HistoryReef Conservation was registered as an association in 2004, under the name of ‘Marine Conservation Management Consortium’. It was created for the purpose of carrying out a project funded by the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme to deploy Fixed Mooring Buoys. The Shoals of Capricorn Programme and the Mauritius Marine Conservation Society had implemented the FMB pilot project in 1999, with funding from the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme. A total of 4 buoys were deployed at popular dive sites in the North: 2 at Grand-Bay Aquarium and two at Pereybere Aquarium. It was therefore commonly decided, and subsequently voted at an extraordinary assembly that the name “Marine Conservation Management Consortium” would be changed to “Reef Conservation”, and that the organization would act as an independent entity. Individual partnerships would be established on various projects with the other existing organizations. Since then, Reef Conservation has expanded its work from FMBs to marine environmental education, working with coastal communities and fishermen to establish voluntary conservation areas, establishing an eco-guide training programme for out-of-school unemployed youth and working in collaboration with the Ministry of Fisheries to reinforce the capacity of Marine Protected Areas around Mauritius.
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