Hank Ebanks Contractor of The Survey Team Investigates one of the proposed carbon Offset Protected Parcels overlooking a valley on the Island of Roatan, Honduras (Photos By Mic Theory and J. Lynda Blake)
Black Coral Inc has been focused on providing Boston area students with access to the Black Coral reefs for study and enrichment. They also wanted to allow people to experience nature to heal and grow with a different mindset about our place as caretakers of the planet rather than conquerors. Black Coral plans to do that by offering educational tourism to science educators and climatologists as well as students and by partnering with Hands to Healing, a company that offers Equine Assisted Therapy and Learning. The clients of Hands To Healing tell their stories through metaphors, while working with the horses. The Honduran Island of Roatan offers untouched valleys and shorelines protected from developers through carbon offsetting agreements that help us keep the land from being scarred by so called progress.
The therapy works in compliance with Eagala's mission. Eagala is a revolutionary mental health treatment model incorporating horses who are highly attuned and offer a safe space for clients to discover their answers. One of the goals is that Eagala professionals will not only provide therapy but also train on the hundreds of acres available under Black Corals care and protection. In order to become certified as an Eagala practitioner individuals must take the Fundamentals of the Eagala’s Model Training Course. The training course is broken into 3 different types of activities: discussions, demonstrations and experiences. Students learn and put into practice the framework and standards of the Eagala Model, learning how to structure sessions and be introduced to a variety of different process skillsets.
This current course is five days of on-location hands-on training. Applicants must complete the Eagala pre-training webinar prior to registering, attend the entire training, and complete the post-training requirements for successful completion. Training events happen throughout the year and all over the world.
Results revealed that climate change can destabilize ecosystems; reduce tourism patronage; cause shift in tourist destinations, death and migration of wildlife species, flooding of eco-destinations and significant increase in cost of running of tourism in different eco-destinations. So it only makes sense that training people about the natural land and how to protect it is paramount in education. We cannot wait until it is too late to be responsible and oppose the forces that would endanger all life on the planet for their own selfish desires. We spoke to many of the landowners in Roatan and all of them voiced concern about privatization, gentrification, and exploitation of the Island they didn't need greedy corporations they wanted responsible neighbors. Essentially they were of the same mindset as Black Coral's team which believes that sustainable tourism is “composed of three pillars: social justice, economic development, and environmental integrity.
Black Coral's goal is to have the least amount on environmental change as possible we work with nature not against it. By providing informal educational activities, Black Coral's take on tourism also has an educative role that leads to positive learning outcomes and beneficial environmental effects. Since psychological components can affect learning outcomes, we also consider Hands To Healing as integral to tourist satisfaction in participating in the ecological learning aspects of the project and identification with its values, Eco-Educational Tourism can also provide a compelling incentive for governments and organizations to institute environmental policies and conservation measures. This includes the creation of national parks, nature reserves, and other protected areas to preserve their biodiversity and correspondingly boost their tourism appeal as we save the planet.
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