Climate Action Mexico Project #5928

Help Rebuild the Gulf of Mexico Barrier Reef

by Action Change (Formerly GVI Trust)

Project Report | Oct 31, 2016
Reaching the Boat Tourism Cooperatives

By Lluvia Soto | GVI Mexico, Country Director

Weekly meeting with the guides before their tours

Dear Supporters,

For our conservation efforts to spread widely, we decided to involve more people from the village. After a few meetings with the President of the Cooperative ‘Punta Allen’, we agreed on having weekly meetings with the local tour guides to share information about the ecology and the state of conservation of the fauna and the ecosystems they interact with during the boat tours in the area.

One of the first steps was to join them on the tours in order to learn about the specifications of the tours they offer.

During the tours they encounter dolphins, manatees, turtles, mangrove birds, visit the lagoons, mangroves and go snorkeling on coral reefs around Punta Allen. We began our first meetings with the tour guides in April this year and since then we have covered different topics, including a couple of sessions on the ecology of coral reefs and fauna such as turtles, manatees, sharks.

We have developed a cooperative relationship with the guides, who are always willing to share their own knowledge and experience with us. We have been developing a curriculum that they can access at the cooperative office computer. We are also summarizing and selecting the most relevant information to create ‘Information Sheets’ for the tourist on the boats to read -these will include rules to follow in the Biosphere - such as the usage of biodegradable sunscreen and care for coral reefs. In addition, we are preparing ‘Cheat Sheets’ for the guides to have onboard so they can share the environmental information during the tour. These guides are in both English and Spanish.

We have also identified skillful and motivated individuals that will be able to share the knowledge with other guides joining this cooperative or from the other cooperatives in the village. We are spending extra time with them to develop their skills and arranging other activities, like beach cleans.

The extra activities we are incorporating in our Pez Maya community projects are to reinforce the relationship with the community; to teach and learn about the ecology of the ecosystems in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, to strengthen and promote good practices on current activities (e.g. fisheries and tourist cooperatives) in the village and to reinforce the environmental education. Our mission is to create environmental awareness and have a positive local and global impact.

It is our mission to create environmental awareness and have a positive local and global impact, therefore protecting and preserving the reef!

Thank you for your support!

With Gratitude,
GVI Mexico

On one of the tours to see what the guides see!

On a beach clean with the guides

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Aug 16, 2016
Environmental Sensors Installed in the Rserve

By Lluvia Soto | GVI Mexico, Country Director

Local fishermen monitoring the reef

Dear Supporters,

We are really excited to tell you that we have recently been working with the local NGO, Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI). They are a civil association dedicated to promoting the conservation of marine biodiversity in coastal communities of Mexico.

Recently COBI, along with small-scale fishers from six fishing cooperatives here in Quintana Roo, have established 16 no-take marine reserves covering 17,600 hectares to protect key species such as lobster and Nassau Grouper from overfishing. These sites were established in 2012 and 2013 and are showing promising results in terms of the recovery of the fish populations.

However, at the moment the impact of climate change is not being adequately assessed due to lack of suitable equipment. This is where you come in! We were able to use your donations to provide 5 HOBO environmental sensors for them to install in the area that they have been working in.

The donation of HOBO sensors to COBI and the fishing cooperatives will allow them to continuously monitor water temperature in the no-take zones. The sea surface height sensor installed on a grouper spawning site allows additional data to be collected that feeds into a regional model of genetic connectivity allowing the fishermen to understand where the eggs spawned by the fish go. This is very important as new protected areas need to use the most up to date science data possible to be placed in the correct areas where the juvenile fish develop.

It is also important to acknowledge that the local fishers are very involved in the project. During the past few years, different environmental phenomenon have affected the lobster fishery, and their involvement in the project increases their knowledge and understanding of climate change and overfishing, and how both could impact their livelihoods.

Thank you for your donations, which have made this project a reality!

With Gratitude,

GVI Mexico

The HOBO data loggers

Links:

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May 31, 2016
Project AWARE Fin-athon

By Kerry | Pez Maya Base Manager

Finathon Challenge in full swing

Dear Supporters,

Here in Pez Maya we have teamed up with Project AWARE. They are a non-profit organisation that are working to 'protect the ocean planet- one dive at a time'. They rely on a network of scuba divers and citizen scientists to raise money and awareness for two main causes.

This month at Pez Maya we are happy to report that we have managed to impact on both of these areas.

Our Marine Debris Clean Up

We have completed a marine debris clean up at two dive sites. During the dive, we removed over 70 meters of rope and fishing hooks from one site alone! After the dive, we entered all of the data online. This data will be used by various stakeholders to help influence policy making decisions in the future.

To take this even further, we have decided to adopt this project on a more long-term and regular basis, so we will be ensuring that we do a marine debris clean up dive on a monthly basis.

Finathon

This month has seen Pez Maya’s first Finathon event. Finathons are events that anyone can set up anywhere in the world to raise money and awareness for Project AWARE's ocean protection initiatives. The premise of the campaign is the following,

Fight to stop the ugly journey of our trash
Insist on full protections for the most vulnerable shark and ray species
Negotiate policies that ensure a brighter future for our ocean and its wildlife

So, over the past 2 weeks, we have been educating our volunteer and setting up a series of challenges to test how much they have learnt. They had to use their new knowledge to answer questions, follow clues, complete forfeits, engage in challenges, design costumes and race to the finish line.

Most importantly, we have taught our volunteers just how easy these clean ups and events are to arrange so we hope they will go on to arrange events and clean-ups wherever they find themselves next.

Thank you for supporting us in our work!

With Gratitude,

GVI Mexico

The amazing team of volunteers

All fun and games!

Links:

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