The Regional Workshop

The Regional Workshop and Launching of the Green Fins Programme, Phuket, Thailand, 29-30 May 2007

The Green Fins programme was initiated in 2004 in the three countries Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand. The overall objective of the “Green Fins” programme is to establish a network of environmentally-friendly dive operators for sustainable tourism in coral reef areas and to assist in coral reef monitoring. The “Green Fins” provides certificates to dive operators according to a set of environmentally-friendly guidelines.

The Regional Workshop was organised in order to:

• Launch the Green Fins Programme;
• Share the experiences of Phuket Marine Biological Center in Thailand and Ocean Adventure in the Philippines in implementing the Green Fins programme with the other countries in the region;
• Expand the Green Fins Network in the other COBSEA countries;
• Discuss ways and means to improve the Green Fins activities and promote sustainability of Green Fins;
• Discuss the involvement of other organizations involved in coral reef management and conservation activities in the region in dive operations such as PADI, Reefcheck, Reef World, ICRAN and ICRI and the private sector such as hotel and tour operators.

During the workshop the results from the Green Fins Slogan Competition were announced and a field trip was organized for youth and local journalists.

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