Apart from being at sea, one of the aspects of ATF work that interests me is improving our understanding of the social and cultural aspects of people’s behaviour toward biodiversity.
A fundamental requirement for any conservation project is for the local community to understand the effect of our actions on the environment. I have often been impressed with communities like Talcahuano, in central southern Chile where I found grandparents, children and students alike were interested in issues as far removed from normal human life as oceanic seabird bycatch.
The ATF in Chile strongly reinforces at-sea activities with awareness and education projects to discuss this problem with the local communities. We have set up an annual programme of activities that encourages audience participation to promote the reduction of seabird bycatch.
The Birdlife partner in Chile "Codeff" and especially their representative Patricio Ortiz have provided important support in this work as have other environmental groups such as Daniel Mora of "TEC cerrado" based in Talcahuano. I cannot mention everyone involved as the list is long, and thankfully, continues to grow.
In 2012 we held two events in central Chile including Viña del Mar, at the University of Valparaiso and Concepcion at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Oceanography of the University of Concepción: our thanks to those institutions and the students for all their support.
Among the results of these events, we raise money through raffle prizes and souvenirs, in order to buy materials to build mitigation measures like bird-scaring lines. An excellent example of community participation is the recruitment of volunteers who help build these mitigation measures.
So a big thank you to all involved for allowing us to share the ideas and dreams that could forever change the way we co-exist in this world.
Below: Cristian Suazo (left), and Luis Cabezas (right) with Daniel Romo (centre), winner of the Book Seabirds, which was donated as a raffle prize courtesy of Peter Harrison. (Photo: Daniel Mora)
Below: Participants at the University of Concepción (Photo: Daniel Mora)