Protecting Our Oceans Starts with Awareness: MCI Latam Welcomes Fundación Océano Limpio
Environmental responsibility often begins with something simple: understanding how our everyday actions affect the places and communities around us.
On 13 August 2026, the MCI Latam team in Puerto Plata welcomed Johann Manuel Bierd, President of Fundación Océano Limpio, for an environmental awareness session focused on protecting the oceans, reducing pollution and understanding the individual and collective responsibility we share in preserving our natural environment.
The session brought an important local issue closer to our team. Puerto Plata’s relationship with the sea is part of the region’s identity, making the protection of marine ecosystems a responsibility that concerns businesses, institutions and individuals alike.
Understanding What is at Stake
One of the central topics of the session was the importance of corals and marine ecosystems. The team learned more about the role these living organisms play in maintaining marine environments and providing habitat and protection for numerous species. The discussion also highlighted how waste and other forms of pollution can damage coral reefs, with consequences that extend throughout the ecosystems that depend on them.
But marine pollution does not necessarily begin at the coast. Waste discarded in streets, waterways and communities can be carried by rainfall into rivers and eventually reach the ocean. Understanding this journey helps illustrate an important point: protecting the ocean starts long before waste reaches the sea.
Prevention therefore begins in our homes, workplaces and communities.
Biobardas: Stopping Waste Before it Reaches the Ocean
During the session, Fundación Océano Limpio presented one of its initiatives for tackling this problem: biobardas.
Installed strategically in rivers and waterways, these barriers are designed to capture solid waste such as plastics and containers before currents carry it towards the ocean.
The initiative also demonstrates why environmental protection requires collaboration. According to the presentation, Fundación Océano Limpio installs and monitors the biobardas while working with local authorities to periodically remove the accumulated waste.
Installing the barriers is only one part of the solution. Their effectiveness depends on continuous maintenance, responsible waste management and cooperation between organisations, authorities and communities.
Education as Part of the Solution
Technology and environmental projects can help reduce pollution, but prevention ultimately depends on behaviour.
This was one of the strongest messages shared with the MCI Latam team.
Environmental responsibility can be expressed through simple, consistent decisions: disposing of waste correctly, avoiding littering in streets, rivers and beaches, reducing the use of polluting materials where possible and encouraging others to understand the consequences of their actions.
Employees were also encouraged to become multipliers of this message among their families, friends and communities.
Individual actions may appear small, but when they become collective habits, their impact can extend much further.
Connecting MCI Latam with its Community
For MCI Latam, hosting initiatives like this is also part of strengthening our relationship with the community where we operate.
As MCI Group’s regional hub in Latin America, based in Puerto Plata, MCI Latam’s presence goes beyond its operational role. Being part of a community also means understanding the challenges affecting it and creating opportunities for our people to become more informed and responsible participants in their surroundings.
The session with Fundación Océano Limpio gave our team an opportunity to better understand the relationship between everyday behaviour, waste management and the health of marine ecosystems.
It also reinforced a broader principle that is relevant across MCI Group: duty of care begins with people but extends to the communities and environments in which we live and work.
Responsibility Begins with Everyday Action
Protecting our oceans is not the responsibility of one organisation, institution or community. Meaningful progress requires education, prevention, cooperation and consistent action. We thank Johann Manuel Bierd and Fundación Océano Limpio for sharing their experience and work with the MCI Latam team and for encouraging a deeper conversation about environmental responsibility in Puerto Plata.
For MCI Latam, the session represents another opportunity to strengthen awareness within our team while remaining connected to the community around us.
Because cleaner oceans begin with cleaner communities, and lasting change begins with understanding the role each of us can play.
