Honduras Community & Marine Conservation Project
Our Honduras project on Utila puts scientific outputs into educational resources for local people and combines this with practical conservation work.
Quest volunteer teams have been working on Utila since 2007 where we have been supporting the local NGO in their development of a marine ecology centre. QUEST have been keen to support this marine paradise and the local community through educational work and subsidising local students.
Objectives
The short-term goals are to create an environmental education programme based on the scientific outputs from our local partners. Local involvement is key and therefore at every stage local teachers and groups are involved in planning and decision making. Longer term goals involve the development training and education programmes for local islanders and the protection of the reef system around Utila.
- Our funding helped to support local research students from the national university complete their theses projects, one of which got an honorary mention for her work and we are now putting a paper together on the results
- A portion of the funds went into helping to buy a computer for the office for use by volunteers and visiting students to input data and to design and make educational materials which they then distribute.
Future plans include the sponsorship of local people to be involved in marine conservation and management and expanding the educational program to other islands and communities in the Honduran Bay Islands.
