Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort, Fiji, announced an array of new and hands-on volunteer opportunities that will contribute to the local community and environment for resort guests to participate in. The eco-luxury resort’s volunteer experiences include a new children’s reading program at a local Fijian school, mangrove planting, endangered giant clam re-population of four species and more.
Guests of the property are able to aid in the preservation of the environment by way of planting mangroves in the waters surrounding the resort, and with that, will contribute to the resort’s goal of planting a total of 10,000 mangroves by November 2018. Mangroves symbiotically foster their ecosystems, serving many important functions, including water filtration, prevention of coastal erosion and coastal protection from storms, carbon storage and biodiversity protection, among others.
Interested guests can also get involved in the giant clam repopulation project led by the resort’s marine biologist, Johnny Singh, who has been raising of a series of juvenile endangered giant clam brood stocks as part of an effort to repopulate the four species in the local waters surrounding the resort.
Through this process, volunteers will learn about the daily workings of a modern-day pearl farm and the process behind culturing pearls in a modern hatchery and research center, at J. Hunter Pearls near the resort. A major focus of the resort’s ecology preservation efforts, the giant clam reserve is a protected area that contains four different species, allowing them to grow and reproduce using genetically responsible methods.
Through their new reading program, guests of the resort can visit Buca primary school nearby the local village and read to the Fijian students. Visitors will bring an English elementary level book and will then leave it as a donation to the school’s library. Guests get a glimpse into Fijian education, bond with the local school children, and help them to learn English, while young guests may form a pen pal with a local new-found friend.
Related Articles
Fiji Resort Announces Two New Health and Wellness Programs
Voluntourism, Sustainability and Travel in 2018