This World Ocean's Day we are very happy to be donating 50% of the sale price across all our Legends of the Sea designs sold on the Forivor website to the Environmental Justice Foundation's (EJF) Oceans campaign. The campaign will run from June 8th until midnight June 11th GMT.
This June you can help us to support EJF's crucial work to protect the ocean, end illegal fishing and stamp out the human rights abuses driven by this illicit activity. By buying a Legends of the Sea design both you and your children can learn more about marine wildlife and in doing so help EJF to protect the millions of people that depend on our ocean and for the magnificent and varied wildlife that call it home.
It was while I (Rebecca) was working at the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) , that I had the idea for Forivor. Their work to bring international attention to the appalling environmental and human rights abuses within international supply chains, like in the cotton and fishing industries, inspired me to think of ways to increase the share of sustainable organic cotton. After realising there was a huge shortage of interesting organic bedding available I had an idea for bedding that could nurture a child's innate love of nature and inspire them to be ambassadors of the planet as they grow up.
Although the cotton industry was my primary interest when I started working at EJF, I also became fascinated with the inequality of other global supply chains and the impact that they have on local communities. For example, EJF's work in Sierra Leone and West Africa demonstrates how if fishing trawlers act illegally by operating in areas that are protected or reserved for local fishermen, the local population are left without fish for food or for their livelihoods, plunging already poor communities further into poverty. Whilst working with EJF, I was fortunate to have visited Sierra Leone and their first community project which began with one small boat and one fisherman. This incredible project empowers those most at risk of illegal fishing to expose and combat damaging practices and fight back at the companies that put legitimate fishers at a disadvantage and steal food from the mouths of the world’s poorest.
From that first small community project in Sierra Leone, EJF has now developed a highly effective Fisheries Information Network (FIN) which has expanded across West Africa, the Horn of Africa and South East Asia. The network connects local activists and small-scale fishing communities with EJF's remote, satellite monitoring technologies to identify and document potential illegal fishing practices.
To date, the information gathered by local communities has led to scores of official investigations, the delisting of illegal vessels, criminal proceedings and millions of dollars of fines levied on, ship owners and key legal reforms in countries whose vessels have been involved in illegal fishing.
Since my time working at EJF, their Oceans campaign has expanded to include far reaching work to protect our ocean habitats, marine wildlife and the people that depend on them. To find out more about their highly effective and crucial work you can visit their website here and don't forget to buy something from our Legends of the Sea collection where 50% of the sale price will be given to EJF from 8th June 2021 to midnight on 11th June 2021 (GMT). Orders sent to the European Union will have 50% of sale price donated after taxes donated to EJF.
In a side note, my colleagues from my time working in a very small team at EJF remain some of my closest friends and Eleanor Church (Larkrise Pictures) who takes many of our beautiful photographs for us was filmmaker at EJF when I worked there. Myself and Eleanor went on to have children at the same time and the two R's (Remie and Rosa) have been part of many Forivor photoshoots together alongside all the newer siblings!