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Friends of the Environment Abaco, Bahamas | ||||||
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Keep Abaco Beautiful | ||
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 | Litter is rising on the list of complaints that visitors to our beautiful Abaco Islands make about their time here. We don’t want people to remember the trash they saw; we want them to remember the beauty of The Bahamas. Trash and litter affects our economy and the pocketbook of everyone involved in the tourist industry. | |||||||
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In addition to making our islands less attractive, litter also damages them. Litter can damage land plants and animals, as well as coral reefs and marine life. A large number of birds, turtles, marine mammals and fish are killed every year by mistakenly ingesting trash or by becoming tangled and then strangled by our litter. | ||||||||
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Having identified that litter was a serious problem in Abaco, FRIENDS and the Ministry of Tourism decided to find a way to engage our youth and our communities to take pride in their environment. They established a local chapter of the American program – Keep America Beautiful. Our Keep Abaco Beautiful program is focused on the mission to “educate and encourage individuals to take personal responsibility for their community environment.” Keep Abaco Beautiful provides sustainable solutions to improve the physical and visual aspects of community environments that individuals can directly impact through their own actions. | ||||
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To this end we are actively making presentations in schools and communities on litter prevention, the damage caused by litter, waste reduction,beautification and community improvement. To be a success the program also requires partnership and volunteerism so we are asking businesses and churches to Adopt an Area (see below for a registration form) and work together to keep it clean. This sets an example for others in the community of what can be achieved if people work together. If communities work together the litter problem can be solved. It can start with small things, like making sure to put your trash in a properly secured bin, and not throwing it out the car window or off of boats. | ||
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Abaco is currently planning other events to engage individuals and communities. For Christmas 2007 we are holding a Best Kept Yard competition, we are also partnering with the Rotary Club of Abaco to hold an island wide school sign competition. | ||
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We believe that behaviors - like littering - can be changed. We say that a clean, healthy environment is a choice that people can embrace. This is an opportunity to bring us all together as one through a community spirit of self engaged responsibility no matter how big or small a contribution is made. | ||
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If you, your business, school, church or community organization would like to Adopt an Area please print out this form and fill it in or contact FRIENDS for more information. | ||
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Keep Abaco Beautiful Community Road Adoption Program Application | ||
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Copyright 2004 Friends of the Environment. All Rights Reserved. Website designed by CocoMotion | ||||
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