Mananuca Islands Dive Into Earth Day
Added to website: 21 March 2005
What is Dive into Earth Week?
Earth Day is an international event that takes place every year with solely the environment in mind. This year it is on the 20th of March. ‘Dive In’ To Earth Day, however, is not until April 22nd. This celebration is slightly different as it is initiated by an international organisation called CORAL (Coral Reef Alliance) and involves thousands of divers, community members and tourists organising beach clean-ups, mooring installations, community festivals, and other marine-related events to help celebrate coral reefs and marine conservation around the world. With the desire of local village community members and tourism operators, the Mamanuca Environment Society, in conjunction with Coral Cay Conservation, is organising this day in the Mamanuca area. Similar to last year, this year we are planning to do a village clean-up, a beach clean-up, and an underwater clean-up (snorkel of the lagoons) at the four villages in the Mamanuca area.
Rationale for Dive into Earth Week
Rubbish has become a problem everywhere: even the most remote tropical islands are now plagued with litter which washes up on beaches and reefs, smothering and killing marine life and posing a health risk to humans. Non-biodegradable garbage may persist for hundreds of years, spoiling both the aesthetic and the economic value of an area. This effort in the Mamanucas brings together the tourism industry through the dive operators and resorts with the village communities and non-governmental organisations working in the area. It is the largest concerted and collaborative clean-up effort throughout the Mamanuca area. It is hoped this will become a regular event to be held in the area with more and more organisations and people participating every year.
Aims and Objectives
Raising awareness and educating local communities on littering, the damage littering can have and how to minimise littering is a primary objective. Leaflets on importance of Coral reefs, how to protect them and the effects of rubbish on the environment will be given out to community members to give them a firmer understanding. The Mamanuca Environment Society and Coral Cay Conservation will be giving a briefing/talk to groups as to the importance of the rubbish clean up on land and underwater. Team leaders will give talks to village children and village community members involved in the clean-up on the damage littering has on their environment, and how to be more aware of waste. A briefing will also be given to the dive operators and guests involved in the underwater clean-up. For the underwater clean-ups performed by the Dive operators the Coral Reef Alliance an International organisation has provided a set of guidelines to follow in order to minimise damage through cleaning up in the underwater environment.
Tentative Plan for ‘Dive In’ To Earth Week
There will be a community, beach and lagoon (snorkel/dive) clean-up held in the afternoon at each of the villages of Solevu, Yaro, Yanuya, and Tavua on the following dates:
Solevu - April 18, 2005
Yaro - April 19, 2005
Yanuya - April 20, 2005
Tavua - April 21, 2005
The MES will contact each member resort with their assigned roles for these dates, as members of the Northern Mamanucas will not be obligated to help in the Southern islands and vice versa, as time and travel is an issue.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any further queries mes@connect.com.fj
We look forward to a fun event!
Vinaka vakalevu,
Alifereti Qauqau
Project Manager, MES
