INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS

ACHIEVEMENTS SUMMER 1999

          In terms of all our objectives, this past summer has been one of outstanding achievements; in terms of the quality of experience overall at times it seemed we were 'as good as it gets'. As one departing volunteer wrote of his experience: ' some of us are still on earth but are already dead, some have left us, but are still alive, among us....................the fight is not only about Tenerife, but about all human beings and the whole world...........it may be a drop of water, maybe a tear drop but I know that drop is going to move the world as it moved my soul...........into the fight, my soul is always going to be on your side.....' We received many, many such letters!!
           All three core objectives- conservation, community development and volunteer empowerment are of equal importance to us. The most difficult and often seemingly elusive of these has been that of community development and particularly of community involvement. This summer saw all that change. The local community has given up its own warriors- proud and defiant, wanting to learn and able to see beyond themselves, starting to work and spend time with the international co-ordinators and volunteers, learning that we are not 'giri'- not all bad.....and, most interestingly, defending us within their communities whenever rumours start on drunkenness and debauchery.
           Yasmine, described as 'a nutter' by her own people, has forged strong relationships both with the boat crews and the volunteers and in all three ports as well as with the Capitan General's office. Sulay beavers away in la Hidalga, making sure we do not elope with any books (any volunteer's own book left down for more than five minutes gets catalogued and put on the bookshelf- if the owner dares reclaim it endless messages of 'another missing book' are generated.). Sulay has finished translating the OHPs and Training Manual and is increasingly involved in the induction training, (scary or what!).
           Palmi co-ordinates their activities with varying degrees of frustration but always with authority and the driver, Eve, is as solid as a rock. The cook, I never dared ask her name, is out of control but is teaching the volunteers to prepare wonderful Canarian dishes. She insists on taking the gas heater off the showers to help cook the dinners more quickly and brings a bodyguard with her to carry the canister down to the kitchen and stop anybody resisting. So fearsome is the bodyguard that volunteers and co-ordinators alike would rather brave ice cold showers!!
           This is a Canarian team as cranky as any of the international co-ordinator teams that we have had. It is full of character and it is a team and, they are going to stick!! Ask any development project anywhere in the world whether they have managed to achieve this level of local commitment and realise just what an extraordinary achievement this has been. Also on the community front, we managed to get out Proyecto's first sixteen page newsletter and have inspired contributions for the current issue from the whale watch crews and community alike. For the first time, we have a vehicle to explain what we are doing direct to those with whom we are working and on whom we depend so much on.
           La Laguna University also joined us this summer. Many of the young undergraduates were inspired by their stay with us and a number of them will come back next year and help us to co-ordinate the projects. They have also got priority on research proposals for next year which will help further to develop local participation. We also went into the schools for the first time with children's workshops and had locals come down to see what we were up to- an important step if we are to avoid the kind of speculation Frankenstein must have experienced. Tenerife Conservation was just one of a number of local ngo's with whom Proyecto' signed 'Convenio' agreements this summer, the results of which will be seen in a wide range of joint projects next year ranging from developing eco-tourism initiatives to monitoring turtle movements.
           Interaction with local businesses, the bars and dive centre in particular, as always, was a great success. Jorge sends his regards. And, finally, La Hidalga was completed and can now be photographed from outside!! ( the arrival of a Belgium television crew was the final impetus to complete the rendering and whitewashing of the site! the completion of the tiled courtyards, re-equipped resource centre, landscaping, etc etc ). Now fully resourced, La Hidalga will be an invaluable local source of employment and wealth for the local community over the years. Once fully committed as a field centre, it should be capable of generating 50-60 local quality jobs and inspiring many more!
           As to the conservation objective, it is difficult to know where to begin. Using Tenerife as a platform to raise awareness of cetacean issues on a European level and selling that idea to the whale watch industry was one of the summer's initial projects. The poster design, in conjunction with Greenpeace was a masterpiece and tens of thousands have been given out free to tourists with the message that they should 'do something'- we will get 100,000 signatures for the industry to present to Greenpeace in time for the IWC conference and the presentation of its Global Ocean project.
           As to the whale watch industry itself, the greatest development this year has been the development of ADELMAR, the captain's association. We have helped them put together their own code of conduct and now are negotiating with the WDCS for their endorsement of this. This will lead to the development of professional training programmes, to detailed and pathbreaking boat impact research as we test the captain's ideas and to new legislation. Everyone knows that this is the conservation breakthrough, that if we can make this work then we will have achieved all we have been working for this past six years.
           Methodology for the boat impact work was put together at the end of the summer after the completion of the bottlenose dolphin study in Los Gigantes. The pilot run for the ADELMAR project was undertaken in September and the results now have to be taken to the WDCS for discussion.
           The summer saw an extraordinary burst of reserach activity: the Marine Habitat Survey, with our first dive teams and their assorted antics, and with our first encounter with Submetrix and the sea bed monitoring equipment. We found sunken wrecks (we like to think treasure ships!), and rings of stone- perhaps evidence of Atlantis! The photo identification process was developed and made more efficient and we now have databases covering pilot whales ( we can now start asking whether we have identified most animals) bottlenosed dolphins, rough toothed dolphins and the giant whales. Our photographic and video footage is astounding as is our first video production shows!
           The pollution study managed to set up benchline data for heavy metal content and water quality around the island and for air/ water quality within the Guimar Valley. It also led to the start of the first shore line ecology surveys with work concentrated in the Guimar Valley, around San Juan and near the airport. The psychology study came up trumps and we even have data for emotional intelligence (or was it instability) of our volunteers! The Management Survey was not only written up, but analysed and presented to the boat crews!!
           All data is currently being analysed and reports compiled- these will be made available through the web site and you will be notified as soon as information is available.
           All research work is geared toward developing educational materials for use on the boats, in classrooms, for teachers, for media etc. Here, we excelled- not only did we completely revamp the technical guides and get them out in English and Spanish, but we developed new Induction Training materials in Spanish and English with a superb collection of OHPs; and training workshops targeted at tourists, local conservationists and school children. We also produced a wonderful set of educational booklets introducing the character of Soraya who, no doubt will have many adventures in the future. At the last count these booklets were in Spanish French and English. We also have Dutch, German and Italian translations of most work being processed.
           One of the hardest of all these activities was the development of a bottlenose dolphin resource centre in the showroom offices of the Katrin in Los Gigantes and the Thursday night talks given to passers by. We literally had to get people off the street to get them to listen to what they could see whale watching- as always, everybody was sceptical and, again as always, people were entranced by the information given out and the passion in delivery.
           On the empowerment side, its hard to know where to start. Some three hundred European volunteers (with many from further afield including Japan, USA and Brazil) spent what many described as the best time of their lives and that all agreed was an experience not to be forgotten ( a comment that goes as well for those few who thought they had gone to hell!). Many, many of the volunteers will come back, there have been several parties already and we are getting repeated requests for booking information for next year. The projects are very firmly established and will grow from this strong base.
           New ideas abound- the Atlantic Whale Foundation, itself springing from the projects last summer, will be a major fundraising vehicle to acquire research equipment and, excitingly, an Island or two to develop similar projects elsewhere in the Atlantics. Opinion is divided between a Scottish island somewhere near the north pole or somewhere a little warmer as in the Caribbean. In the Canaries, there are to be projects next year in El Hierro and La Gomera and maybe on some of the other islands. The web site has been revamped extensively and it is our intent to become increasingly internet based for ease of communication...........................................