Seacology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seacology is a non-profit, non-governmental organization with the sole mission of preserving the ecosystems and cultures of islands throughout the globe. Seacology is headquartered in Berkeley, California.
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[edit] Founding
In 1990 the Samoan government gave the remote village of Falealupo an ultimatum to build a better school or teachers would be removed and their children would not be educated. Having no other source of revenue, the villagers sold the logging rights to their rainforest. Before the forest could be logged, Seacology, with the enthusiastic consent of the village of Falealupo, constructed a new school in return for an agreement protecting their 30,000-acre rainforest. The project was so successful that Ken Murdock, a donor to the Falealupo project, suggested there was a need to undertake further win-win projects where a critically needed humanitarian benefit requested by islanders is provided in exchange for the establishment of a marine or forest reserve. This led to the founding of Seacology in 1991. For their efforts in protecting the Falealupo forest, Dr. Paul Cox and Falealupo village Chief Fuino Senio received the Goldman Environmental Prize.
[edit] Projects and Achievements
Seacology searches for win-win projects where local island villagers receive a tangible benefit they request in exchange for establishing a marine or forest reserve. As of September 2006 Seacology has launched 130 projects on 80 islands in 40 nations. These projects have now preserved more than 1,800,000 acres of marine and terrestrial habitat. Examples include the following:
- In Pinasungkulan Village on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, Seacology has funded a fresh water well system for the entire village in exchange for the establishment of a 191-acre no-take rainforest reserve and a 98-acre no-take mangrove and coral reef reserve.
- In the remote Mt. Bosavi region of Papua New Guinea, Seacology has constructed two community resource centers in support of the conservation of several hundred thousand acres of rainforest.
- On the island of Kendhoo in the Maldives, Seacology has funded the construction of a kindergarten in exchange for an agreement from the village of Kendhoo to not harvest the eggs of endangered sea turtles.
- On Seram Island, Indonesia, Seacology has funded the construction of two rural health clinics and provided health training and education in exchange for the protection of a 370-acre rainforest.
- On Fiji’s Vanua Levu Island, Seacology has provided a community center for Dakuniba Village in exchange for the protection of 763 acres of pristine rainforest and 24,711 acres of marine habitat.
[edit] Leadership
Seacology’s chairman is Dr. Paul Alan Cox, a botanist whose scientific research focuses on the ecology of island plants and the ethnobotany of island peoples. Dr. Cox is a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize and was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of eleven ‘Heroes of Medicine.”
Seacology’s executive director is Duane Silverstein. For 18 years prior to heading Seacology he was director of both the Goldman Fund and the Goldman Environmental Foundation. The New York Times has called Silverstein “one of the world’s leading island explorers.”
Seacology’s Scientific Advisory Board is composed of island experts such as Dr. E.O. Wilson, Dr. Jared Diamond and marine explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle.
[edit] Island Facts
According to the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN)’s Global Species Assessment report, of all recorded species extinctions since 1500 A.D., “In total, 62 percent of mammals, 88 percent of birds, 54 percent of amphibians, 86 percent of reptiles, and 68 percent of mollusks were island species.”
David Quammen states on page 264 of his book The Song of the Dodo, since 1600 “Lord Howe Island, a lonesome little bump halfway between Australia and New Zealand, lost more species and subspecies of bird than the combined total lost in Africa, Asia, and Europe.” On page 379 of the same book, Quammen writes that “Hawaii alone has lost more bird species than were lost from all the continents on Earth.”
Dr. Peter J. Bryant, professor of development and cell biology at the University of California, Irvine has written that the unprecedented rate of island species extinctions is “one of the swiftest and most profound biological catastrophes in the history of the earth.”
According to a 2006 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the top ten mammal ‘extinction hotspots’ worldwide are all located on islands. The Pacific Islands have the highest per capita number of rare, threatened and endangered species of any region on Earth.
The island nations of Indonesia and the Philippines have more species threatened with extinction than any other nations on this planet.
