Seacology is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization headquartered in Berkeley, California, United States. It works to preserve island ecosystems and cultures worldwide. 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 760,879 acres (3,079 km2; 1,189 sq mi) of marine habitat and 579,700 acres (2,346 km2; 905.8 sq mi) 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 resulting from his efforts to preserve 30,000 acres (120 km2; 47 sq mi) 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 (called fofo), 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 (Homalanthus nutans) 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.
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