Ahead of the voyage, this project will be using social media platforms and partnerships to create educational material to raise awareness around Blue Carbon. Ten percent of all funds received will go towards the restoration of coastal habitats with local partners that are visited throughout the journey.

Leader: Louise-Oceane Delion, 27

Website

Mikoko Pamoja plants 4,000 mangrove seedlings (Sonneratia Alba) annually, which capture carbon and serve as a carbon credit. Changes to the sites from human development and climate change have made it so that typical mangrove planting no longer works. SOA grants support them in piloting the Riley Encasement Technique, an innovative replanting method, in a bid to rehabilitate mangroves in the denuded high energy intertidal areas of Gazi bay. And instead of encasing seedlings in plastic they use clay pots.

The carbon through storage and avoided deforestation totals 2,000 tonnes annually, as certified by ACES. 

Additionally, 50 people will be trained in sustainable bee keeping, with the aim of empowering them to generate revenue from the sale of honey and related goods, and 130kg of trash will be removed from Msimbazi River.

In view of the aggravation of erosion of salt marshes in the Yangtze Estuary caused by global climate change and human activities, we plan to propose ecological restoration measures to maintain the habitat diversity of estuarine wetlands, so as to provide support for sustainable fishery output.

Leader: Sikai Wang, 35

Website

Participants will receive mentoring by marine science experts and professionals along the way. Projects have the opportunity to be selected and certified by the esteemed design thinking firm, Design for Change.

Leader: Janice Márquez de la Plata Molina, 27

Website

Watch their video

Their goal is to: 1. Re-establish fish habitat and help to restore fish populations by providing artificial reefs of 40 coral spiders; 2. Increase the percentage of coral cover by transplanting 500 corals at restoration sites, and 3. Become a model of community-based conservation activities on small islands in Anambas.

Video: 2021

With SOA support, they’ve constructed and tested 3 different structure types outfitted with 250 coral receivers, and have deployed 1200 Coral Lok Bases, outplanting 6,000 coral.

https://www.oceanrescuealliance.org/

A large part of Mymizu's mission is education on the oceans & the plastic problem; they carry out workshops and awareness-raising activities at schools, universities & events (70+ times in the past 7 months to 5000+ people), as well as create digital content (e.g. infographics/videos) to engage people on social channels.

With SOA funds, they have developed fun, educational materials for Mymizu volunteers and community members to carry out their own workshops across Japan, enabling them to reach significantly more people through localized and volunteer-led workshops (both online and/or in-person).

Gambia Ocean Heroes is a service-learning project under the GREAT Institute created in 2018. Apart from clean up activities, the GOH supports local communities and organizations to take the lead in efforts towards promoting ocean health and reducing plastic pollution. Since 2018, GOH has collected 350 tonnes of trash along The Gambia’s coastline and is excited to expand this effort to rivers. 

All blogs produced with support from this microgrant: 

1. Banning single use plastic in India

2. Plastic in menstrual products

3. Microplastics

4. How to reduce waste

Read more about Saathi here.

Check out their website.

This project seeks to leverage data and storytelling tools to spotlight the challenge of marine pollution and its dangers to society. The project also deploys a digital campaign involving use of short videos and infographics to educate residents across West Africa on the dangers of marine pollution, and improve practices of waste management.

Read more about their project and read a recent article here.

More articles on plastic waste and marine pollution,

The information garnered from this study will provide data on manta ray life-history parameters and lend insights into whether sites repeatedly used by smaller individuals can be considered nurseries for this species, which is an understudied aspect of manta ray ecology. Information from this study will inform tourism management within the MPA.

Check out their website.

Previous monitoring work by the organization associated with this grant (Hombre y Territorio) has identified heavily polluted sites due to intensive agriculture. 

Primary activities include cleanup and litter characterization, analysis of water samples for microplastics by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), training citizen scientists to maintain fieldwork, and communicating project impact with local policymakers and stakeholders.

The project will conduct scientific research using Environmental DNA (E-DNA) and fisheries surveys to investigate the problem of sawfish bycatch, which is one of the major factors leading to the decline of sawfish populations in Merauke, Indonesia. Sawfish Project Indonesia ultimately aims to enhance the capacity of indigenous people in Merauke to continue the important work of sawfish conservation locally. This project will perform an incubator workshop to teach the youth of Merauke about sawfish conservation.