Assisting local villagers

A new, not-for-profit volunteer organisation, Barefoot Conservation, takes a grass-roots approach to marine conservation and community action. Working primarily on an archipelago in Indonesia, volunteers participate in various conservation and community projects. Initiatives include helping local villagers to install solar panels and distributing books and medicine in schools and villages. Barefoot Conservation aims to engage, educate and empower local communities in all that they do. They also have a marine research program that monitors and assesses the impact of climate change, over-fishing and pollution on the marine environment. This information can then be used to implement sustainable policies.