This Black History Month we want to continue our tradition of sharing uplifting stories of environmental champions from all over the world. Today we spotlight Naomi Longa.
Naomi Longa is an ocean advocate, scuba diving instructor and community conservation leader. In her role as Co-Director & Operations Manager at Sea Women of Melanesia, she works with indigenous women, training them in coral reef monitoring, marine protected area management and grassroots community engagement.
Sea Women of Melanesia
The mission of this organisation is to provide practical solutions to increase the number of marine reserves in the Coral Triangle biodiversity hot-spot. They provide Melanesian women with the marine science training and resources they need to take a lead role in supporting grassroots marine conservation work in Papua New Guinea.
Naomi gave an interview to Sarah & Sebastian where she said that she has always been deeply connected to the natural environment and that her family has a long history of connection to the ocean
Last year Naomi won a Whitley Award, from the Whitley Fund for Nature (a UK charity which has channelled £24 million to 220 conservation leaders), for work leading the conservation team in Papua New Guinea.
Her team has collected more than 15,000 reef survey images, sharing a large portion of these to open source programmes that are monitoring coral reef health. The funding from the Whitley Award is earmarked for the creation of four more Locally Managed Marine Areas.
Naomi and her team have found a way to combine science, gender equity, community engagement, and traditional knowledge and wisdom, to protect marine ecosystems.
See how you can support the Sea Women of Melanesia.
Title image credit: Whitley Awards
Image 2 credit: Sea Women of Melanesia
