People often ask us how a small organization like Seacology has managed to launch hundreds of projects around the globe. Part of the answer is that we don’t micro-manage. Our role is to support indigenous communities that already have the determination, and the knowledge, to protect their environments.

But of course we like to stay up to date on conservation efforts in the communities we work with. Recently we got good news from an island in the Philippines, where we launched a project just before the Covid pandemic suddenly made communication, travel, shipping and everything else much more complicated.

Barangay Bogtong is a rural village on Busuanga Island in the Philippines’ Palawan province. Surrounded by a beautiful landscape of evergreen hills, calm, clear ocean, and dense mangrove forests, it is an ideal spot to observe wildlife, both above and below the surface of the shallow water.

Back in 2019, the community and local NGO C3 Philippines approached Seacology with a plan to protect almost 1,000 acres of mangrove and marine area. Looking to expand sustainable incomes for the villagers through ecotourism, they sought funding to build a long boardwalk in front of the mangroves along the shoreline. It’s a perfect vantage point for spotting birds, monkeys, and other wildlife, and the village envisioned it as the centerpiece of a plan to make Bogtong an ecotourism destination. They would also build a floating watchtower, which would give divers and snorkelers easy access to the reef and wardens a 360-degree view of the reserve to discourage destructive practices like cutting mangroves for charcoal production. 

We launched the project in February 2020, just weeks before the pandemic began to circle the globe. Despite lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, and the uncertainty of when tourists might return, the villagers persevered, Local men, women, and youth helped with construction, painted informational signs, and did other work. Incredibly, the project finished on schedule.