Terra Conscious
is a conservation oriented social enterprise promoting responsible marine and coastal tourism in Goa. They
conduct ethical & sustainable wildlife and nature experiences, to build
awareness about local marine species and follow international guidelines for
wildlife watching. They also work with local communities, tour operators and institutions
to understand wildlife conservation challenges and build their capacity to be
sustainable tourism practitioners.
It is Terra
Conscious’ hope, that they becomes a platform, which creates an awareness and
an engaged community of operators, travelers, authorities and local communities
who work together to protect our oceans and coasts, thus ensuring that future
generations are still able to enjoy, experience and learn about marine
ecosystems.
In view of this Terra
Conscious started the ‘Goan Youth Leadership In Conservation Fellowship’ to
empower Goan youth to be a part of and initiate conservation action. Marishia
Rodrigues was the first recipient of this Fellowship for the year 2017-2018,
due to her Goan origins. As part of this she was given the opportunity to
complete her SSI open water diving course and was trained in The Art of
Hosting: Participatory Leadership practice by CircleWallas. At the end of the
fellowship she had to design and execute a project as an evaluation of the
skills that were built.
The conservation
intervention that she decided to focus on was awareness building in children.
In this project she aimed to address the gaps in knowledge about sea turtles by
taking a small step in building awareness about the species during 6 interactive
and experiential learning sessions with 15 children from Goa Outreach over 3
weeks. Engagement with the marine space can get very elitist, as marine based
activities can be expensive. Marishia is keen on changing this narrative by
engaging children from various backgrounds with this space so as to build a
more conscious and empathetic community of youth who are sensitive to wildlife
and the local environment.
In the first week the
children from Goa Outreach ( a small project supporting Indian slum and street
children with education, health and nutrician through outreach work), were
exposed to the first stage of a turtles life and the struggles turtle babies
face as hatchlings. The children were given an insight into the physiology and
general functioning of turtles and their body parts. As an activity the
children mapped out, in the form of drawings, what their perception of a beach
is, this helped understand the children’s’ existing outlook on the marine
space.
As part of the
experiential learning they were taken to the Morjim turtle information centre
where they interacted with on ground forest officials and looked at the various
stressors to baby sea turtles along the Morjim beach stretch. The temperature
at various points and depths along the beach was measured to better understand
temperature dependent sex determination in sea turtles. The children also
learnt how to use a compass and how female turtles use the magnetism of the
earth to locate the beach that they were born on to nest. Along with all the
learning, after a safety briefing from the lifeguards on the beach, the
children also had some fun swimming in the ocean and playing in the sand! A
visit to the turtle information centre brought out many curious questions from
the children that were answered by the forest official present.
Week 2 took the
children to the wonderful reef ecosystem. During the first session of the week
the children were introduced to the importance of the reef system, how it is
used by some turtles, and to the other curious and spectacular organisms that
make this system their home. The children learnt from co-founder of Terra
Conscious and dive instructor Roshan Gonsalves about how divers engage with the
marine space! The children also built a reef from waste material; this helped
them further understand the different organisms that live in that system. Day
two was a trip to the rock pools in Anjuna where the children engaged with the
space while also learning to snorkel. The day ended with a short tide pool walk
back to the beach! “Special thanks to Dive Instructors Roshan Gonsalves and
Vibodh Rath who took the kids snorkeling in the tide pools and also Barracuda
Diving India, who loaned us the dive equipment for the week, “said Puja Mitra,
Founder, Terra Conscious and a conservation practitioner currently living and
working in Goa.
In week 3 the
children were exposed to the various threats, natural and anthropogenic, faced
by turtles through different stages of their life and how these also affect the
marine system at large. A particular focus was given to waste and waste
management. The children also interacted with Espie Kandolkar who leads the
Green Goa Works team in Khorlim, Mapusa. She introduced them to the importance
of reducing waste and composting. “We thank her for taking time out and
interacting with these children! Terra Conscious would also like to thank all
the kind donors without whom this project would not have been possible!,” adds
Puja.
“One of the most
important factors of conservation outreach and education is the ripple effect
that it has, I was empowered and inspired by my work at Terra Conscious to
conceptualize and design this project that has now empowered 15 young children
to go and talk about these things themselves!”, said Marishia.
A conscious effort
was made to also share the various upcoming livelihood opportunities, like
diving, composting, farming, tourism, etc., that this space provides. Many of
these are building on already existing livelihood options or have a low
starting cost and also give good returns. Through the three weeks a newfound
curiosity for the marine space was seen in the children. They were also
observed spreading this knowledge among family and peers. The kids have also
found a different outlook to this marine and coastal space and wish to engage
with it even more but in a responsible manner.
“ As Marishia leaves
for her masters future Interns at Terra Conscious will continue to expand and
build on this project and will also work with schools and other spaces around
Goa continuing to build a sensitivity for the marine space in children and
youth in the state, “ Puja concludes.
The
organisation hopes to support one person each year, to ensure that more young
people in the state, based on their interests, are able to build careers in
conservation and take forward their own initiatives to build awareness and
impact on ground conservation action.
