Mar Libre, a volunteer initiative dedicated to cleaning reefs, mangroves and other important sites on the coasts of La Paz, has removed up to one hundred tons of garbage in actions that began five years ago.
Described by Pablo Ahuja, its founder, Mar Libre is not a civil association that works for donations with an office and a media campaign. It is simply the meeting of volunteers who seek to clean the natural environments of La Paz for the love of nature.
Even so, according to its organizer, the idea is to clean the reef and mangrove areas where other beach cleaning initiatives simply cannot reach, and great results have been achieved.
Since 2015, when this initiative began, they realized that the task was great. In a first dive, Pablo said, “The divers took 100 kilos of cord from the reefs south of Isla Cerralvo. This is after separating the weights and hooks. Only the pure rope was the weight. In 2017, we went to the same place and we only took out 10 kilos of cord. Since then, when we go, we take out at most one kilo.” These actions are helping to free the place from the garbage that has been there for a long time.
Mar Libre has also visited at least 120 schools and given talks to more than 25 thousand students in La Paz. It was only with the pandemic that they had to stop.
But they have been active again for three years now and 2024 was a very busy year for them. “We could not go to the depths with the divers safely, but we began to carry out actions in the mangroves,” he said.
In June they went to El Conchalito, in July to the mangrove of the Enfermería estuary and in August they cleaned the mangrove area of Centenario.
“We took out about half a ton of garbage from each place,” he estimated. “It is sad to see how construction companies pay to remove debris and throw it in places with ecological value. In those places the removal of waste material is difficult,” he said.
When thanking the hundreds of volunteers who have collaborated with Mar Libre, Ahuja celebrated that their work has allowed 100 tons of garbage to be recovered from these valuable ecosystems.
During February and March, calls will be launched to carry out cleanups in the mangroves of Palmira and El Cajoncito in La Paz. We will publish the dates as they get closer.
Those interested can learn more by going to their social networks @MarLibre. Telephone 612 154 9859 [email protected]