Professional Association of Dive Operators Barbados

About PADO.Barbados

The Professional Association of Dive Operators Barbados (PADO.Barbados) is registered under the Charities Act of Barbados, as a non-profit non-governmental community organization in 1992 with its headquarters in the island of Barbados. The association's mailing address is 185 Regency Park Christ Church, Barbados, West Indies. PADO, is recognized by the Government of Barbados. (The Ministry of Tourism, International Transport and The Environment.)

PADO.Barbados Objectives

• Implementation of safe operating standards for all dive operators, making diving in Barbados a safe recreational activity.
• Creating an awareness of the need for the conservation and management of the Marine Environment.
• Protection and enhancement of the biological and cultural diversity of the underwater environment.
  
  

Organizational Structure

The activities of the association are pre-planned, managed and executed by the Executive Committee of seven officers comprising of all voluntary persons, includes a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and three ordinary officers. The committee includes qualified dive instructors and environmentalists with access to qualified professionals. The committee is chosen by the general membership by elections at Annual General Meetings.
The membership of PADO consists of approximately 80% of local dive operators, individuals and non-governmental organizations while networking with a wide spectrum of environmental national, regional and international NGO institutions and government agencies.

    The Association is funded by - membership dues, donations from business houses, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other environmental associations along with the sale of the PADO "RESCUE THE REEF" T-Shirts.

    The Association also has institutional arrangements in place to manage the implementation as well as operational stages of its projects. PADO works closely with the Coastal Conservation Project Unit (CCPU), the Governmental organization in charge of coastal zone management in Barbados. The National Conservation Commission (NCC), Bellairs Research Institute and the Marine Resources and Environmental Management Programme (MAREMP) at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus in its conservation initiatives.

Activities

• Implementation of legislation for Safe Operating Standards for all Dive Operators.
• Establishment of Marine Protected Area in Carlisle Bay.
• Establishment of Permanent Moorings on Dive sites.
• Stimulating the interest of Effluent Discharge into the Marine Environment and its effects.
• Seminars on Dive Medicine and the effects of pressure while breathing compressed air
• Most recently, "Project Skeena".

With nature-based activities becoming an important tourist product for Barbados, and some of the island's most attractive nature resources to be found in the marine environment. The exploitation of these resources without proper management would be unsustainable. Recognizing this PADO is committed to the preservation of the marine environment without which diving and other watersport activities would become unrewarding.

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