Our years traveling have given us a broader vision of the devastating impact we as a species have on our planet and the terrible consequences this implies for the environment, ecosystems, species and ultimately on our future generations.
Since the moment we started conceiving this brand we had one thing clear: we were going to use our creativity to give back to the environment. Our aim is to work on our processes to become fully sustainable, as well as allocating 10% of our profits to do what’s most needed right now.
We are creating this blog series to talk about inspiring projects we are supporting, initiatives created by amazing humans that contribute to sustainability in many different aspects in different countries. We think it is important to share awareness about these causes not just to be transparent on our donations but also to foster reach and support from other humans like you, that might be resonating with the same cause. One of these initiatives is Coral Gardeners.
Coral Gardners is a movement founded by Titouan Bernicot, a young soul passionate about surf, fishing and free diving, who grew up on a pearl farm in Ahe, a small atoll at the North of the Tuamotu; “The coral reef gives us everything in our life. Endless joy and adventures, the food that we eat and the oxygen we breathe.”
However, after consecutive years of coastal development, the ongoing pressure of tourism, bleaching events and escalating climate change, the reef communities are declining. Mass bleaching events have affected more than 75% of the corals globally due to climate change. Based on current trends, all coral reefs may be dead by the year 2050. This will directly affect hundreds of millions of people and will be an enormous loss for the planet. Almost half of the world’s reefs have been lost in the last 40 years. The main cause is a warming climate, in addition to overfishing and human pollution.
Coral reefs are the rainforests of the oceans, providing a home for a dazzling array of life. Reef-building corals are the trees that form the foundation of the ecosystem. These corals are usually colonies of many small animals called polyps, which grow a hard calcium carbonate skeleton and can live for hundreds of years.
There are some reasons why coral reefs are absolutely essential:
Coral reefs are the oceans’ lungs; they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and transform it into the oxygen we breathe. By doing this they regulate air and water temperature for us all.
Coral reefs occupy less than 0.1% of the earth’s surface, yet they provide habitat for approximately 25% of known marine species, 4000 species of fish inhabits reefs
Coral reefs protect coastlines against big waves, storms and erosion. They are capable of absorbing 97% of the energy of the waves and can reduce wave height by 84%. The services that coral reefs provide have been valued at around $10 trillion per year, this includes food resources, tourism, coastal protection, climate change mitigation and other gifts to humanity.
Coral reefs directly provide food, resources and income for more than 1 billion people and they are responsible for half the oxygen we breathe. In French Polynesia as well as most areas with Coral reef, economical, cultural and social activities often rely on a healthy reef. E.g. tourism is the primary source of income here.
Coral Gardeners team is taking action to resolve the problems that our reefs are facing. They aim to save the coral reefs through education and coral reef restoration. Through coral gardening, they are contributing to restoring it by planting healthy coral fragments back onto the reef: they transplant coral cuttings onto degraded areas of reef, when these coral fragments grow, they help to recreate reef habitats. This allows other life to return and strengthens the reef against future damage.
They have planted 14,000 corals so far.
Their objective is to expand their project to other countries in need for action such as: Indonesia, Australia, Maldives and Hawaii.
We were so moved and inspired with this project, we allocated 1,000 € from our net profits to adopt 40 Corals and are decided to periodically adopt more. It is so beautiful and rewarding to have the physical proof of your contribution. We also had the huge luck to cross paths with amazing humans like Chelsea Kauai and Ivana Cook, who took these captures of the Coral plantations and the unmatched beauty of Moorea, in French Polynesia.
You can support their project by adopting Corals through their website: https://www.coralgardeners.org
Sources:
Coral Gardeners organization: https://www.coralgardeners.org
Oceanographic Magazine: https://www.oceanographicmagazine.com/features/coral-gardeners/
Our creators:
https://www.instagram.com/chelseakauai/
https://www.instagram.com/ivanacook/