April 2015 Pez Maya

Pez Maya rocks Earth Day 2015: Composting, Protecting Birds and Recycling Education Objectives:

- Implement awareness programmes on marine ecosystems and species, and its conservation with the local community and international volunteers.

Summary: Earth Day is the anniversary of what many refer to as the modern environmental movement.To celebrate this day, the Pez Maya community has been environmentally active in many different ways. Volunteers and staff on base were digging a new compost hole; they created a safe area for Least Terns to nest; and on the weekly Punta Allen visit, the group educated the local children about recycling, and reused some old shampoo bottles by making pencil holders out of them. Report: Earth Day was born in 1970. This day is driving environmental awareness and is celebrated on the 22 of April. Earth day is the largest civic event, celebrated by people with all backgrounds. It is coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network and more than 192 countries participate each year with a total of more than a billion people. The celebration of Earth Day started out by digging a new compost pit. To many people, composting might not sound very exciting, but it has more positive effects on the environment than you might know!

Figure 1Volunteers digging the compost pit

The land allocated to waste disposal in most places is rapidly filling up, and soon all the landfills around the world will be full. Most of the kitchen waste we produce is organic, which means that if we recycle it by composting we can reduce the amount of rubbish that goes to landfill, and produce a very useful by-product. The land where all of our waste goes cannot be reused in most cases because of

contamination. This happens if the rubbish is compressed and the air is squeezed out. The waste then breaks down anearobically, i.e. without the use of oxygen, which produces acids called leachete. These leachetes react with other waste e.g. plastic, creating a toxic mix. It collects at the bottom of landfills from where it goes into the ground water. As organic waste decomposes in landfills it creates the greenhouse gasses methane and CO2, so it contributes to the world wide climate change. Did you know that composting at home for just one year can save global warming gases equivalent to all the CO2 your kettle produces annually, or your washing machine produces in three months? In the United States, landfills are the third largest source of methane emission, according to the EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency). By composting, you ensure that when the waste decomposes it forms CO2 but not methane which makes a smaller contribution to the greenhouse effect. As you can see, composting has a lot of positive impacts, so if you don't have your own compost yet why not make one and use the soil you will get out of it for your garden? The second activity was working on the Least Tern project. This species has a nearly worldwide distribution, which is why they have to be protected. Late April to mid-May the Least Terns start to breed in colonies of up to 200 birds. They build their nests in sand and after laying the eggs both sexes will incubate them for 21 days. This makes them very vulnerable to predation as well as human disturbance and nest destruction.

If Least Terns feel disturbed while nesting, they dive bomb and may even defecate on predators. Staff and volunteers fenced off nesting areas in the mangrove mouth area near base and posted signs as an attempt to protect the colonies from disturbance. This project is run by Pez Maya every year, and judgeing by the numbers of Least Terns that return to our beach it is clearly working well. Currently we have around 20 Least terns competing over the right to mate, this is shown through impressive arial displays as well as through their fishing expertise. Over the next weeks they will begin to settle into nests in our fenced off area, and then with our protection and educational signs they will hopefully nest in peace. The final activity conducted on this wonderous day was a weekly visit to our local community village of Punta Allen. The group had a great time teaching the children in the kindergarten and the secondary school all about Earth Day and doing some recycling activities. The children from the Primary school made some 'Monster Pencil holders' out of old shampoo bottles. Plastic recycling is relatively easy and it reduces the amount of energy and natural resources needed to create virgin plastic, as well as it saves on landfill space. It is shocking how much plastic we find on our beaches around Pez Maya, and one of our

Figure 2 Preparing the signs to be put up

goals is to reduce the amount of plastic we use as well as keeping the environment clean from it. As you see Pez Mayans had a quite busy and succesful World Earth Day 2015, and we hope you did as well!

To find out more about the Pez Maya expedition visit: http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/marine-conservation-expedition-mexico

Figure 3 Happy faces after converting plastic containers into pencil holders