Day 1

12 sea turtle eggs are protected in Cape Verde

Real help for the “Loggerhead turtles” Real help for the “Loggerhead turtles”

Protecting nesting sea turtles on Boa Vista from poaching

Sea turtles spend their entire lives in the sea. Only the females come ashore now and then to lay their eggs. Under cover of night, they dig a nest on the beach, lay their eggs in it, and leave the hatching to the sun. The sex of the young depends on the temperature in the nest: when it is hotter, more females develop, while when it is cooler, more males. After about two months, the young hatch and find their own way to the sea. In the water, sea turtles are elegant and resilient swimmers; on land, however, they move clumsily and require a great deal of effort. The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) nests on the beaches of the island state of Cape Verde in West Africa. During the nesting season, the females come ashore up to five times to lay between 60 and 120 eggs each time. For the first time in about 20–30 years, the female turtles return to the beach where they were born to nest there themselves.

Nina Heins presents her favorite project in the video

need

Protecting the loggerhead turtle from poaching and protecting nests on Boa Vista - Cape Verde

activity

18 local rangers guard 20 km of nesting beach and relocate endangered nests

Measurable performance

Number of sea turtles and eggs protected from poachers and from which young can develop

Result

By protecting around 2,400 mothers in the first year, more eggs can be laid and young animals can hatch from them, allowing the population to grow again

Systemically relevant impact

The sea turtle population on Boa Vista has recovered and stabilized; poaching is declining due to the rangers' presence

background

Sea turtles have been inhabiting the world's oceans for over 110 million years. They survived the dinosaurs and ice ages. Then came humans. Although they are now protected in most countries, sea turtles are threatened with extinction (Spotila, 2004). Excessive poaching, bycatch in fishing, pollution of beaches and waters with plastic waste, mass tourism and climate change threaten the existence of sea turtles. Cape Verde is home to the world's third largest nesting population of loggerhead turtles, with around two-thirds of the animals nesting on the island of Boa Vista alone (Reischig, 2018). The loggerhead turtle population in the Northeast Atlantic is classified as "endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, 2015) and is one of the most threatened sea turtle populations in the world (Wallace et al. 2011). In 2008, the Turtle Foundation began its work and set up its first conservation camp on Boa Vista after a report of 1,200 dead turtles the previous year (which corresponded to about 30% of the annual nesting population) drew attention to the acute plight of sea turtles (Reischig, 2018). Despite major conservation efforts, there were still 54 cases of poaching on Boa Vista last year. In order to finally end poaching, former poachers are being trained as rangers and employed in species conservation. To ensure the sustainability of the conservation project, the Turtle Foundation works closely with local authorities and local people. Through environmental education, the children learn about the importance of and threats to sea turtles. Creating alternative income opportunities is also one of the tasks: a group of women who were previously involved in the preparation and sale of turtle meat now makes soap and chutneys.

The good deed

Your good deed will enable two protection camps to be set up on the beaches in the north of Boa Vista. Local rangers live in the camps during the nesting season from June to October to protect around 2,400 mother turtles and around 12,000 nests from poachers on 20 km of nesting beach. From the camps, the rangers patrol the beaches during the critical evening, night and morning hours. In addition, data on nesting activity is collected and nests that are at risk (for example due to light pollution from beach hotels) are relocated to a fenced-off section of beach, a so-called hatchery. Your good deed will also enable three major beach clean-up campaigns to be carried out, as drifting fishing nets and washed-up plastic waste often represent death traps for mother turtles and hatchlings. The primary goal here is to prevent poaching in order to allow the loggerhead turtle population, which is threatened with extinction, to grow again in the long term.