CORL Alofau Village Project
- Thread starter Mike King
- Start date
Hi Mike, sounds like what you've got going in American Samoa is pretty swell.
I am curious as to how CORL differentiates itself from a for-profit venture if it acts as the seller and exporter of the aquacultured corals grown in AS. How does all that work out? If a non-profit group is providing corals into the market, should we expect that they will undercut the price of the for-profit offerings? There are a few larger exporters/importers here in Indo that do what sounds like a very similiar thing; providing the resources, materials, know-how, and broodstock to the farmers who then sell what they grow back to the business that 'nurtured' them.
Also, while the production costs may be only 10 cents per frag, I am aware that for a frag to reach marketable size a great deal of labor like building the tables, cleaning tables, scrubbing off algae, uprighting overturned pieces, etc. is very time consuming, and time must factor into the end cost. Here in Bali, farmers seem to ditch their aquaculturing efforts once the price per piece drops below $2 as evidenced by abandoned tables growing low-demand corals that have now become gorgeous squares of mature reef. Is there grant money that supplements the locals involved with the effort, or is all the work done simply on a volunteer basis? It would seem to me that the prospect to earn money from all the work would make it hard to divert only 20% of the product into the market. Once up and running, how many colonies are you going to be producing per month? What are the typical income sources for the locals that are volunteering, and how many hours a week does the average person put in?
What are the major hurdles and obstacles that you've encountered in the day to day, week to week, and long term of the coral growout project?
Anyway, I'm interested in hearing more about the project. The article was a bit scant on the specifics. It sounds like quite an idealistic program. If in fact it works well, I'm interested in knowing whether a similiar program could be implemented elsewhere.
Cheers,
Colin
I am curious as to how CORL differentiates itself from a for-profit venture if it acts as the seller and exporter of the aquacultured corals grown in AS. How does all that work out? If a non-profit group is providing corals into the market, should we expect that they will undercut the price of the for-profit offerings? There are a few larger exporters/importers here in Indo that do what sounds like a very similiar thing; providing the resources, materials, know-how, and broodstock to the farmers who then sell what they grow back to the business that 'nurtured' them.
Also, while the production costs may be only 10 cents per frag, I am aware that for a frag to reach marketable size a great deal of labor like building the tables, cleaning tables, scrubbing off algae, uprighting overturned pieces, etc. is very time consuming, and time must factor into the end cost. Here in Bali, farmers seem to ditch their aquaculturing efforts once the price per piece drops below $2 as evidenced by abandoned tables growing low-demand corals that have now become gorgeous squares of mature reef. Is there grant money that supplements the locals involved with the effort, or is all the work done simply on a volunteer basis? It would seem to me that the prospect to earn money from all the work would make it hard to divert only 20% of the product into the market. Once up and running, how many colonies are you going to be producing per month? What are the typical income sources for the locals that are volunteering, and how many hours a week does the average person put in?
What are the major hurdles and obstacles that you've encountered in the day to day, week to week, and long term of the coral growout project?
Anyway, I'm interested in hearing more about the project. The article was a bit scant on the specifics. It sounds like quite an idealistic program. If in fact it works well, I'm interested in knowing whether a similiar program could be implemented elsewhere.
Cheers,
Colin
A not - for-profit 501-c-3 organization can have a product as long as the income derived from it goes back into Salaries, Project expansion, Project continuality, and other objectives that support the organizations main cause (such as coral reef protection, restoration, and environmental education). Oh and also, the product must be related to the organizations goals otherwise sales income will be taxed. Seeing our corals and coral farming projects are all tied to reef restoration and other environmental projects we avoid these taxes. This is also how we supplement both the creating and operation of the coral farms.
Yes I know the CTSA article didn't get into specifics it’s hard to explain the whole project in 2000 words (and besides much of our methods will remain PI until published).
We have villages here wanting to do coral farming just to restore their reef areas. They are willing to do it without pay.
CORL has already been working on starting an Indonesia branch (along with 3 other locations in the Pacific), and once the full CORL-AS project is up and running I'll be heading off island to get things started at these locations.
As far as the cost of putting between 5 and 10 corals back on the reef for every one sold to the MOI, it all depends upon how the coral farm is set up, and how being a non profit allows a greater return to the villages. We don’t stop there, we also; sponsor cleanup activities, water pollution testing, grant submissions for the villages to help correct env. Problems, environmental education in villages and area schools, and we also train them in coral reef and habitat monitoring skills.
This is all possible when an organization is focused on bottoms up implementation method and has a small organizational overhead cost.
Will we undercut the for- profit companies? ....well we can, we could slash the cost of our corals big time if need be, but I'd rather match their prices and put the extra funds back into creating more CORL branches in different areas, and expanding our existing projects
BTW, American Samoa was chosen for our Pilot project because it was one of the most difficult places to do such a project and small enough that we wouldn't be overcome by the size of the environmental problems at hand. From the results here we will be able to apply our program in many other areas and will be well prepared to tackle problems better as they pop up. (If we can pull this off where the wages are an average of 2.50-3.00 US an hour and where freight is at a premium then how well will it work in places such as Bali Indo?)
Well I need to get to Nu’uuli village where we're starting another coral farm and reef restoration project.
From AS
Fa’afetai Lava!
Mike
BTW for all our CORL supporters... "No news is now great news"! It looks like the proposal we submitted is all the way to final paperwork process now and were getting ready to shift into high gear!!
CORL Corals, Guaranteed Eco-beneficially produced. We may even certify them as such.
Yes I know the CTSA article didn't get into specifics it’s hard to explain the whole project in 2000 words (and besides much of our methods will remain PI until published).
We have villages here wanting to do coral farming just to restore their reef areas. They are willing to do it without pay.
CORL has already been working on starting an Indonesia branch (along with 3 other locations in the Pacific), and once the full CORL-AS project is up and running I'll be heading off island to get things started at these locations.
As far as the cost of putting between 5 and 10 corals back on the reef for every one sold to the MOI, it all depends upon how the coral farm is set up, and how being a non profit allows a greater return to the villages. We don’t stop there, we also; sponsor cleanup activities, water pollution testing, grant submissions for the villages to help correct env. Problems, environmental education in villages and area schools, and we also train them in coral reef and habitat monitoring skills.
This is all possible when an organization is focused on bottoms up implementation method and has a small organizational overhead cost.
Will we undercut the for- profit companies? ....well we can, we could slash the cost of our corals big time if need be, but I'd rather match their prices and put the extra funds back into creating more CORL branches in different areas, and expanding our existing projects
BTW, American Samoa was chosen for our Pilot project because it was one of the most difficult places to do such a project and small enough that we wouldn't be overcome by the size of the environmental problems at hand. From the results here we will be able to apply our program in many other areas and will be well prepared to tackle problems better as they pop up. (If we can pull this off where the wages are an average of 2.50-3.00 US an hour and where freight is at a premium then how well will it work in places such as Bali Indo?)
Well I need to get to Nu’uuli village where we're starting another coral farm and reef restoration project.
From AS
Fa’afetai Lava!
Mike
BTW for all our CORL supporters... "No news is now great news"! It looks like the proposal we submitted is all the way to final paperwork process now and were getting ready to shift into high gear!!
CORL Corals, Guaranteed Eco-beneficially produced. We may even certify them as such.
Sponsor Reefs
We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.
Click here to sponsor $10:
