Conservation Focus: Community outreach, education or events

The Misool Community Education Program prioritizes early childhood education in local villages and is at the heart of our conservation philosophy. In 2011, in partnership with Seacology and WildAid, Misool Foundation built a kindergarten in the village of Fafanlap, about 75 minutes from Misool resort island in South Raja Ampat.

The village of Fafanlap had reported low student retention and anecdotal interviews with teachers indicated that the students were not suitably prepared to benefit from their classes.

The kindergarten helps kids 4 to 6 prepare for school through a curriculum that increases student literacy and subsequently reduces student dropout rates. The Kindergarten now has 44 registered students and employs three teachers who focus on learning through play and teaching the children about the environment.

Our oceans currently receive 5-13 million metric tons of plastic waste each year. The results of this can be seen in the oceanic garbage patches— vortexes of plastic debris; overwhelming pollution in coastal areas, and marine wildlife deaths due to ingestion of plastic pieces. Galapagos National Park, home to more than 3,000 marine species and a living laboratory for scientists around the world is no exception.

WildAid is working with the Galapagos National Park Rangers to reduce plastic consumption on the islands, starting with local elementary schools. Rangers have collected data on current plastic consumption at Galapagos elementary schools and will track use throughout the year to measure the campaign’s effectiveness. Using a combination of games and infographics, our team will explain why plastic pollution is a problem for our oceans and how it impacts bird, turtle, and marine mammal species, as well as our health and communities. Students will be given a reusable water bottle to incentivize its use over single-use plastic bottles. The pilot school, where this program was incorporated reduced their plastic consumption by 95%. You can help us bring this campaign to three additional Galapagos’ elementary schools to reduce the use of plastic single-use bottles in the Galapagos.

Lamakera village was one of the world’s top manta hunting site– previously landing over 1,000 mantas in a single season. In 2014, this small fishing village and all of Indonesia was declared a manta sanctuary. Together with WildAid, Misool Foundation has been working in Lamakera for the past three years to help manta fishermen find alternative livelihoods to ensure the success of the new sanctuary.

Since then, 80% of the former manta fishers have been trained as manta researchers, enforcement officials or in new sustainable fisheries. The new research program has helped educate the community on the benefits of mantas, whale sharks and other marine animals for the ocean and as a draw for ecotourism. We are currently building a research center and photographing and tagging these animals to identify them and track their migratory patterns to ensure their protection across the entire route.

You can help us in this crucial work with funding for additional equipment and training for new researchers and community rangers.

Every summer, humpback whales travel thousands of miles to mate and birth their calves near Isla de la Plata. Due to its productive waters and abundance of commercial fish species, it is also the site of rampant illegal fishing. The numerous illegal gill nets and longlines set by poachers can tangle and drown the whales.

Machalilla’s park rangers developed a humpback whale rescue program four years ago where specially trained rangers, upon finding an entangled whale, jump in the water to cut away the fishing lines. Through a combination of patrols and community outreach, the Machalilla rangers are notified of entanglements and have rescued 14 whales to date. You can help Machalilla’s park rangers rescue more humpback whales this year with increased patrols, the purchase of equipment to help during these daring rescues and community outreach.

The world’s smallest porpoise is on the brink of extinction. The vaquita marina (little sea cow) is onlyfound in the Northern Sea of Cortez and fewer than 12 individuals remain (a dramatic decrease from last year). While fishermen do not target the vaquita directly, its numbers are decreasing due to entanglements in gillnets used to trap the totoaba fish.

Although Mexico enacted a gillnet ban in the vaquita’s marine habitat, illegal fishing runs rampant and the lucrative totoaba trade takes precedence to vaquita conservation for fishers in the area. Monitoreo Vaquita is a Mexican organization composed of local fishers that care about vaquita conservation. The group was founded in 2010 to monitor the vaquita population and remove gill nets from the water. Together with international scientists, Monitoreo Vaquita currently has 84 hydrophones in the vaquita habitat to acoustically monitor their population and last year removed 115 nets from the ocean.

With your help, we can continue tracking the vaquita population, provide a small salary for the Monitoreo Vaquita fishermen, and educate the community about the importance of the vaquita.

Sea turtles in Ecuador face many dangers as they seek to nest along the country’s beaches. Since 2012, the Machalilla marine wildlife hospital has rescued more than 300 sea turtles suffering from various injuries including lesions and internal damage by fishing hooks and entrapment with marine debris, as well as fractures from boat collisions. Other patients include 10 sea lions and more than 300 sea birds over the last five years.

Food and medications are donated by the community or purchased by the Machalilla park rangers out of pocket. We seek to increase the number of sea turtles treated at one time from 25 to 35, improve operations and ensure better diagnosis and treatment of injuries, as well as purchase medications, a digital x-ray machine, surgical equipment and upgrade aging equipment.

Ecuador’s beaches provide an ideal nesting spot for four sea turtle species (Green Turtles, Leatherbacks, Olive-Ridley and critically endangered Hawksbill sea turtles). Sea turtles are an important part of a healthy marine ecosystem and generate more than one million dollars in tourism for Ecuador annually.

Last year, WildAid worked with park rangers in Pacoche Wildlife Refuge and Marine Reserve to mark sea turtle nests to protect them from predators, deter poachers and educate the community on the benefits of sea turtles to the marine ecosystem and tourism. We released more than 30,000 sea turtle hatchlings to the sea and complemented the patrols with environmental education for over 2,800 local school children. This year, we want to increase the number of sea turtle hatchlings rescued by patrolling and marking nests at two additional nesting sites at Santa Elena and Machalilla National Parks.