HEPCA

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Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association
(HEPCA)
founding 1992
Seat Hurghada , EgyptEgyptEgypt 
main emphasis Environmental protection , marine protection
Action space Red Sea , Egypt
Website www.hepca.org

The HEPCA , short for Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association ( English for ' Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association '), is the largest Egyptian nature conservation organization . The non-profit , non-governmental organization is actively committed to maintaining and improving life in the Red Sea and on land. The projects and campaigns aim to protect the environment in Egypt in connection with an improvement in the standard of living of the people of the country.

Several million tourists visit the Red Sea and Egypt every year. HEPCA operates and supports various projects, e.g. B. for dolphin protection, monitoring of coral reefs and environmental education in local communities. To this end, HEPCA works closely with the Egyptian government authorities, the Governor for the Red Sea and the local national parks as well as other environmental protection organizations.

History and projects

The organization was founded in 1992 by 12 representatives from the diving industry from Hurghada and Safaga and has been based in Hurghada ever since.

The original goal was to create a mooring system that prevents boats from anchoring on coral reefs and thus destroying valuable marine organisms. Instead of the originally planned relocation of 100 buoys , over 1200 mooring buoys have been installed between the Sinai Peninsula in the north and the Sudanese border in the southern Red Sea to date (as of April 2017) . HEPCA has thus created the largest mooring system in the world.

HEPCA garbage truck

In 2009, HEPCA started the structured, waste management collection of waste in Hurghada and later expanded this to Marsa Alam . Waste separation and recycling were largely unknown in Egypt until then. The nature conservation organization has done pioneering work here: What used to end up as a mountain of rubbish in the Egyptian desert is now largely collected and recycled. In the governorate of the Red Sea , there are now regulations on waste separation. In 2014, the special-purpose operation of the organization had around 80 garbage trucks and 1000 employees who collect around 600 tons of garbage every day (including around 400 tons of organic waste , which is partly processed as feed for camels and otherwise properly disposed of, 180 tons of dry waste and 20 tons mixed waste). As is customary in Germany, it is financed through a mixed calculation of garbage fees from hotel facilities and income from the sale of the recycling material.

HEPCA supports u. a. the long-term research project Dolphin Watch Natural Underwater Science (DWNUS), launched in October 2009 , which, under the direction of biologist Angela Ziltener from the University of Zurich and in alternating collaboration with international scientists from various universities and dolphin protection organizations, is researching the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops aduncus ) in the area around Hurghada according to scientific criteria and requirements. In 2011, the project led to the establishment of the Dolphin Watch Alliance , which launched the local awareness- raising project Care for Dolphin in 2012 . In 2013 Care for Dolphins led to an official code of conduct for dolphin watching tours as well as to the temporary closure of the resting places of the local dolphins threatened by mass tourism. The two reefs affected were closed by HEPCA, and the organization is also involved with patrols to enforce the rules that are binding for dolphin tour operators. In 2016, two marine sanctuaries were designated for the dolphins off Hurghada, which are also patrolled by HEPCA.

In 2015, HEPCA started a new project with Code Red ('red alert' - red stands for the Red Sea) with the aim of achieving a new standard for environmentally conscious practices and behavior in the tourism industry. The program not only calls for political support, but also calls on all people and companies using the Red Sea habitat to participate in the sustainable protection of this habitat. The core of the program is an agreement, the signatories of which pledge to actively protect the Red Sea and its natural resources.

The voluntary commitment contains the following points:

  1. Refrain from anchoring, instead use the mooring system
  2. no waste disposal in the sea
  3. no hunting and disturbance of marine life, including touching and feeding, particularly affects dolphins, sharks, turtles and manatees, but also birds
  4. No souvenirs from the sea, no promotion of the keeping of marine animals
  5. Supporting scientific research and monitoring programs

The environmental protection organization solicited support for the program at the Boot Düsseldorf and ITB Berlin trade fairs in 2015 , which is aimed in particular at travel and diving operators, tourism service providers, hotels and diving centers, guides and boats. So far, the signatories have been the diving organizations PADI , SSI and VDST .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History . HEPCA website, accessed February 6, 2015.
  2. ^ Johann Vifian and the HEPCA. From the Sudanese anchor to the Halas system . In: Atlantis - Magazine for Divestyle. No. 2/2010, accessed on February 6, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b HEPCA - Sustainable Environmental Protection in Egypt. In: Divemaster - The specialist magazine. No. 85, November 2014, ISSN  0943-9986 , pp. 11-14.
  4. ↑ Heinz Krimmer: Research project: The dolphin whisperers . In: Atlantis. No. 1/2013, pp. 18-19, accessed April 1, 2017.
  5. ^ Dolphin Watch - Natural Underwater Science . Spiritual World Diving Federation website, accessed April 1, 2017.
  6. ↑ Phil Simha: Revolution for the Dolphins . In: Unterwasser , No. 10/2013, pp. 78–83, accessed on April 1, 2017 (PDF).
  7. ↑ Code Red for the Red Sea . Taucher.net, January 18, 2015, accessed April 3, 2017.
  8. ↑ The Code Red Commitment . HEPCA, accessed on Taucher.net on April 3, 2017 (PDF).
  9. ↑ Red alert on the Red Sea . In: Silent World , March 2015, accessed April 3, 2017.