Imagine you are snorkelling the fringing coral reefs in the Andaman Sea in 1993. Fish are abundant, corals are dense and vibrant, and your chances of spotting a leopard shark are excellent. Little do you know that the reefs beneath you will be impacted by the world's first global coral bleaching event in 1998, followed by two more in 2010 and 2016. You are unaware that some areas will lose 80% of their coral. 

In 2004, a tsunami will devastate the area. You cannot comprehend the rapid growth of global mass tourism or the changes in landscape and pollution that coastal tourism will bring. You are unaware that if you were to return 30 years later, the reef may be unrecognisable with muted colours and sparse fish life, and spotting a shark would be a rare occurrence. Fast forward the clock to 2024 and you hear that another record-breaking coral bleaching event is imminent, you may even wonder if this reef will survive.

Also in 1993, a Welsh software consultant and scuba instructor moved to Thailand and sparked a movement that now protects coral reefs in 67 countries, reaching hundreds of thousands of community members and tourists and offering hope, even in 2024.

Gearing up for change

Anne Paranjoti (formerly Miller) had a background in Management Science and worked as a consultant for a large corporation's internal audit team. However, as a scuba instructor, she was passionate about environmental education. After relocating to Phuket, she conducted environmental campaigns and training courses for community members and tourists, emphasising the importance of coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass. 

Yet, Anne's business-minded nature sought a way to measure the effectiveness of her efforts. Inspired by financial risk management frameworks from her corporate life, Anne developed an environmental equivalent that identified environmental risks and strategies to mitigate them. The Green Environmental Assessment Rating System (GEARS), was the first of its kind. This concept, combined with seed funding from Leonardo DiCaprio after filming "The Beach" paved the way for Anne's vision for a charity, The Reef-World Foundation.

Reef-World meets Green Fins

It’s now 2008, and Anne is working alongside the prestigious Phuket Marine Biological Association. When the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) tasked them with rolling out new environmental guidelines for dive and snorkel operators, Green Fins, Anne was the perfect resource. At that time, Green Fins was a simple code of conduct of 15 guidelines to reduce marine tourism damage to reefs. By this time, Anne was looking to hand the Reef-World baton on and luckily two extremely passionate marine biologists showed an interest in supporting her mission. Chloe and JJ Harvey (now co-directors of Reef-World) set out to see if Anne’s new environmental risk framework could be applied to this young international conservation initiative.

Alongside the Green Fins Thailand team of volunteers, the team tested GEARS in local dive shops that adopted the Green Fins code of conduct. Through conversation and observation, the team answered questions like: did the code of conduct actually reduce environmental threats? Which points of the code of conduct represented the biggest threats? How might those threats be removed?

The collaborative nature of their work meant that decision-makers in those dive shops were heavily involved. This relationship uncovered a latent hunger in the industry to understand where they can improve environmentally and, most importantly, how. These managers wanted answers, too, and this birthed the Green Fins assessment system.

Green Fins membership

Now, dive and snorkel shops could volunteer to be Green Fins Members and have a free, neutral, comprehensive environmental assessment to help them understand where they were doing well and could improve. Any tips and tricks these members were using to mitigate their environmental threats, such as reducing the use of the anchor or how to correct a diver holding onto the coral, were shared with other members through the assessment feedback process. 

Together, Reef-World and the marine tourism industry were building a bank of practical, affordable environmental actions and policies that a business could adopt, train staff, and engage customers in. Doing these assessments annually allowed a manageable pace for operators to make changes. Each focused on just a few points of change each year, and if they were complete on the next assessment, they chose a few more. And each year, they got to see their progress. 

Conversations with staff and managers illuminated points of friction in implementing the code of conduct. Reef-World started developing presentations and posters to give to Green Fins Members to help staff and customers understand why they were asked to do some things differently. A whole system of environmental support was being created hand-in-hand with the people who were using it. And this was all with a team of three!

Time to scale

Chloe and JJ knew that the success of this work in Thailand could help to protect reefs in other countries too. In 2009 they built the case and won a small grant from UNEP to investigate scaling Green Fins to Malaysia and Indonesia. Not long after, the Philippines, Vietnam and the Maldives followed. 

Now as a team of four, the Reef-World team were developing new tools and systems to manage this growth. The Green Fins Assessor Training Programme brings government staff in as assessors, trained to work closely with Green Fins members to provide the assessments and training. Working in different countries also meant unravelling the spiderweb of government funding and policy to embed Green Fins as a national program, and there was budget and people power to keep it going long-term. 

Success in six countries wasn’t enough to overcome the non-profit funding desert after the recession. In mid-2014, Reef-World was in deep water, and Chloe and JJ were facing the very real possibility of shutting down forever. In the nick of time, an oasis of funding from a new UNEP Global Coral Reef Programme helped the growing team move out of survival mode. 

Going global

Grant by grant, country by country and person by person, a growing Reef-World team cultivated the Green Fins network. By 2019, Green Fins teams were working with operators in 13 countries. Building the in-person network was both highly effective and very slow. As the rate of tourism grows and coral reef decline continues to rise, Reef-World knew they had to bring Green Fins tools global. Only some dive shops in the world could have access to in-person assessments and training, but with the right tools and knowledge, they could guide themselves.

Over the next few years, Reef-World focused on developing innovative digital tools to meet demand from all over the world. In 2023, almost 20 years since its inception, Green Fins is now available to everyone, everywhere, through the:

  • The Green Fins Diver e-Course

  • The Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course

  • Green Fins digital membership — now operators from three major marine tourism industries, scuba diving, snorkelling and liveaboard, can evaluate their operations and take action

  • The Green Fins Community Forum, where staff from Green Fins Members all over the world can collaborate and share tips, ask environmental experts and get peer support.

  • Over 60 educational materials are available in up to 21 different languages

Today, Reef-World, at seven full-time staff and four part-time and still under Chloe and JJ’s leadership, stands alongside the Green Fins network — a formidable alliance of operators from 67 countries, governments and NGOs from 15 nations, and thousands of environmentally conscious tourists and guides. The collective impact of this network adds up to a truly mighty force for good. 

Reef-World, a devoted marine conservation charity, depends on your donations to conduct essential training and provide the Green Fins programme to marine tourism operators worldwide. Donate today in the mission to save our reefs! www.reef-world.org/donate