands proudly at 33 hectares or 330,000 Mangrove trees that are being counted in the 1 million trees campaign and also represent our personal, hands-on contribution to Fiji's involvement in the International Year of Forests.

AND!
We have already embarked on step two, and that is to offset the carbon footprint our clients generate by traveling to Fiji!
Yes if you fly to Fiji to dive with us, we will offset you carbon footprint by sponsoring the planting of Mangroves on your behalf - at no additional cost to you!

So, what are you waiting for! :)

Shark Conservation - Posters or Condoms?

I’ve been planning to blog about this for a while now.
Thing is, I have been delaying it because despite of now countless conversations with conservationists, I have no answers and the more I think about it, the more I get depressed – but this is eminently important and we all need to give it some heavy thought.
So without further ado – and yes this is gonna be long!

Lemme start with a few examples first.

Australia.
In New South Wales, a politician is rolling back years of efforts to halt the decline in the number of critically endangered Grey Nurse Sharks. She is the new Fisheries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson, a recreational fisherman who is apparently doing it to keep her pre-election promise to the Fishers and Shooters Party. This is happening in the face of clear evidence that any fishing will harm the sharks even when they are not being targeted but also, in the face of the fact that like other Grey Nurse aggregation sites, South West Rocks is not only a critical habitat but also, a Shark diving hot spot supporting a thriving eco-tourism industry of dive ops and ancillary businesses, and thus contributing substantially to the local economy.
The fishermen couldn’t care less of course – MPAs always harbor more Fishes and despite of the beneficial (incidentally, to them!) spillover effects, they will always try and get their hand directly on the resource, and screw the future and the long term sustainability of their own activity!

The most frustrating aspect?
Here, we got all the elements for successful Shark conservation: irrefutable science, sustainable income from a thriving ecotourism industry and a wealthy country that could afford to put the necessary measures into place. How can we then go to poor countries where people do not fish for fun, but in order to survive, and tell them to protect Sharks if we fail so miserably at home!

Chagos.
Great achievement by the Pew and others in having the islands declared the largest MPA in the Indian Ocean and quite possibly, in the world!
But, Mauritius wants Great Britain to give back the islands and is apparently suing, and the Chagossians want to be allowed to go back, incidentally straight into having to face issues of sea level rise (?).
I believe this to be largely posturing in order to get (even more) compensation – but what will happen to the MPA if they succeed?

Palau.
Once again, great achievement by the always too modest Pew - and yes, by Dermot, too!
And what about the other ghost writers, supporters, petitioners, congratulators etc? Yes, well, hmmm…. – but I’m digressing as always.
Thing is, apart from the ongoing issue of enforcement, what is going to happen down the line? The accolades will cease, President Toribiong’s term will expire, new people will be voted into parliament. Let’s never forget that Shark protection in Palau came to be at the very last minute, when a proposal to allow Shark fishing was defeated and turned into something positive in 2009 – read these blog posts starting with the last one!
What safeguards are there in Palau to prevent that the decision to establish the sanctuary will not be overturned in the future – and incidentally, that this will not happen to any of the recent Shark sanctuaries the Pew has helped to establish?

Fiji?
The SRMR and our other initiatives are a great conservation success and the direct benefits in terms of cash flow, employment etc to the resource owners but also, the indirect benefits to the country and the community at large will always be much higher than the proceeds from fishing. I thus remain hopeful that this specific venture has all the elements for being long-term sustainable as it will always be in the very interest of everybody involved to keep it alive.
But, there are always obscure village politics at play, and possibly, issues of corruption, and there is thus always the possibility that somebody could be taking irrational decisions one day in the future. And, there is always a risk of a Shark bite and of the ensuing backlash all the way to closing us down and thus destroying the source of the cash flow which is a vital component in this specific venture.

And here are some observations.

