Honduras & UK Launch New 'CCC Scholarship Awards' For Coral Reef Protection In The Bay Islands
Added to website: 06 April 2003
Coral Cay Conservation (CCC), the award-winning premier British coral reef conservation group, will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Tourism for collaboration with ‘Programa Manejo Ambiental Islas de la Bahia’ (PMAIB). This will coincide with the launch of the ‘CCC Scholarship Awards’ in partnership with Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras (UNAH).
Since 1998, over 1,000 British CCC volunteers have worked in close partnership with PMAIB, UNAH, the Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA) and local communities, to help protect the vitally important but threatened coral reefs of the Bay Islands of Honduras. The ‘CCC Scholarship Awards’ will provide extensive and comprehensive conservation education and training opportunities for Honduran citizens, in support of an international initiative to conserve the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef Eco-system, a vast and inter-connected ‘biodiversity corridor’ of coral reefs, stretching for over 700km northwards from Honduras into the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
Each year, up to 100 ‘CCC Scholarship Awards’ will be made available to any suitable Honduran citizen wishing to make an active contribution towards the protection and sustainable use of coral reefs in Honduras. Two types of Awards will be made available:
‘CCC Reef Awareness Awards’
These short scholarship courses will provide training in both SCUBA diving (to PADI ‘Advanced Open Water Diver’ certification) and in general reef awareness and appreciation. Training schedules are designed to be highly flexible and tailored to the needs and availability of persons concerned, allowing recipients who, for example, might be in full-time employment and can therefore only spare a few weekends to participate.
‘CCC Reef Conservation Awards’
These four-week intensive residential scholarship courses are aimed primarily at Hondurans wishing not only to obtain SCUBA training certification, but also certification under the ‘CCC Skills Development Training Programme’. These awards are ideal for Honduran citizens who can dedicate at least four weeks of their time to intensive training and who plan to use this training to make an active and effective contribution to the conservation of Honduran coral reefs. University undergraduates are particularly welcome to apply.
Professor David Bellamy OBE, President of CCC and on behalf of the United Kingdom, will sign the Memorandum of Understanding between CCC and PMAIB at a signing ceremony with the Government of Honduras in Tegucigalpa on Monday 31 March. This will be followed by the official launch of the ‘CCC Scholarship Awards’ at a press briefing at the British Embassy, and afterwards by a VIP Reception to be hosted by the British Ambassador at her Residence. On Tuesday 01 April, Prof. Bellamy will host an ‘Open Day’ for 150 invited guests at CCC’s Headquarters on Roatan.
Professor David Bellamy OBE, the world-renowned botanist, conservationist, author and TV celebrity, said: “The coral reefs of Honduras, which form an important part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef Eco-system, are truly unique, encompassing reefs, cays, grass flats, and mangrove swamps, collectively extending 700km in length. For centuries, these reefs and islands were used by traditional Mayan fisheries but in the last five decades, pressure on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef has increased tremendously: commercial fishing, sedimentation, agrochemicals, sewage, dredging and tourism have become major threats to these magnificent reefs. The ‘CCC Scholarship Awards’ will now enable Hondurans from all walks of life to become directly involved in the protection of this Central American treasure”.
Like most areas of the world with exceptionally high levels of biodiversity, the coral reefs of Honduras are now under serious threat from unsustainable utilisation and other potentially destructive human activities. However, Honduras is now committed to the protection of its unique natural heritage, and through initiatives being conducted by local communities and programmes such as PMAIB, and with support from organisations such as the British CCC, the future security of the coral reefs of Honduras and thus the people dependent upon them for livelihood now look positive.
