Coral reefs provide food and livelihoods for many people in the Dominican Republic, where 80% of its 10+ million inhabitants live on the coastline. The ocean supports half of all livelihoods, mainly through fisheries and tourism. Yet, these sensitive ecosystems are severely threatened. There is a need for immediate action to reduce direct local threats to coral reefs in order to build their resilience in the face of wide-scale global threats.

The Youth Ambassador Programme (Joven Embajador del Mar) was developed with TUI Care Foundation support and Reef-World’s long-time partner, Reef Check Dominican Republic. TUI Care Foundation supports and initiates partnerships and projects, which create new opportunities for the young generation and contribute to thriving communities worldwide.

The primary aim of this project is to measurably reduce direct local impacts to coral reefs by building capacity and awareness of the best environmental practices for diving and snorkelling activities. By working with a target of 80% of the scuba diving centres across the country, this project has reduced direct threats to the marine environment and coral reefs by 22.7% in 9 tourism hotspots. Utilising the Green Fins approach, this project has managed to train 112 members of staff in best practice with critical messaging and techniques reaching nearly 89,000 tourists over the timeframe of the project.

The secondary aim of this project is to empower the network of environmentally aware divers to deliver educational programmes creating Youth Ambassadors to champion coral reef conservation projects and activities within their local communities. The children of today are tomorrow’s scientists, environmental managers and political leaders. Educating the youth will improve their awareness of environmental issues and provide them access to solutions to reduce environmental impacts.

As a result, by working with local school teachers and the Ministry of Education to strengthen the marine environmental education content within the national curriculum through this project will help to secure livelihoods, reduce poverty and protect the environment in the Dominican Republic.

An entirely new and unique curriculum has been developed by Reef-World with the support of Reef Check Dominican Republic, who ensured the content was accurate, locally specific and not currently taught in the national curriculum that was last revised by the government in 2016. The curriculum aimed to introduce the basics of marine ecology and threats to the major marine ecosystems that are available in the Dominican Republic — Mangroves, Seagrasses, Corals and the open sea. Interesting facts and low-cost practical solutions were introduced via games and challenges for students to practise at home with their families.

One of the most notable achievements of this project was being able to directly train and educate over 2,423 children and reaching nearly 5,981 local community members in the new curriculum created specifically for this project. The content of this programme was not taught in the national curriculum of the Dominican Republic but is now being delivered by 25 teachers that have been trained to deliver this within 18 schools and elsewhere in the country.

This project was completed in January 2023 and is no longer in operation.
Download the project’s report for full results.