zerobar.org

The Mission

zerobar.org is a different kind of dive travel service that exists for the benefit of the world's oceans as well as the communities that live upon her shores.

We know that the best way to preserve the natural environment is to make it viable to do so. Poverty coupled with resort-style tourist development is a model all too common in the world's beach destinations. The locals' love for the environment around them is the strongest force in conservation but it is often muted in the struggle for survival in a changing society.

zerobar.org is here to show you which dive travel providers contribute to marine conservation efforts as well as which operators work to empower local populations to benefit from the eco tourism boom going on in their areas. Funds are distributed by the Smoody Society, targeting up-and-coming locations identified by zerobar.org as on the verge of hitting the world scene as popular dive and vacation destinations. zerobar.org's parent foundation supports local communities through education, job training, and language skills, providing income opportunities in eco tourism-based businesses right at home. In additional to facilitating scientific reef research, Smoody Society also supports local youth to become dive instructors and dive masters, translating the love of ocean traditionally expressed through harvesting into a job for the modern situation.

This new source of income relies on the health of the reef and conservation becomes an organic, self-perpetuating community ideal with the power to resist outside influences. The Smoody Society develops programs in locations on the verge of a significant rise in tourism, where small actions now can influence the way tourism development will affect the community forever, encouraging local participation in the emergent eco travel and dive economies.

We think the locals should benefit from the splendor of their natural environment that draws travelers from all over the world. We've been to too many places where only a few years go by between fishing village and resort destination. The effect on the local culture is enormous, often pushing the original custodians of the environment to the fringes, where they continue to live with the same poverty experiencing nothing from the economic boom going on around them, and losing resources in the process. We think the local people need to be a part of the development, working in, owning, and running eco tourism enterprises in order to galvanize the protection of the environment for generations to come.