Green Inspiration is a series of articles developed by Local.mx to showcase the most relevant environmental projects. In collaboration with Rolex's Perpetual Planet initiative, our goal is to raise awareness, inspire new generations and encourage all good ideas that improve life on Mother Earth. Rolex is supporting inspiring organizations and individuals on a mission to make the planet perpetual. #PerpetualPlanet. For more information visit rolex.org.
The second half of the year began with good news: last June, Rolex announced the five pioneers who, thanks to their brilliant ideas and tireless work, won the Rolex 2021 Initiative Awards. In the following installments of Green Inspiration we will talk about each of the laureates and their projects, which explore everything from the most rugged peaks of Nepal to the intricate caves of the Arctic, in search of simple solutions to complex environmental problems, and with a sustainable future in mind.
Luiz Rocha works to explore and protect deep-sea coral reefs. Photo: ©Tane Sinclair-Taylor
Luiz Rocha, an expert in ichthyology from the California Academy of Sciences, won the Rolex Award for the 2021 Initiative for his unique exploration work in the Maldives, an archipelago located in the Indian Ocean, made up of more than a thousand small islands with a tropical climate. There, diverse marine ecosystems coexist, including an impressive variety of coral reefs, which are home to countless colorful fish, strange mollusks, crabs and turtles. But perhaps the most amazing thing about this underwater world -abundant, diverse and fascinating- is that it remains, to a great extent, a mystery.
Although exploration efforts in this difficult-to-access region usually consist of snorkeling or diving sessions at 20 to 30 meters, Luiz Rocha, since his childhood in Brazil, has always been attracted to the secrets of the deep sea. That is why, together with his team, he has dedicated himself to expeditions - of enormous technical difficulty - that reach up to 150 meters deep, where marine creatures never seen before live. Each dive thus becomes a true voyage of discovery and an opportunity to classify and make known the biodiversity of the mesopelagic zone. There, where sunlight still reaches and life proliferates in secret, there is still much, much to discover.
Exploration in the Maldives contributes to the conservation of these largely unknown ecosystems. Photo: ©Tane Sinclair-Taylor
Currently, marine species, and in particular coral reefs, face threats due to water acidification, plastic pollution and the dynamics of climate change. The greatest risk in this scenario, Rocha believes, is to lose biodiversity before even having the opportunity to know it. For this reason, the exploration of mesophotic reefs - as deep reefs are known - is an urgent task and the very basis of protection, because what is unknown cannot be safeguarded.
Luiz Rocha equates marine life to art, both for its uniqueness and for the long evolutionary processes it undergoes. His enthusiasm, his tireless attitude of exploration and the love he professes for marine biodiversity - the one we know and the one we have yet to know - make this an initiative worth promoting and supporting. For, beyond the specific protection of the ecosystems of the Maldives, this work of exploration could translate into the creation of Marine Protected Areas in other oceans of the world and be the basis for future research projects that will help us to better understand the planet we live in.
Green Inspiration is a series of articles that fills us with excitement. Throughout the year, we will showcase the most relevant environmental projects that have been carried out around the globe under Rolex's Perpetual Planet initiative, and we will also tell the local stories of those facing enormous environmental challenges.
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