[Coral-List] vital capacity building services/crowdfunding

[BSG-Farm]

Dear members of the Coral List Serve

Those of you who work with coastal communities in remote island settings, particularly archipelagos, know that a significant impediment to access and outreach, and to sustainable local efforts for reef conservation, is often the lack of affordable and available transportation and an outfitted, mobile work platform to undertake and support projects. Obstacles which inhibit effective collaboration and exchange between stakeholders, particularly within and across local communities, can be reduced when vital infrastructure, sensitively provided, is brought into service. 

Island Reach is a not-for profit, volunteer project operating in Vanuatu, Melanesia and working in collaboration with The Ocean Foundation.  We provide critical capacity building services for coral reef conservation, working in partnership with indigenous communities as well as civil and government sectors. We are seeking crowdfunding support through the following campaign, now in its final stages. 
 https://www.indiegogo.com/…/a-vessel-for-the-vanu…/x/8977167

Island Reach is not funded by any academic institution or large non-profit organization. We understand our grassroots activism as a vital complement to those institutions and organization who hold capacities to gather critical data and affect policy. For initiatives such as ours, crowdfunding is our oxygen: ANY amount – $5 or $10, the price of sharing a round of drinks – energizes the groundswell and allows efforts such as Island Reach to thrive. We can assure you that in Vanuatu, $10 in our volunteer hands goes a lot further to fuel conservation work than it does here in the West. 

Thanks for your consideration,

Janis & Brooks

Janis Steele, Ph.D. & Brooks McCutchen, Ph.D.
Island Reach 
Vanuatu, Melanesia
US: Heath, MA
www.berkshiresweetgold.com
888-576-2753

Supporting biocultural diversity & sustainable harvests, from ridge to reef