Climate Crisis: Tackling Our Carbon Footprint

Dear Supporters, 

Last year we were able to purchase a solar power system for our Jalova Base using donation! What an amazing achievement and thank you for your support. 

Our team in Jalova has been very busy with fundraising locally for our carbon fund. Last year they started a t-shirt selling project and they were able to raise $400 which was used to buy a water collection system for the base. The benefits of the rainwater harvesting system are that we can collect water that we can then treat and use for consumption. This will cut down on us having to use power, traditionally a generator, to run the pump which gives us water. 

They will continue with this local fundraising and we are hoping that in the coming months we will be able to move on to the next stage of our base transformation. 

The next steps in the converting the base to a carbon neutral base is implementing our plan for water treatment and solid waste disposal. 

Water Treatment

Currently, the wastewater from the base is drained and seeps into the sand that is located only 100 metres away. In order to mitigate this, we have a plan to build bio-gardens. The bio-gardens will work as a filter for the grey- waters, treating it before it is filtered back into the ground. 

Solid Waste Disposal 

The solid waste is divided into organic (composting and non-composting) and inorganic (recyclable and non-recyclable) waste.  We need to improve our compost area and create a better storage system in order to keep the animals away from the waste while we are waiting for it to be moved off the base.

We are confident that we will be able to completely renovate our base in 2017!

Thanks for your support. 

Best Wishes, 
GVI Costa Rica, Jalova

Dear Supporters, 

The GVI expedition base on Curieuse was opened in 2009, firstly as a satellite camp to monitor the coral reefs around Curieuse and Praslin for recovery following a major bleaching event. In the beginning, the base was truly a field camp with accommodation in tents, but there has been continued development of the base and it has been operating full time since 2010, and as a completely separate expedition focussing on island conservation since 2011. With the expansion of the expedition and the shift to buildings rather than

With the expansion of the expedition and the shift to buildings rather than tents, there has obviously been a requirement for electricity to allow it to function, and this was originally supplied by a petrol generator. While functional, generators are noisy, smelly, have a continual running cost for petrol, require more time and petrol to ship the fuel to Curieuse, and not least they pollute the air with carbon dioxide and other hydrocarbon emissions. 

So in 2011, a solar power system was installed, consisting of eight solar panels, an inverter, controller, and 12 batteries. This provided enough power to run the operation and keep our food fresh between shopping trips to Praslin, and it returned the base to peacefulness. The batteries, however, have a useful operating life of about three years, so over the last couple of years there has been a continued deterioration in the performance of the system to the point where the backup generator has been needing to be run regularly, with the associated return of the noise, smell, cost and pollution. 

The solution to this is to replace the batteries at a cost of $5000, and GVI paid $2600, with the remaining $2400 being contributed from the GVI Trust's Environment Fund. We are awaiting delivery of the new batteries, and this should put the solar system back to full capacity, removing the need to run the backup generator with its harmful effects on the environment.

Thank you for your generosity which has allowed us to get the new batteries that we needed!

With Gratitude, 
GVI Seychelles