Rodrigo Garcia Pingaro

Cetacean Sighting Network and Habitat Conservation of Southern Right Whale

Our coordinator making a presentation in a local school in a town called Barra de Valizas.

Representative from the school talks with channel 3 TV about this presentation.

The Right Whale Project has been working since 1995, achieving important goals in conservation, environmental education and the implementation of marine policies. Since 1999 the Organización para la Conservación de Cetáceos (OCC), is dedicated to revalorize the whale resource showing the beneficial relationship between human communities and sustainable economic development with high quality whale watching. A focus for OCC’s work is the promotion of locally public awareness of southern right whale and their critical habitat by means of the Sighting Network, to prevent several impacts and increase social participation of the community in coastal resources management and collating reports on whale occurrence. The whales can provide us an ecological monitor for the health of marine environment and increasing funding ours Marine Protected Areas-MPAs.

The Right Whale Project has been working since 1995, achieving important goals in conservation, environmental education and the implementation of marine policies. Since 1999 the Organización para la Conservación de Cetáceos (OCC), is dedicated to revalorize the whale resource showing the beneficial relationship between human communities and sustainable economic development with high quality whale watching.

The Sighting Network, will be prevent several impacts and increase social participation of the community in coastal resources management and collating reports on whale occurrence. The whales can provide us an ecological monitor for the health of marine environment and increasing funding ours Marine Protected Areas-MPAs. One of the strategies for ecosystems conservation and their sustainable management is the characterization of “flagship species”. In our case this would be the charismatic Southern Right Whale, which also acts as an “umbrella species” which helps protect all the associated biodiversity.

A key factor to ensure success is the participation of local communities from the very beginning of the program, so as to achieve sustainability through tourism, taking into consideration socio-economic, cultural and environmental aspects. The central idea of this project is to create a social network including a variety of agents (tourism authorities, entrepreneurs, politicians, wildlife managers, social organizations) and involving the community in its work, offering people the opportunity to improve their lives and reinforce their commitment.

For more information contact info@occ.org.uy or go to www.occ.org.uy