If you take part in to our RAHUI camps, you will be able to swim with sea turtles, and scores of colourful fish living in Polynesian coral reefs will fill you with joy… Moreover you may get close-up view of whales and baby whales (see our complete camps description) !!

“Rahui” (ra-hu-i) is a Polynesian word meaning “practice of sea fallowing”. It is a today-extinct practice of natural resources management done by Polynesians who had to fulfil all their needs in a self sufficient way (sustainable management). RAHUI camps are designed with respect with Rahui and their goals is to design a concrete and scientifically-documented model for a fully- integrated management of coral reefs, with a sustainable production of sea natural resources, together with other environmental issues, protection issues or reintroduction programme of endangered species (fish, corals, etc).

Many topics are dealt with in RAHUI camps, among others :
 reintroducing the Flying Fish (Exocoetidae) in the Huahine Island,
 studying the ecosystem around the Paraha Peue or Orbicular Batfish (Platax Orbicularis) which is much praised by local fishers and restaurants, but which is an overfished species in some areas
 preventing coral reef bleaching
 or sowing seeds of Giant Clams (Tridacnidae)
 fighting against invading algae through fish reintroduction Big-Nose unicorn (Naso Unicornis) .

But these research topics are not the only ones to deal with environmental, social and economic challenges. When you take part in a RAHUI journey, you will discover how rich the Polynesian natural and vegetal sea and terrestrial world is. And you will realize how important its protection is. For example, you will read the results of ethno botanical studies carried out in research centres located in the French Polynesia, on how the inhabitants use a plant or a sea animal to cure.

A Long-term project

Lying at the crossroads of all these (above-mentioned) research projects, the Association Objectifs Sciences International offers many different journeys, each of them bringing a particular answer to a specific issue. All answers help build a systematic know-how on reasonable management and lagoon protection for a sustainable development.

Our RAHUI camps are now located on Huahine Island ; they used to be located on Moorea Island, where a CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research, France) observation centre and an Biological American centre (Berkeley) are located.

This island is located next to the island of Tahiti, where other science institutions and researchers can provide answers to Campers (such as IRD (Institute of research for development, France), IFREMER ((French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea)), etc). When you better know the ecosystem around Huahiné lagoon, you will be able to simulate repopulating experiments for a specific fish or shell, gathering data (behaviour, physiology, molecular biology, etc) on animal and vegetal species surrounding the fish or shell studied.

For each of these very detailed topics, campers will be given the opportunity to define cross-species relations between the alga, the animal, the plant in its particular ecosystem. As a study report, you may write different articles on :
 Where does the animal, the alga, or the plant live ?
 What are the animal, vegetal or mineral resources used the species ?
 What are its natural predators, symbionts or parasites ?
 What are the cross-species cooperations ?
 What animal or plant species compete for resources or for parasites ?
 What are the abiotic surroundings and factors ?

These details can be presented in the form of :

 A bibliography
 A descriptive listing
 A geographical data system on the studied area or on the studied areas in the Lagoon (with lovely interactive cards)
 Interaction graphs

All reports are based on both current knowledge (what researchers already know about the species and its unique environment : required minimal living space, natural and adequate feeding with fish-farming, age and maturity size, state of the mangroves as a nursery feeding ground for juvenile fish, population changes and explanations, etc) and results from science projects carried out in camps (behavioural study according to most adequate surroundings, physiology, biology, genetic isolation determination, repairing nursery feeding sites, etc).
These reports add up to build the science data base that Objectif Sciences International puts at any Camper’s disposal in the general framework of its RAHUI Programme.

Campers co-sign the report they can then add in their resume !

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  Te Marara - 13-15 years , 16-18 years

  Here is the occasion to make yourself useful in the centre of miraculous landscapes. In the centre of the oceanic desert, an oasis welcomes thousands of animals each more gigantic than the next.

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