The countries where people have a lot of children are the poor countries.
Within the communities, the families with a lot of children are the poor families.
Starting with the US Bible Belt, the ignorants are the top breeders: having a lot of children is not only correlated to, and creates poverty, it is highly correlated to lack of education, lack of empowerment of women and yes, often religious bigotry.
And yet, it appears that no one of those in charge is willing, or capable of addressing the issue - especially in those countries that are most affected! Right now, we are approx 7 billion - and the population keeps increasing, once again especially in those countries that can afford it the least.
Have a good, hard look at this link!

And then, there is this.
Remember the images from China 20 years ago? Everybody was wearing an ugly uniform and everybody was riding a bicycle. Now, there are millions of cars and everybody who can afford it owns and peruses a mountain of stuff – and those who cannot are desperately aspiring to attain that status. And not only in China – everywhere on the planet, every single human being is trying to attain a better life which for the majority of people is expressed in being able to increase their ecological footprint, this in terms of owning more stuff and consuming more resources - but also, with the inevitable consequence that they will be creating more pollution in the process.
In general terms, this is currently being defined as Economic Growth - and even should we be able to once stabilize or even reverse population growth, the trend to increase the individual ecological footprints will very likely remain largely unchanged.
Or are we, the rich, going to try and convince the poor that they should please remain poor for our sake, and that of the environment? Or, will we the rich ever be willing to down-scale our comfort for the sake of the common good?

Total heresy – correct?
Indeed, if I look at what is happening, the big thing nowadays seems to be Poverty Alleviation as defined by the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. Yes Goal number 7 mentions the need for ecological sustainability – but how will that ever be achieved if all the other goals aim at improving people’s health and life expectancy, and at having them accumulate more stuff and peruse more resources – all of which inevitably translates into increasing their individual ecological footprints?
The fact is that if everybody had the ecological footprint of a North American, it would consume the resources of not one, but several Planet Earths already!
I’m all for having people attain a better life – but unless somebody starts talking publicly and unequivocally about the problem of population growth and the absolute need not only not to increase, but to drastically shrink those numbers, we are truly and inescapably doomed - and much of this planet along with us!

No I’m not talking about extreme measures à la China.
I’m talking about conducting a robust public conversation aimed at achieving a consensus about the absolute necessity to have fewer babies – and about the absolute necessity to consume fewer resources, and this by everybody everywhere!
Ultimately, this is not a choice – it is the only way forward!

These are the twin 800-Pound conservation Gorillas.
I’ve mentioned them here and added that they are not my fight – but for a while now, I’ve started to wonder.

The fact is that from everything I see, the Conservation movement just doesn’t want to know.
Is it the consequence of the all-pervasive and alas, seemingly inevitable Political Correctness of the big NGOs? Whatever the reasons, the fact is that instead of addressing the causes, we continue to limit our efforts to trying to fight the consequences.

But is this smart and above all, is it long term sustainable?
Right now, we’re the proverbial Dutch boy trying to plug the leak in the dike with his finger – but new leaks keep springing up, there’s only so many heroic little boys, and the resources (Assumption 6) for fixing the dam are limited. With that in mind, should we not instead focus on alleviating the water pressure behind the dike?
Yes I know, total Anathema!

Believe it or not, the above was merely an introduction! :)
What I really want to talk about is this post by the always brilliant CJA Bradshaw, and this article it references. They deal with human ( = population- ) growth and with economic growth ( = largely, under the present terms, the growth of ecological footprints) and I ask you to also read the links and the comments, some of which are brilliant.

Each time environmentalists rally to defend an endangered habitat, and finally win the battle to designate it as a park “forever,” as Nature Conservancy puts it, the economic growth machine turns to surrounding lands and exploits them ever more intensively, causing more species loss than ever before, putting even more lands under threat. For each acre of land that comes under protection, two acres are developed, and 40% of all species lie outside of parks. Nature Conservancy Canada may indeed have “saved” – at least for now – two million acres [my addendum: that's 809371 hectares], but many more millions have been ruined. And the ruin continues, until, once more, on a dozen other fronts, development comes knocking at the door of a forest, or a marsh or a valley that many hold sacred. Once again, environmentalists, fresh from an earlier conflict, drop everything to rally its defence, and once again, if they are lucky, yet another section of land is declared off-limits to logging, mining and exploration.
They are like a fire brigade that never rests, running about, exhausted, trying to extinguish one brush fire after another, year after year, decade after decade, winning battles but losing the war.

