STE: SCUBA TOURISM FOR THE ENVIRONMENT - RED SEA BIODIVERSITY MONITORING PROGRAM

Project Partners: Egyptian Governement - Ministry of Tourism; Italian Ministry of the Environmnet; Project AWARE Foundation (Switzerland); Association of Italian Tour Operators (Milano); Scuba Nitrox Safety International (Egypt); Scuba Schools International (Bologna); Editoriale DOMUS (Milanp); NEOS Airlines (Varese). Total donation grant from project partners to the University of Bologna, Department of Evolutionary and Experimental Biology: 200.000 (two hundreds thousands ) euros in 5 years. KEY WORDS: Biodiversity Red Sea Environmental Monitoring Naturalistic Education Sustainable Tourism Sustainable Development Conservation MAIN OBJECTIVES ►To involve dive tourists in the collection of data on the marine biodiversity in the area of Sharm el Sheikh and the Egyptian Red Sea ►To promote environmental education and to improve the naturalistic awareness of tourists ►To promote the development of sustainable tourism ►To enhance the naturalistic resources of the Red Sea ►To contribute to the maintenance of the coral reefs of the Red Sea ►To spread the positive image of tourist activity in general and of the recreational scubadiving in particular ►To divulge in Egypt, Europe and throughout the world a model of balanced exploitation of natural resources ►To give an additional value to recreational dives