Seacology
Seacology is a nonprofit 501 charitable organization headquartered in Berkeley, California, that works to preserve island ecosystems and cultures around the world. Founded in 1991, it began with the work of ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox, who researched tropical plants and their medicinal value in the village of Falealupo in Samoa during the mid-1980s. When the villagers were pressured into selling logging rights to their rainforest in 1988 to build a new school, Cox and his wife offered to help secure funds for the new school in return for an agreement with the villagers to protect their forest. With the help of his friends and family, Cox secured the funds within six months, later earning him and the village chief, Fuiono Senio, the Goldman Environmental Prize for their efforts. Word spread throughout the islands, and with increasing demand for similar projects, Cox, along with Bill Marré and Ken Murdock, decided to form Seacology and expand their work internationally. For the first few years, the organization operated on a volunteer basis.
Because of the high risk of extinction for island fauna and the decline in coral reef ecosystems, Seacology's primary focus is projects in which villagers sign contracts under which they agree to help protect either terrestrial or marine habitat for a specified time in return for new buildings or services. The operations are low-cost, averaging around US$20,000 to $25,000. Construction is done with local labor and sometimes without the use of machinery. Seacology selects its projects by reviewing the recommendations of its field representatives and its scientific advisory board.
By 2020, Seacology had initiated more than 320 projects globally, and helped preserve of marine habitat and of terrestrial habitat. At the same time, they had helped construct new facilities and provided programs including educational materials, vital medical services, and environmental training. In addition to helping local people on islands like those in Fiji, the Philippines, and many others, their projects have helped protect mangrove forests, sea turtles, dugongs, and one of the rarest primates in the world: the Hainan black crested gibbon. Seacology also awards an annual Seacology Prize to indigenous islanders for their efforts in conservation and cultural preservation. The organization helps support island communities by fostering ecotourism, and has helped raise emergency funds following destructive tsunamis and other natural disasters. Its budget is modest, and it does not compensate its board members. It has won awards from Yahoo! and Travel + Leisure magazine, and has been featured in the music video "What About Now" by the American rock band Daughtry.
History
Seacology was founded in 1991 by ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox and his wife Barbara in 1991 resulting from his efforts to preserve of rainforest outside the village of Falealupo on the island of Savai'i in Samoa. He later recorded these events in his book, Nafanua: Saving the Samoan Rain Forest. Cox volunteered in Samoa for two years from 1973 to 1974 as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at which time he became fluent in common and chiefly Samoan, and deeply enamored of Samoan culture. After returning to Samoa for field work during his PhD studies in rain forest biology at Harvard University, and acquiring competency in Tongan and other Polynesian languages, Cox used funds from a Presidential Young Investigator Award given him by President Ronald Reagan to return with his young family to the remote island of Savaii in Samoa. His aim was to find a cure for metastatic breast cancer, which had claimed the life of his mother, scientist Rae G. Cox, earlier the previous year. In return for the help of the local healers, and with the permission of the local village chiefs and the Prime Minister of Samoa, Cox prevailed on his colleagues at the U. S. National Cancer Institute to share the revenue generated by his search for new drugs with the local villages and the Samoan government. Over time, his research identified the therapeutic agent prostratin, a potential treatment for HIV. Prostratin was isolated in a concoction made from the bark of the local mamala tree and shared with him by a traditional healer named Epenesa Mauigoa, who used it to treat hepatitis. Cox set up royalty agreements with the National Cancer Institute and Brigham Young University to ensure that the Samoans will share in any commercial development of the drug.In 1988, the rain forest was threatened when the Samoan government pressured the village of Falealupo to pay $85,000 for a new school, warning that if the village did not provide a new school within a year, they would withdraw the teachers from the village, leaving the children without an opportunity for a formal education. Shortly after receiving this notice from government, a foreign-owned logging company offered the village exactly $85,000 to log the entire surrounding Falealupo. Lacking a source of revenue, the villages eventually sold the logging rights to the forest, but when Cox learned of the situation and witnessed the logging for himself, he immediately sought an explanation from the village chiefs and then requested that they halt the logging so that he could raise money for the school. Despite initial skepticism, Cox addressed the assembled village chiefs and convinced the high orator, Fuiono Senio, who then helped persuade the rest of the elders. Senio and another chief then took their machete and raced to halt the logging.
