Marine Turtle Monitoring and Community Conservation Program

 Marine Turtle Monitoring and Community Conservation Program

Nesting turtles and their freshly-laid eggs face a serious threat of poaching and increasing coastal development on an unprotected and previously unstudied beach located within the Barra del Colorado Wildlife Refuge. Our program responds to an urgent need for the protection of marine turtles whose conservation status is endangered or critically endangered.

 Goals:

·        Improve understanding of leatherback, green, loggerhead and hawksbill marine turtle abundance and nesting patterns;

·        Increase awareness and improved conservation education amongst local residents and businesses about human disturbance, threats to sea turtle survival and stewardship actions;

·        Reduce poaching and human-induced mortality and disturbance, and

·        Establish cooperative and collaborative networks with other organizations to share monitoring results and conservation success stories.

  Approach:

·        Turtle monitoring from March to November following a standardized protocol by trained staff and volunteers;

·        Design and distribution of public awareness information to schools and lodges;

·        Community outreach, conservation education and hands-on stewardship activities;

·        Engage national students through our Scholarship Program, and

·        Implementation of protection strategies to safeguard nesting females and nests.

 Highlights:

·        Annual studies on the status and trends of nesting turtles and threats;

·        Graduate studies examining alternative livelihoods for poachers and ways to integrate with marine turtle conservation efforts;

·        Increased acceptance of conservation principles by local village and businesses;

·        Participation by approximately 100 volunteers over 300 monitoring days each year.

 Marine Turtle Conservation Challenges:

·        Funding to sustain and extend beach monitoring and protection efforts;

·        Improved conservation education, understanding and appreciation of marine turtle biology and conservation;

·        Capacity building and development of sustainable economic alternatives for turtle poachers who truly depend on the resource, as well as integrating conservation biology into the decision-making process, and

·        Establish national/international partnerships so that monitoring results shared for research and conservation protection strategies.