Despite occasional setbacks, the growth machine continues more furiously, and finally, even lands which had been set aside “forever” come under pressure.
As development gets closer, the protected land becomes more valuable, and more costly to protect. Then government, under the duress of energy and resource shortages and the dire need for royalties and revenue, caves in to allow industry a foothold, then a chunk, then another. Yosemite Park, Hamber Provincial Park, Steve Irwin Park [my addendum - even the mention of this man is an insult to biodiversity conservation]… the list goes on.

There is no durable sanctuary from economic growth.
Any park that is made by legislation can be unmade by legislation. Governments change and so do circumstances. But growth continues and natural capital [my addendum: see my post on this term and others] shrinks. And things are not even desperate yet.

Now, compare it to the examples on top.

Solutions?
Alas, as I said, I don’t have the answers – apart from the fact that we cannot continue to pretend that it is not happening.
Me, I need not worry: I won’t personally experience the worst consequences, I’m the last of my gene pool with no intention of procreating, my ecological footprint has shrunk by orders of magnitude and even BAD is a pillar of sustainability, this largely thanks to Mangroves for Fiji where we’re about to declare ourselves completely carbon neutral – and we’re already mulling the next big project!

With that in mind, will I get involved and detracted from Shark conservation? Hell, no - it is already plenty difficult, time consuming and often frustrating as it is!
Makes me sometimes wonder why I bother! :)

But you other guys who are genetically invested and are trying to hand down something to the future generations - even if it may be little more than just a modicum of HOPE?

Think about it.
Then, go out and DO something!

Reefs at Risk - Fiji?

Click for detail.

It sure aint looking good!
I was alerted by this article stating that 75% of Coral Reefs are at risk and went rummaging for more detailed info about the situation in Fiji.

Turns out that this country is particularly vulnerable.
According to the report, it fatally combines High to Very High Threat Exposure (see picture on top) with High to Very High Reef Dependence with Low to Medium Adaptive Capacity (see below).
Click for detail: Fiji is the cluster of larger islands north of New Zealand.

And what about Shark Reef?
Pretty grim if you ask me! Since the reef is situated within a highly vulnerable coastal belt where the usual global threats like Climate Change and Acidification are compounded by high population pressure, predictions are dire.

Present2030

Not nice!
Solutions? I haven't got the slightest clue!
Old timers tell me that Shark Reef has always been pretty barren, and this is why the villages were more than happy to agree to its protection and to exchange their fishing rights for monetary compensation. So far, their gamble has more than paid off as on top of jobs and regular income for the villages at the tune of over FJD 40,000 per year, the fish population has miraculously recovered, with many fish spilling over to other reefs were the local fishermen are welcome to harvest them.

The corals however have never quite managed to recover.
Whilst 20% of Shark Reef is heavily frequented by our clients, the remainder is not at all. Especially the fragile shallow coral gardens are very much off limits - and yet , especially for the Acropora, it has been a long and frustrating cycle of growth and demise, the latter owing to several explosions of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish and the occasional cyclone. Although those would appear to be "natural" causes, people in the know tell me that in Fiji, the Starfish invasions appear to be correlated to ENSO events - and these in turn are likely to be (oh, yes, of course it's complicated!) accelerated and exacerbated by anthropogenic Climate Change. With that in mind, the future of Shark Reef does rather look grim indeed, with totally unknown consequences for its Shark population.

But having said this: we'll continue trying never the less!
All I can say is so far so good, as we're seeing ever more Sharks and continue to identify ever more Fishes - with some likely excellent news to be published soon, so keep watching this space! And when it comes to the big picture, Mangroves for Fiji remains our very own contribution to Climate Change mitigation, both locally where there is now a huge belt of restored Mangroves lining the shores of our partner village Galoa and neighboring Culanuku; and Fiji-wide, where a veritable explosion of sites will enable us to become completely carbon neutral very, very soon indeed - again, keep watching this space!