The new school was built after Cox and his wife, Barbara, were able to raise the money in six months by offering to mortgage their house in the United States. Cox arranged with the Samoan Development Bank to immediately take over payments on the mortgage for the school. Verne Read, a businessman and financial supporter of Bat Conservation International, subsequently assumed payments on the mortgage for the school until the completed funds could be raised. Ken Murdock, founder of the herbal company Nature's Way, and Rex Maughan, owner of Forever Living Products, together with Cox, his family, and students funded the construction of the school and repaid the loggers for their $20,000 advance. During a large village ceremony held in January 1989, Cox, along with the village chiefs signed "The Falealupo Covenant", which legally protected the forest for 50 years in exchange for their help. During the ceremony, the village chiefs also bestowed high chief's titles on Murdock and Maughan. To Cox's surprise, the chiefs proclaimed that Cox was a reincarnation of an ancient deity, Nafanua, because like Nafanua, he did not come from Samoa and both had fought to protect the village and the forest. This bestowal of one of the highest national titles was registered with the Samoan Lands and Title Court, and made national news throughout Samoa and the islands of Polynesia; in Manu'a, Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti, and other islands of Polynesia, Cox is commonly referred to by his title, Nafanua, rather than his Christian name.
In 1992, Cox, his Swedish postdoctoral student Dr. Thomas Elmqvist, and their colleagues at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation helped protect the lowland rainforest of Tafua on the opposite side of the island, which encountered the same problem. Prior to that, Murdock, who later subsequently became Seacology's President, suggested continuing their work by seeking out more villages with which they could exchange projects for marine and forest reserves. As demand among island villages grew, Bill Marré, a business consultant and executive coach who later became a member of the board of trustees and the Chairman's Advisory Council, suggested establishing a nonprofit organization to continue their work. He suggested the name "Seacology" to reflect the organization's focus on conservation both terrestrial and marine habitats in islands, and helped cofound the nonprofit in 1991, along with Cox and Murdock. Using his own funds, Marré paid the costs of starting the organization and covered its administrative costs for the first three years. Together with his assistant Rita Despain, Marré helped advertise Seacology by giving lectures at schools and universities, visiting other island nations, and writing articles about the work for the local media.
In Falealupo, Seacology continued their work, funding projects with a total of $485,000 as of 2005. When cyclone Ofa destroyed the primary school at Falealupo in 1990, Seacology helped raise funds to rebuild it. The school was completely rebuilt again in 1991 following Cyclone Val. Several years after completing the school, the organization helped establish trails and build a rainforest information center, followed in 1997 by an elevated canopy walkway as part of an ecotourism project to help generate ecotourism income for the peopleusing a grant from Nu Skin International and provide funds for a retirement system for the village elders. The walkway has since become one of Samoa's leading tourist attractions, and was yielding an average of $1,000 each month for the community in 2001—bringing in more money than the villagers would have earned from selling their forest. Satisfied with the results, the villagers at Falealupo declared that they would honor the contract they had made with Cox to protect the forest forever, rather than just 50 years. In 1997, both Cox and Senio, the village chief, shared the Goldman Environmental Prize for their work. Cox gifted his share of the Goldman Prize funds to Seacology as an endowment for the Falealupo Rain Forest and other island rain projects. Proceeds have been used to help the village maintain the Falealupo Rain Forest canopy walkway.
For the first six years of its existence, Seacology operated as a volunteer organization with no employees. Four years after being founded, Seacology's administrative office moved to Ken Murdock's office. The office moved again in 1999 to Berkeley, California after Cox offered a job to Duane Silverstein—then the Executive Director of the Goldman Fund, which had previously honored Cox with the Goldman Environmental Prize. Silverstein had been inspired by the work Cox had done in Samoa, and agreed to take the position of Executive Director of Seacology under the condition that the office be relocated to within walking distance of his house. As a former Miller Research Fellow at Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at the University of California, Berkeley, Cox rapidly approved the move of Seacology to Berkeley.
In 2007, Seacology became an international organization with greater visibility, despite their small staff. International affiliate programs, such as Seacology Germany and Seacology Japan were created to help raise funds to support island projects. The following year, Seacology U.K. was created, followed by Seacology Scandinavia in 2009.
For its global efforts, Seacology has received several awards, including the Global Vision Award in Travel + Leisure, the Blue Award in Islands Magazine, and Yahoo!'s Pick for Good in September 2006. Others have included, the Prince’s Prize for Innovative Nonprofits Laureate, awarded by Albert II, Prince of Monaco and a Momentum For Change award, given by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In 2024, Seacology was the top recipient of the Lipman Family Prize for outstanding vision, inspiration and impact, awarded by the University of Pennsylvania. Executive Director Duane Silverstein accepted the prize in a ceremony at the Wharton School of Business.
Seacology was also nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.