Atlantic Whale Foundation
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| The Atlantic Whale Foundation | |
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| Founder(s) | Ed Bentham |
|---|---|
| Founded | 26 November 1999 [1] |
| Headquarters | London, England |
| Key people | Ed Bentham |
| Focus | Animal rights Conservation Environment Ecotourism |
| Method | Education Research Awareness |
| Volunteers | 20 |
| Owner | Ed Bentham |
| Slogan | “Encouraging individuals to make a difference through positive action within communities, the environment and in nature, globally." |
| Website | www.whalenation.org |
The Atlantic Whale Foundation, (AWF) is a conservation charity founded in London, England and based in Arona, Tenerife. Its motto is "The responsibility to defend nature belongs to each of us – as individuals". Founded in 1995 in London, England, the Atlantic Whale Foundation is a non profit, volunteer run organisation, and is funded mainly by the volunteers and public donations. Outside Tenerife, there are many affiliated projects around the world, dealing not only with conservation, but also humanitarian work, restoration, environmental and teaching based projects.
The AWF’s slogan is “Encouraging individuals to make a difference through positive action within communities, the environment and in nature, globally. “ This ideal is being realised via the Earth Ambassadors.
Launched 2004 the Earth Ambassadors aim to help develop the Global Project & Volunteer Database and “inspire countless thousands of others do something of their own; and we help them in their work”. [2]
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[edit] Profile
The Atlantic Whale Foundation is a British registered charity (Number 1076270), registered office: St Martins House, 59 St Martins Lane, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 4JS. [3] It was founded to continue the work of Spanish environmental agency, Proyecto Ambiental Tenerife and works primarily towards helping to make Tenerife’s whale watching industry a global example of best practice. Activities revolve around education, conservation and research initiatives. The charity is volunteer led and funded via donations. [4]
[edit] Volunteer Work
- Further information: whale watching
The core volunteer programme runs throughout the year in the research station in Arona, Tenerife. This facility is a charming old Canarian farm house which can accommodate approximately twenty people, most of whom will be co-ordinators or project leaders and Earth Ambassadors passing through. Volunteers work five days per week, which is divided between three or four days spent on the whale watching boats operating out of Los Gigantes, Los Cristianos and Playa las Americas and the rest of their time in the resource centre processing data, working on their particular project and assisting where their skills lend best. [5]
On the boats they assist our research guides in carrying out our research work and in handing out and talking through educational materials with the on-board tourists. They also integrate with the crew on a professional basis doing everything from helping to clean up, serve food and act as research guides. [6]
Volunteer areas include; Research, Art, Educational Workshops, Fund Raising, Media, Photography, Film, Internet Marketing, Conservation Initiatives, International Developments and Strategic Management. Volunteers are encouraged to find a project within one or more of these categories and to work on this during their stay. [7]
[edit] Campaigns and activism
The AWF hopes to see an end to captivity through raising awareness about cetaceans in captivity by educating the millions of passing tourists in Tenerife about the threats they face. These threats include; living in a chemically treated water environment, which can damage their skin and eyes and lead to chlorine poisoning and death, pneumonia, intestinal disease, ulcers, and other stress-related illnesses, including suspected suicide. Further threats are from the incorrect administration or insufficient knowledge of cetacean veterinary medicine. Additionally, the ingestion of foreign objects, such as coins, litter and small toys which may enter their pools is a problem particularly in petting pools. [8]
The AWF has been campaigning for years through an online petition to stop the Japanese and their allies from wresting control of the IWC (International Whaling Commission) [9] from the hands of the conservationists. They believe that this will result in a large scale resumption of the great whales at a time when many of these species and facing the possibility of extinction. [10]
[edit] Earth Ambassadors
As hundreds of incredible people had volunteered with the Atlantic Whale Foundation and its predecessor, Proyecto Ambiental Tenerife, it was possible to create a new project using the best and brightest ex-volunteers. This project works by sending out these individuals to countries of their choice, so that they can identify grassroots projects and provide effective funding methods to sustain these projects. [11]
It has been an ongoing issue as to how to build on their collective strengths and energies in ways that help them do more whilst enabling them to inspire and motivate others, particularly young people, and help them to find the strength and courage to follow their own dreams and develop their own individual sense of responsibility..
