Seacology: how successful is their model?
February 19th, 2008
I’ve given a few dollars to Seacology in the past… I’ve always thought that they had an innovative approach, particularly their “win-win” strategy. Specifically, they will often ask for a local tribe/village to declare a marine/forest area off-limits to hunting. In return, Seacology will build a school, community center, or water treatment facility. That’s really cool.
But, recently, I’ve started to wonder if their model is viable.
Let’s take a scroll through some of their OLDER projects (>5 years) that have had follow-ups (by Seacology) in the last year or so.
UPDATE July 2005 - Former field representative Korrina Horta visited the May 2005 planting event and reported that the project is providing much-needed reforestation to the Funchal hillsides and that the children visibly enjoy the contact with nature and learning about native plants.
UPDATE January 2006 - Project leader, Manuela Nunes, visited the sites in December 2005. She found some equipment was missing from the facilities and bad weather had caused damage to one site. Ms. Nunes worked with the communities to replace materials during her visit and learned that another funding source has offered to repair storm damage. During her visit a short turtle and bird protection awareness campaign was conducted in the form of radio announcements and distribution of leaflets to villagers. She also noted that the schools in the area are conducting turtle conservation campaigns. However, turtle poaching remains a major problem.
UPDATE July 2007 - After her site visits in Micronesia, Seacology Senior Program Officer Karen Peterson reports that the Seacology-funded solar power system at the community center has not been functioning. A solar contractor in the Marshall Islands has been identified who could repair the system and train locals to maintain it. The road to the community center is also scheduled to be improved within the next year, which will enhance access. The area is still under protection, and there are several clean-up parties planned at the center. The center itself is in need of re-thatching but is due to be repaired in the near future.
UPDATE July 2007 - After her site visits in Micronesia, Seacology Senior Program Officer Karen Peterson reports that the area is well-demarcated with buoys and is along a beautiful stretch of mangrove coastline. The “floating ranger station,” which was originally built with local materials has recently been rebuilt with more robust materials. There is a small solar panel on the roof of the station, which will be hooked up to a light in the near future. The station offers a good vantage point of the entire reserve as well as the mangrove area, where most poaching takes place (at night).
UPDATE July 2007 - After her site visits in Micronesia, Seacology Senior Program Officer Karen Peterson reports that PCS director Tiare Holme stated that protection for the Ebiil Channel Marine Conservation Area, which was due to expire in 2006, has been extended in perpetuity.
UPDATE October 2007 - Additional funds were provided in August 2007 to complete new house wiring before connection from the FEA. In September 2007 the FEA completed the connection to the three villages and electricity is now being supplied to village houses. Saula Vodonaivalu reported that villagers were very happy with the new electricity and asked him to send their message of sincere appreciation to Seacology.
Here’s my problem with Seacology.
On paper, many of their achievements sound great. Indeed, on their home page they have a little odometer that shows that they have currently protected 157,000 terrestrial acres and 1.8 million marine acres.
But in some ways this reminds me a bit of the news today that Kiribati established the largest marine reserve in the world (164,000 square miles). That’s great… BUT they only have a single boat to enforce the fishing ban in this area the size of California. It’s a paper tiger.
It’s pretty easy if you are sitting on an island in the Indian ocean to host a group of happy Americans and let them build a school for you… and you just have to agree not to fish in a certain area. But who enforces that no-fish zone? Simply putting up buoys to demark the reserve (as Seacology does in some places) isn’t really sufficient.
Similarly, many of Seacology’s projects haven’t apparently had any updates or visits for several years. And, often, the updates are simply about the status of the schoolhouse or community center, rather than the state of the protected area.
There appears to be no comprehensive and scientific scrutiny of the effectiveness of Seacology’s techniques. Marine life surveys before and during marine reserve setup, for example, should occur, and would help determine if poaching continues, and if the reserve itself is working. It’s not really sufficient to have a project leader come for a day or two once every couple of years and take a look around.
Finally, I understand that Seacology, as with many charities, is big on travel, and, particularly, inviting people to come along on their trips (for a donation, of course). That’s fine… but to what end does this serve the projects? Does squiring patrons around Fiji actually help a project, or does it fritter away valuable resources (staff time, etc.)?
A few years back I thought Seacology was cool in that, as a small charity, it is doing actual conservation work in innovative ways worldwide… and for a shoestring budget. But now I’m not so sure. Their projects sound great (although there seem to be an awful lot in beautiful Fiji), but it seems as though, in some ways, they are spending more time planning wildlife safaris for guests rather than doing comprehensive follow-through.
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