Progress report for
Marine Conservation Masterplan - Vizhinjam/Kovalam, India
Achievement at a glance
Our team in India has been slowly progressing towards the implementation of our long-term objectives, as outline in our 5-year Masterplan for the region. In April, we officially opened our Marine Conservation Centre on the ground in Kovalam, with our 3 Coordinators commencing work from May. To date, the team has been developing core relationships with local NGO's, government institutions, scientific bodies and local businesses to further understand the local context of the issues which we are trying to address. We have partnered with 8 of these groups and are ready to commence our major projects.To date, we have run a number of brand audits, beach surveys and education programs, as well as participating in some local conferences including The National Conference of Marine Debris in Kochi, as well as the World Oceans Day Conference in Kovalam. Our biggest hurdle at present has been funding. Without the necessary funds to implement our programs, the team is unable to progress and so we have been working hard to raise the funds needed to ensure that the programs can operate and achieve their objectives. At present, we have a dedicated volunteer team who is focused on corporate sponsorship and grant writing and we are hopeful that we will engage a major sponsor to fund the project before the end of the year.
Over the coming weeks the team will be commencing our major clean-up of Vizhinjam Harbour, alongside our major partners. They are also in the process of implementing small-scale plastic recycling programs in schools as part of our ongoing education programs. Please stay updated and if you would like to support our program further, please write to Karl Goodsell (project leader) via k.goodsell@pcfml.org.au