April 2015

Pez Maya

Pez Maya rocks Earth Day 2015:

Composting, Protecting Birds and Recycling Education
Objectives:
- Implement awareness programmes on marine ecosystems and species, and its
conservation with the local community and international volunteers.
Summary:
Earth Day is the anniversary of what many refer to as the modern environmental
movement.To celebrate this day, the Pez Maya community has been environmentally
active in many different ways. Volunteers and staff on base were digging a new compost
hole; they created a safe area for Least Terns to nest; and on the weekly Punta Allen visit,
the group educated the local children about recycling, and reused some old shampoo
bottles by making pencil holders out of them.
Report:
Earth Day was born in 1970. This day is driving environmental awareness and is
celebrated on the 22 of April. Earth day is the largest civic event, celebrated by people with
all backgrounds. It is coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network and more than 192
countries participate each year with a total of more than a billion people.
The celebration of Earth Day started out by digging a new compost pit. To many people,
composting might not sound very exciting, but it has more positive effects on the
environment than you might know!

Figure 1Volunteers digging the compost pit

The land allocated to waste disposal in most places is rapidly filling up, and soon all the
landfills around the world will be full. Most of the kitchen waste we produce is organic,
which means that if we recycle it by composting we can reduce the amount of rubbish that
goes to landfill, and produce a very useful by-product.
The land where all of our waste goes cannot be reused in most cases because of

contamination. This happens if the rubbish is compressed and the air is squeezed out. The
waste then breaks down anearobically, i.e. without the use of oxygen, which produces
acids called leachete. These leachetes react with other waste e.g. plastic, creating a toxic
mix. It collects at the bottom of landfills from where it goes into the ground water. As
organic waste decomposes in landfills it creates the greenhouse gasses methane and
CO2, so it contributes to the world wide climate change.
Did you know that composting at home for just one year can save global warming gases
equivalent to all the CO2 your kettle produces annually, or your washing machine
produces in three months? In the United States, landfills are the third largest source of
methane emission, according to the EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency).
By composting, you ensure that when the waste decomposes it forms CO2 but not
methane which makes a smaller contribution to the greenhouse effect. As you can see,
composting has a lot of positive impacts, so if you don't have your own compost yet why
not make one and use the soil you will get out of it for your garden?
The second activity was working on the Least Tern
project. This species has a nearly worldwide
distribution, which is why they have to be protected.
Late April to mid-May the Least Terns start to breed
in colonies of up to 200 birds. They build their nests
in sand and after laying the eggs both sexes will
incubate them for 21 days. This makes them very
vulnerable to predation as well as human
disturbance and nest destruction.
If Least Terns feel disturbed while nesting, they dive
bomb and may even defecate on predators. Staff
and volunteers fenced off nesting areas in the
mangrove mouth area near base and posted signs
as an attempt to protect the colonies from
disturbance. This project is run by Pez Maya every
year, and judgeing by the numbers of Least Terns
that return to our beach it is clearly working well.
Currently we have around 20 Least terns competing
over the right to mate, this is shown through
impressive arial displays as well as through their
fishing expertise. Over the next weeks they will
begin to settle into nests in our fenced off area, and
then with our protection and educational signs they
Figure 2 Preparing the signs to be put up
will hopefully nest in peace.
The final activity conducted on this wonderous day was a weekly visit to our local
community village of Punta Allen. The group had a great time teaching the children in the
kindergarten and the secondary school all about Earth Day and doing some recycling
activities. The children from the Primary school made some 'Monster Pencil holders' out of
old shampoo bottles.
Plastic recycling is relatively easy and it reduces the amount of energy and natural
resources needed to create virgin plastic, as well as it saves on landfill space. It is
shocking how much plastic we find on our beaches around Pez Maya, and one of our

goals is to reduce the amount of plastic we use as well as keeping the environment clean
from it.
As you see Pez Mayans had a quite busy and succesful World Earth Day 2015, and we
hope you did as well!

Figure 3 Happy faces after converting plastic containers into pencil holders

To find out more about the Pez Maya expedition visit:

http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/marine-conservation-expedition-mexico