– Ed Bentham, [12]
The main aim of the Earth Ambassadors is to help develop the Global Project & Volunteer Database and to inspire countless thousands of others do something of their own; and help them in their work. [13]
[edit] The World Project Database
The World Project Database is a free online database of international humanitarian, environmental and animal welfare related projects. This database was created to link people, like the AWF volunteers, to others who want to make a difference to volunteer opportunities all over the world. It was created by the Atlantic Whale Foundation’s volunteers looking for other volunteering projects that are liberating and life changing.
This database can be freely searched for a wide variety of affordable projects from saving the rainforests to researching humpback whales, restoring historical buildings to guarding turtle nesting beaches during the hatching season. In addition to volunteer opportunities they hope to help identify resource and funding needs that individuals or communities can help with and campaigning possibilities for individual projects. [14]
[edit] 2008
The Atlantic Whale Foundation sets out to start this year with “clear vision, proven ideas, and strong networks and, critically, funding in place to make things happen.”
The Earth Ambassador Programme will consolidate in Sri Lanka [15] and visit a range of targeted countries to further develop the programme. Plans include Earth Ambassador visits to: Ecuador, Suriname, Argentina, Madagascar, Indonesia, Romania, Vietnam and India, as well as identifying grassroots projects in other countries through their various networks.
Funding Programmes: In Sri Lanka they are now in a position to enormously increase their fundraising[16] capacity, both in terms of developing funding for core programmes and in identifying collaborators for specific projects such as tree planting initiatives[17] and global resource centres[18]
Volunteering: they intend to consolidate the Tenerife volunteer programme as an example of ‘best practice’; and develop volunteer programmes in Sri Lanka; and initiate (also in Sri Lanka) the construction of a locally driven Community Resource Centre[19] which, with volunteer[20] accommodation attached, will drive local projects in a sustainable way.
D Nome Project[21] they will develop research initiatives around the central concept of ‘talking with animals’ as a critical way of drawing people’s attention to the wonder of nature and, once achieved, to the need for all to take an individual responsibility for taking action. The focus will be on children and the development of children’s educational programmes based on the work they do. Initial research works will be with Dolphins (Tenerife) and Elephants (Sri Lanka) although the D.Nome project will become a central resource for projects working with animal communication globally- fascinating and hopefully inspirational stuff. There will be great emphasis on multimedia techniques in the communication of conservation issues.
Tenerife, as the core volunteer programme, will be consolidating its work in Tenerife as a focus of best practice and building it into a hub for a growing and global network of projects. Core objectives this year will be to publish quality books on the Pilot Whales of Tenerife (possibly also bottlenose dolphins of Los Gigantes) in collaboration with Sergio Hanquet [22] and incorporating the results of their photo identification work over the past twelve years. Also, they will be using this new database to facilitate interactive multimedia technology on key whale watching boats so individual and family details of whales identified from their fins whilst whale watching can be instantly displayed on board boats. Further, they will also be developing a local charity as an adjunct of AWF to facilitate fundraising in Tenerife. Finally, and as a core activity, they will be creating an eco-tourist web site for the island linking rural properties, local tourist assets such as bars, restaurants, museums etc with whale watching boats and other nature or cultural pursuits.
WhaleNation will progress by linking ethical whale watching eco tourism around the world and a global resource for research, festivals, conservation, and research initiatives into cetaceans. [23]
[edit] References
- ^ [1] UK government database of registered charities.
- ^ [2] Whalenation website (about us).
- ^ [3] UK government database of registered charities.
- ^ [4] Whalenation website (about us).
- ^ [5] Whalenation website (volunteer opportunities).
- ^ [6] Whalenation website (volunteer opportunities).
- ^ [7] Whalenation website (volunteer opportunities).
- ^ [8] Whalenation website (captivity).
- ^ [9] IWC Wikipedia
- ^ [10] Whalenation website (conservation).
- ^ [11] Earth Ambassadors
- ^ [12] Earth Ambassadors
- ^ [13] Earth Ambassadors
- ^ [14] Whalenation website (volunteer projects).
- ^ [15] Whalenation (Sri Lanka)
- ^ [16] Whalenation website (Fundraising).
- ^ [17] Whalenation (tree planting initiatives)
- ^ [18] Whalenation website (volunteer opportunities).
- ^ [19] Whalenation website (global resource centres).
- ^ [20] Whalenation website (global resource centres).
- ^ [21] Whalenation website (D. Nome project).
- ^ [22] Sergio Hanquet
- ^ [23] Whalenation website (2008 at a glance).