And on this happy note (is it?): have a good weekend everybody!

PS should you be intrigued by the Google Earth pictures: download the KML files here (scroll to bottom of page) and have a look for yourself - very interesting and alas, equally disheartening!

Mangroves for Fiji - One Hundred Thousand!

Mangroves for Fiji continues to grow - literally!

We've just inspected and paid for the carbon credits of another three hectares, bringing the total up to 10, or 100,000 Mangrove trees.

Our Sivo handing over the first installment of FJD 500 - another 500 will be paid in six months

And we hear about more sites that have been completed plus several others that are being worked on!

Anania Waqalevu will use the money to pay the school fees for his children

Still a ways to go before we're completely carbon neutral - but getting there!

Older Mangroves from the first pilot project in Galoa

Mangroves for Fiji - Cooperation!

Mangroves for Fiji continues to make inroads.

We continue to sign up planters and projects and thanks to the help of the valiant people of the Department of Forestry, we have started to branch out from the main Island of Viti Levu and are now talking to communities all across the country. Very soon, several new sites will be completed allowing us to add the carbon credits of more than 10 additional hectares, or 100,000 Mangrove trees to our tally.

Another one of our strategic partners is the IUCN.
Their Oceania Chapter is managing MESCAL, the Mangrove Eco-Systems for Climate Change Adaptation and Livelihoods, and the MFF team has been invited to take on a role as observers.


A while ago, we had the pleasure of showcasing our pilot project to the MESCAL delegates and we are quite confident that the visit has triggered some more lateral thinking.
In fact, we are already talking to people in other Pacific countries who who have shown interest in replicating the project there: meaning that 2011 could well see the inception of Mangroves for Oceania - how cool would that be, so fingers crossed!

Anyway, the event has resulted in this little post on the IUCN website, marking Arthur's first appearance in the conservation media - and yes, he's mighty proud!
Enjoy!

Dyker med hajar på Fiji!

Stellar pic by Jean-Marie - click on it!

What a nice surprise!

Mattias Goldman has posted a real nice piece about us to Minplanet.
Mattias is one of our Shark diving customers and an employee of Tricorona, a company that deals with carbon trading and offsetting, and he was obviously interested in our mangroves project. Minplanet, which probably means "My Planet" (?) is apparently the Swedish climate site of WWF/TV4. For those of you who do not speak Swedish, copy the article into here and you'll get a pretty good translation.
Tack så mycket Mattias, much appreciated!

On a side note, Mangrovesforfiji is progressing very nicely indeed!
Keep an eye on the website to keep track of our new partners and plantations, and keep watching this space, as we shall be posting great news real soon!

Mangroves for Fiji!

Well here it is - and yes, we’re mighty proud of ourselves!
Might we even be the first to do this?

This is the result of a dinner conversation with a fellow ecotourism operator.
We were musing about the necessity and the advantages of offsetting one’s carbon footprint and how it would be nice if we could do it locally instead of financing the international carbon trade. Having subsequently inquired, I discovered that nobody in Fiji is currently offering any such opportunity and having explored the international options, I was frankly dismayed by their apparent pervasive lack of transparency and by the fact that they came across as being principally geared towards making money rather than being aimed at propagating genuine climate change mitigation.

Despite of our best efforts, we at BAD emit uncomfortably high amount of greenhouse gases.
This is principally due to our need for operating our vessels and vehicle, and to a high power bill stemming from our compressor and various air conditioning units we need to run to protect our electrical hardware. Inevitable as they are, those emissions remain highly disturbing, and it would have been nice to find an elegant way of becoming carbon neutral, the more as we deeply care for the environment and market ourselves as an ecotourism operator.

