Marmalade Sunsets: How Mike Skuja got me hooked on Conservation

What is it about spending the night on the beach, looking up at a scintillating sky gazing back upon the shrimp, giggling, as they delight in their charming fluorescence? What is it about the warm ocean tickling at your toes as the startle of baby sea turtles singing melodies, rushing towards the open sea, entertain in a night of swimming frenzy? When Mike Skuja contacted me one afternoon to discuss his conservation programs, he pretty much had me not at “Hello” but at “We have a Guyanese led sea turtle conservation program at Guyana’s Shell Beach…would you like to hear more?”

The inspiration behind the Center for Rural Empowerment and the Environment (CREE) evolved through one very devoted and one very determined human geographer, Mike Skuja, and his desire to empower scientists from the developing world to realize their dreams. His influential resume features escapades with National Geographic, the UN Environment Programme and Nature Conservancy while his adventures extend from the regions of Tanzania, Panama and Sri Lanka during the Tsunami crisis. In fact, I was drawn to this organization based on the very diverse personality of CREE. Their accomplished team of project leaders from within local communities constituting doctors, conservationists and biologists understand the endemic needs of their communities; of a mother’s yearning to teach her son innovative farming techniques, therein, eliminating the risk of running into an angry hippo; a father’s desire to protect his wife and children from human-lion conflict by having access to a simple fence to defend his family and livelihood; a little girl’s dream to be able to hatch sea turtles as opposed to hunting sea turtles for meat to sustain her family’s basic needs.

Mike’s ambitions to deliver sustainable and purposeful conservation programs illuminates from his earnestness in listening to and collaboratively implementing the solutions proposed by local community leaders as they inherently live and breathe these biologically diverse lands…and no one understands this better than Mike. His self-sacrificing attitude towards realizing these advancements, whether it be through numerous fundraising drives, endless grant submissions or continual strive to better assist his team’s concerns, his compassion towards elevating the impoverished lures one to these projects.

All projects at CREE have a dual positive impact on poverty and the environment and are currently active in the following regions:

• Sea Turtles – Guyana
• Humpback whale ecotourism - Babuyan Islands, Philippines
• Snail Farming – Mount Cameroon
• Dunga Wetlands project, addressing human-hippopotamus conflict – Kenya
• Tarangire Lion project, creating innovative solutions to human-lion conflict –
Tanzania

CREE is currently looking at more collaborative fundraising initiatives for those of you who may be interested in getting involved. If so, you can reach Mike mike.skuja@conservationforpeople.org or visit http://www.conservationforpeople.org

What I love most about what I do – connecting and meeting with these phenomenal individuals contributing towards life-changing events. I can’t think of anything more gratifying.

To watch our video interview, please see http://www.travelvolunteersearch.blogspot.com
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