Marine conservation holiday in Portugal
Description of Marine conservation holiday in Portugal
This marine conservation holiday in Portugal is a week of working hand in hand with local experts, working tirelessly to protect the marine ecosystems of their Atlantic coastline. This is a great way to learn how to dive, if you are a beginner, learning with a local diving school with excellent responsible diving practices. You will get a chance to gain internationally recognised diving certificates and see Portugals marine ecosystem for yourself. Beginners will start off with the Open Water Dive Certification. However, the program is not only for beginners but also for certified divers who want to improve their diving skills while having a positive impact on Portugal's marine environment.
Your day will depend on the amount of diving experience you have, but we always have plenty of tasks to enjoy in the water, all of which contribute to ongoing marine conservation work. From identifying fish and seaweeds to cleaning up any rubbish found during your dives. More experienced divers will get a chance to explore caves and ship wrecks as well.
While contributing to our project, you will stay in a sustainable hostel in Lisbon city centre, so that you have access to our great capital city. Accommodation and all meals are included in the price of the trip.
Price information
Departure information
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Reviews
1 Reviews of Marine conservation holiday in Portugal
Reviewed on 10 Sep 2019 by Lisa Chapman
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The diving, the hostel and the volunteers. We went diving every day from Tuesday to Friday. The diving instructors were super nice, made us feel very comfortable and were great teachers. The hostel was in a good state and served really nice food. On top of everything the other volunteers at the hostel were great and it was easy to get to know people (and that's usually not at all easy for me) because most of us were there with the same motive - to volunteer on one of the programs.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
If you do the diving in Lisbon / Cascais try to stay longer than a week. The dives are in the morning and are usually quite exhausting. On top of that you are done with your placement at midday where the sun is the strongest and you don't always feel like doing sightseeing in the heat of the afternoon.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes. I was in Lisbon for a week and learned to dive during my stay. While learning we were also able to pick up and collect trash that we found in the ocean so that we could recycle it afterwards.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
10 out of 10, would go again in a heartbeat.
Responsible Travel
Planet
Eco-DivingIn this program, you will have not only the opportunity to learn and share insights about the importance of the marine ecosystem, but you can also actively participate in its protection!
During your stay, you will learn how to dive and how to collect trash from the Atlantic Ocean to be recycled outside. You will understand how to sort it and how to record every step of the process, so a report can be written over time to create awareness for this problem. Last year alone, our divers collected 588 kgs of trash and started the report that will be more and more complete as more divers join the project.
Our main aim is to clean as much trash as possible and to raise awareness of this issue so we don't have anything to collect in the future!
Accommodation and meals
The accommodation implements the best practices for recycling and prevention of food waste, so they only reduce the resources used, minimize the impacts of their waste and reuse whatever they can.
Group Size
In this project, we work with small groups usually up to 5 strong to ensure that we don't put too much pressure on the natural resource and to offer a personalized experience.
Our team
We live our values and promises in our day-to-day! Through energy conservation measures, responsible shopping and recycling policies, we are proud to be actively reducing the waste produced and having a real impact on the environment.
People
Community engagingTravelers can also work to raise awareness of the locals, both with the young public but also with the fisherman community. They can create and participate in initiatives and events which promote the education towards a more sustainable approach in sectors such as fishing, water sports, etc...
They can also contribute to educating children from local schools about environmental issues, conservation, and protection of the local biodiversity and marine resources.
Accommodation and Meals:
Travelers will be accommodated in a social Hostel which contributes to the sustainability of a local social organization. All meals are cooked there as well.
They support over 40 children who live there, serve 1000 meals a day to families living in poverty and provide other services such as psychological support, holiday opportunity to local kids among other activities.
Local sourcing
We only promote tourism experiences who respect local traditions and minimize social negative impacts. We preferentially suggest locally guided tours.
Our team
Through volunteer work, flexible working hours that promote a better work-life balance, and sourcing from local and socially and environmentally responsible suppliers we strive to apply our values to our everyday work ethic as a company.
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