But Carbon Offsetting is controversial as it always carries the stigma of being a convenient escape mechanism for not assuming responsibility.
Critics claim that instead of being forced to tackle the root of the problem and reduce their carbon footprint, culprits are instead being encouraged to take the easy way out by paying somebody else for cleaning up the ecological mess they have caused.
With that in mind, we set out to become an integral part of a domestic solution.

Our choice quickly fell onto Mangrove Restoration.
As a friend writes, these are more than just muddy plants, they are natures multi million year perfect solution to coastal erosion, fish nurseries, carbon sequestration, and more.
Mangroves are a largely overlooked excellent carbon sink that sequester multiple amounts of carbon when compared to tropical and temperate forests. They are also vital habitats that not only protect the coasts against tsunamis, hurricanes and Sea level change, but directly benefit the adjacent reefs by exporting life-building carbon and above all, by being the nursery areas of countless marine organisms from crustaceans all the way to Sharks.

In that sense, restoring mangroves complements ideally what we have been doing all along.
We believe that any dive shop needs to assume the stewardship of the reefs it dives and from where it obtains its sustenance, and Mangals are essential extensions of those habitats. The project also dovetails beautifully with our ongoing conservation projects that stipulate that in order to attain sustainable results, one has to involve and compensate the stakeholders.

The rest has been, well, a process.
We are obviously not climate change and carbon offsetting specialists and had to first obtain the required know how. Following that, we had to explore practical ways of attaining tangible results, this against the backdrop of the reservations of the public against what is still regarded as being worthless and unattractive, and against the interests of coastal developers that continue to destroy Mangroves for tourism developments.

We were lucky insofar as 2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity.
This has prompted the IUCN to roll out MESCAL and the Department of Forestry, to decide to plant 1 million trees, among which mangroves, to commemorate the event. They have been invaluable supporters, as have been our traditional partners in the Fisheries Department and least but not least, our friend Helen of Marine Ecology Consulting who has already been quietly restoring Mangroves for a very long time indeed and was willing to share her unequaled know how in the matter, as have several friends at the USP.

As of today, we have run a successful pilot project and sponsored several more, and are rapidly approaching the status of being the first completely Carbon Neutral Business under this project.
We will however not stop there: once we have managed to completely offset our direct emissions, we will then offset the carbon emissions our customers have incurred when traveling to Fiji, making this an ongoing undertaking.


Having done the legwork, we have decided that we might as well share the project with equally intentioned industry peers but also, with other eco-friendly businesses in Fiji.
Named Mangroves for Fiji, this is now a country-wide undertaking aimed at elevating Fiji’s diving industry to the next level. Like last year’s Fiji Shark Conservation and Awareness Project, it is open to anybody and our role in it will be simply to act as facilitators, with no gain whatsoever to us apart from having done the right thing.
Having assembled a small project team, they stand by to assist.

Please take the time to explore the website.
Kudos to web designer Shivam of Niuwave Media and to our charming administrator Lexi for having created a first-class product! As I said, we’re not specialists – but to the best of our knowledge, the technical information contained therein is factually correct. Does it strike you as being surprisingly simple? Actually, if one boils it down to the essentials, it is!
Also, planting Mangroves is really not rocket science – anybody can do it!

Comments, suggestions and amendments?
Always welcome, the latter best directly to the project team – please bear with us, this is still somewhat progress in action!
Thank you!

To our Fijian readers.
If you are a dive shop or a smaller eco-friendly business, please feel free to contact us and join! If you are eager to do something for Fiji and earn some money in the process by becoming a mangrove planter, please read the relevant pages and get in contact! And please, tell your friends and community!
Let’s all work together towards making this a better Fiji!

Anybody want to replicate this elsewhere?
Please contact us and we will be happy to share our website for free. We’ve also secured the URLs of several Pacific locations and will be happy to pass them on to you – maybe we can all together establish a Mangroves for Oceania? Could this even eventually become a template for the dive industry in all tropical and subtropical locations? This can get as big as we want!
Time, as always, will tell.

Enjoy Mangroves for Fiji.