Proposal for Surfrider Foundation - Costa Rica Affiliate (used for INTEL Grant Application)

Proposal for Surfrider Foundation - Costa Rica Affiliate (used for INTEL Grant Application)

Mission:

The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the preservation and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves, and beaches, for all people, through conservation, activism, research, and education.

Needs to Address:

Developers are destroying the coastal ecosystem by over-developing environmently sensitive areas. This has led to untreated sewage discharge, inadequate water systems, and deforestation in many parts of Costa Rica. Costa Rican adults and children are generally uneducated about how to protect their coastal environment so do not see the long term effects on their community's financial and environment health.

Description of Current Programs:

Surf Site Stewardship -

This program develops teams for community-determined coastal conservation efforts. Members work with state and federal parks, cities, and other public land managers to undertake long term site stewardship projects including: ecological inventories and evaluations, restoration, low impact access improvements, monitoring, public education and other activities; and help to evaluate appropriate uses and management of selected coastal uses in their communities.

Respect the Beach -

This is a coastal educational program designed to teach coastal area stewardship, ocean safety, and marine ecology to K-12 students and community groups. The Respect the Beach program is brought in classrooms by Surfrider members who represent ocean environmentalism from a surfer's perspective, and who provide role models for age groups that are attracted to the allure and image of surfing. Respect the Beach was lauched in schools in the United States in 1991 and in junior lifeguard programs in 1992.

Beachscape -

This program includes citizen-based coastal mapping to create a detailed dataset of the coast. It establishes an accurate and credible baseline of coastal conditions that is widely available to local citizens, community activists and state and federal agencies. It uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to store, analyze, and publish data about natural and human influenced conditions along the coastline (such as the locations of outfall pipes, hard structures, erosion "hot spots", accumulation of marine debris, beach accessways, water quality, etc.)


Population Served:

The Surfrider Foundation presently has 60 local chapters in all coastal states in the U.S., as well as Puerto Rico, Montana, Wisconsin, and Michigan. They are also represented internationally in France, Brazil, Japan, and Australia. Every person that visits the beach to surf, kayak, swim, walk, or sun bathe is being helped to ensure that the shoreline will remain unpolluted and accessible.

Project Description

Purpose of Fundraising:

All funds provided will be used to expand the Surfrider Foundation to include an international affiliate in Costa Rica. The new chapter will implement the three programs described above and actively recruit members and organize fundraising events in the country.

Population to be served and how:

The entire population of Costa Rica (~3.7 million) and the 1.3 million visitors that come to their national parks and beaches will be served. The citizens will have available a database of shoreline descriptions on a website and in print that will help when planning a trip to the beach or where to develop land with the least damage to the surrounding ecosystem. Also on the website will be posted where environmental threats are occuring and what can be done to solve them. Most importantly, volunteers in the group will help to maintain unpolluted beaches and go into public schools to teach how to protect the shoreline ecosystem.

Implentation Strategies:

Goal 1 - Organize Local Chapters for Surf Site Stewardship

Objective 1: To organize 6 local chapters in San Jose, Tamarindo, Puerto Viejo, Jaco, Dominical, and Quepos.

Objective 2: To organize nationwide and local coastal cleanups.

Objective 3: To have Costa Rican and Intel Corporation volunteers educated on how to preserve the coastline.

Goal 2 - Begin the Respect the Beach educational program.

Objective 1: To create lessons in English and Spanish on how to preserve the environment of the coastline using the curriculum designed by Surfrider, USA and current computer technologies.

Objective 2: To print, copy, and distribute lessons to the six local chapter locations

Objective 3: To travel to the 6 chapter locations to train local teachers to use the computer technology to teach the unit.

Objective 4: To lead the lessons at the elementary and high school level.

Goal 3 - Collect coastal data for Beachscape Program

Objective 1: To create an environmental database of the most popular accessible beaches in Costa Rica.

Objective 2: To monitor high coastal development areas for potential environmental threats.

Objective 3: To post the collected data on a website for potential travelers.