There are lots of marine conservation NGOs Charities and Volunteer Organizations working in lots of environments around the world and each organisation undertaking essential work. So how do you choose? To guide your decision, we've compiled a list of key points that we believe sets us above the rest. We appreciate that it can be a daunting step to take when choosing to volunteer abroad, and with over 30 years of experience providing volunteer opportunities, we are here to answer your questions and guide you through the process. If you have further questions about joining us, then you can visit our
Frequently Asked Questions page or
send us a message and we will happily help!
Our Impact
Established in 1986, we have operated marine and terrestrial conservation projects for over 30 years around the world, encompassing 5 continents and 4 oceans. Throughout all of these projects we have worked alongside local stakeholders, governmental departments and expert researchers to develop and implement impactful conservation programmes that produce direct, and real-time, solutions for the prosperity of the natural world and those that depend on it. Each project has welcomed international and national volunteers, providing essential, high quality training to enable the collection of data ranging from ecological, to socio-economic, to political.
Our extensive experience has enabled the continual development of projects, building on past experience and benefiting from current knowledge. As far as we have come 'citizen science' remains at the heart of what we do. Our volunteers receive training of the highest standard and are rigorously tested to ensure that the data that they collect is of a high quality, thereby maximising results.
To further increase our impact through our projects, and to operate best-practices, we consistently seek advice from our well established Scientific Advisory Committee; a committee composed of scientists who are at the fore-front of their field. Our advisory committee provide essential advise on a range of disciplines, including, marine ecology, ecological data collection techniques, fisheries management, policy, coral reef health and sustainable development (including gender and alternative livelihood generation).
Each person involved with CCC, from our Head Office Staff, to our Volunteers, and the Scientific Advisory Committee, play an essential role at CCC, each contributing critically, driving CCC forward in taking action against the plights of the natural world.
"Providing resources to help sustain livelihoods and alleviate poverty through the protection of coral reefs and associated ecosystems​"
Safety
We take the Health and Safety of our staff and volunteers extremely seriously. As a founding member of the Year Out Group, we were instrumental in helping to create British Standard 8848 and have been independently assessed and accredited by Pharos Safety Ltd. BS8848 covers the preparation and execution of adventurous activities abroad so that the level of risk included is reasonable and acceptable. Our Chief Executive was also one of the authors of the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality and Safety badge for overseas expeditions.
Every project site has a Satellite Telephone, Personal Locator Beacon and a Global Positioning System Handset (GPS). Our Field Base Managers are all qualified First Aid Instructors and trained in undertaking dynamic risk assessments. All sites have been risk assessed and all staff receive training in our comprehensive Critical Incident Management Plan. All of our project sites are linked to a 24-hour “teli-medical” system with UK doctors on-call 24-hours a day.
Our staff are individually selected to lead groups overseas, with evaluation based on certifiable and academic skills, experience and personality. Our Field Base Managers are selected for their wide range of skills and experience, which we then augment with further first aid, off-site safety management and technical training as needed. All staff are certified on a two-day remote first aid course once on site in addition to training in incident management.
Our Operations Room is active 24-hours a day with our team of highly qualified incident managers on alert to coordinate rescue work.
Coral Cay Conservation benefit from a variety of licensing and standards organisations and advisors. You can read more about these on our Affiliations and Acceditations page.
Value for Money
When CCC was first established it was built on the relatively new idea of 'Citizen Science', a premise that anyone can be trained to collect meaningful and effectual data. Three decades may have passed but volunteers still play a central role in CCC's success and the same need to provide worthy projects that are priced fairly, persists. We have worked hard to ensure that our volunteers don't just come away with amazing stories and lifelong friends but also a materially improved CV and demonstrable skills.
Our work is funded by a combination of grants and volunteer fees and we have calculated our costs to ensure that these funds are used carefully and respectfully. Volunteers that join us can gain a host of certifications including PADI dive courses (PADI Diving Centre No. 3544), alongside hands on conservation work which directly contributes to the establishment of Marine Protected Areas.
Volunteer Experience
The importance of volunteers to our efforts can not be overstated, to name just a few volunteers were instrumental in the provision of data for the proposal and establishment of seven protected areas in Belize, facilitated joint efforts with Fauna & Flora International in the establishment of Cambodia's first Large Scale Marine Fisheries Management Area, and have contributed to the establishment of over 10 small-scale MPAs in Southern Leyte, the Philippines.
In addition to ensuring direct benefits to local community members we make certain that volunteer and staff efforts contribute directly to conservation actions. We can assure our volunteers that the data that they collect is utilised by CCC and project partners in the development of management plans, which can often be seen in real-time. Our volunteers are taken through rigorous training programmes which have been designed to ensure that the data collected is of a high quality and specific to the locations needs. We take every opportunity to base our training programmes on existing data collection frameworks so that we are able to assist international data collection by data sharing and also so that volunteers are able to gain further certifications.
Every volunteer that joins us is different, there is no such thing as a 'typical volunteer', with this in mind we make a point of asking our volunteers on arrival what they want to get out of the project so that we can offer further opportunities for personal development through different aspects of CCC's on site work. Such as chances to assist with social media and photography for those who are artistically inclined, or presentation open evenings and data entry for our fellow scientists.
Awards & International Recognition
Over our 30-year plus history we have been internationally recognised by a host of governmental bodies and green organisations. We are proud to be able to show a range of these off below.
© 2021 Coral Cay Conservation. All rights reserved. Coral Cay Conservation is a trading name of the Lifesigns Group: 4091767
All SVG Icons licensed to SVG Repo under License CC 4.0