Sea Turtles and Sustainability Through Community

For the past three months, we've been having an amazing adventure in Central America - daily inspired by individuals and communities committing their lives to building sustainability through community. During the last two weeks of our semester program, we are volunteering with an international sea turtle conservation program in a small village called Gandoca on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica ten kilometers north of Panama. We are working in the Gandoca Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge in the beautiful Talamanca region. There is a remarkable story here...

Let's start with the sea turtles. Playa Gandoca is one of the most important sea turtle nesting sites in the South Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica with three nesting species (Leatherback, the most abundant; followed by the Hawksbill and Green sea turtles). Since 1991, the sea turtle conservation program at Gandoca beach has tagged over 2,100 nesting Leatherback female turtles. Females mate every two to three years and can nest as often as 12 times during a reproductive year.

Sea turtles are keystone species (not only an indicator of the overall health of our ocean ecosystems, but a species critical to the balance of marine environments) and they are endangered. Worldwide their population has decreased over 80% in the last ten years due to water pollution, loss of nesting habitat to development and beach erosion, poaching of eggs, drowings caused when caught in fishing nets, and ingestion of plastic bags floating in the ocean - which they confuse for jellyfish - their main food source. The Costa Rica coastal zone once supported populations of sea turtles that numbered in the tens of thousands. In the 17th and 18th centuries, mariners' records document "flotillas" of turtles so dense that net fishing was impossible. Their teeming numbers were a dominant force in the ecology of coral reefs and sea grass meadows and in the economy of local communities. Sea turtles have been exploited for centuries by coastal communites as a source of food; as a base material for cosmetics, jewelry, and art crafts; and, more recently, as a major ecotourism attraction.

The Leatherbacks are truly impressive. These gentle giants can weigh over a ton and lay over 150 eggs in each nest. They nest at night in the black sand just beyond the high tide mark. Part of our volunteer duties at Gandoca is to participate in four hour evening beach patrols. We have two patrol shifts - one from 8 to 12 p.m. and one from 12 to 4 a.m. The ten kilometer beach is divided into three sectors, and each patrol is responsible for patroling one section of beach during their shift. There are three to four members per patrol with an experienced team leader. There is also a six hour egg hatchery shift that rotates around the clock (eggs that have been layed in vulnerable spots on the beach are relocated to the safety of the hatchery). Shifts alternate from day-to-day, so if you have the "grave yard" patrol shift from 12 to 4 a.m. (or the 12 to 6 a.m. hatchery shift), you get an earlier shift the next day/night.

For work projects during the daytime, we build sea turtle nesting cages and learn how to build proper-sized egg chambers in the hatchery to relocate eggs that are layed in precarious locations. (Note: Relocating the eggs has increased hatchery success from 40% on the beach to over 80% in the hatchery). In the afternoons, we clear heavy logs and other debris off the beach, help build new hatchery sites (shoveling a ton of sand during a several hour work session), etc. So, when it comes time for our evening shift, we are pretty tired. During our night patrols, we walk back and fourth single file along a two to three kilometer section of beach looking for nesting female sea turtles. We walk tired and in darkness as lights can scare off the nesting females. But when you come across a 2,000 pound sea turtle at 2 a.m. crawling out of the sea and beginning to build her nest, your exhaustion immediately evaporates in the excitement of being so close to this magnificent endangered creature and knowing that you are playing a vital role in her (and her offspring's) survival.

Once we discover a female nesting, we stealthily approach her from the backside and wait while she digs her egg chamber with her two back flippers - over one meter deep in the sand. Just before she lays her eggs, we position a plastic bag under her tail to collect the batch (takes about 20 minutes for her to lay 130 or more eggs). While one or two people hold the plastic bag, two others gather data on her size, overall physical condition, tag number, etc. and then record the information on the data sheet. Once she starts to lay her eggs, she goes into a

semi-transe state and is oblivious to the work we are doing around her. Once she is done laying her eggs, she fills in the chamber with sand and then returns to the sea. We then relocate the eggs to the closest hatchery. (Note: some eggs that are layed in safe positions are left where she lays them). It's really exciting to be a part of the work to save these beautiful animals from extinction. When I see how one plastic bag eaten by a sea turtle can kill it, I am more determined to use my reusable cloth bags when grocery shopping so I can play a small role in reducing the billions of these bags that discarded annually, some of which end up in places like our oceans. There are so many small things we can all do that, collectively, have such a huge positive impact on our planet.

The sea turtle conservation program at Gandoca has been incredibly successful. In the late l980s, 99% of the eggs layed on this beach were illegally stolen. Last year (2007) only 2% were poached. In addition to helping save an endangered keystone species, we are also learning about a very successful program that gives villagers a tangible reason to conserve sea turtles. Here's the story...

Gandoca is a poor, rural village along the Caribbean Coast. Most families here have struggled to achieve a sustainable income. In the late l980s village residents stole sea turtle eggs and sold them illegally generating $3,000 U.S. dollars per year for the entire community. Association ANAI, a Costa Rican community sustainability organization, approached the community and asked: "What if we help you to conserve sea turtles and you can make a lot more money conserving them than poaching their eggs?" This captured the community's interest! ANAI recognized that they needed to provide a viable economic alternative to poaching sea turtle eggs - an alternative that would be attractive financially to the community. So, ANAI helped the community to develop rustic chalets where volunteers come to Gandoca and pay $17 dollars per day to live with community families, receive three hot meals, and volunteer in the sea turtle conservation program. "If you build it, they will come." And they came! Today, several thousand volunteers come to Gandoca from around the world to help save the turtles. The volunteer's inscription fee goes to supporting the conservation program and the $17/person/day fee goes directly to the families they are staying with. How successful has this model been? As mentioned previously, the village made $3,000 poaching sea turtle eggs over ten years ago. Last year, the village made over $225,000 conserving sea turtles. The villagers today are the biggest supporters of sea turtle conservation.

This volunteer conservation model has been incredibly successful, and it came about through a simple, yet profound recognition that it's about sustainability through community. If we want to effectively protect a resource, we need to find imaginative ways for people to recognize the benefits of doing so... I am so grateful for what I am learning about community sustainability and for what I am learning about what I can do to make a difference!

Costa Rica: Reflections about Community Sustainability

After an amazing adventure in the rain forest of Kekoldi, we spent a day snorkling around a coral reef - exploring an underwater jungle of tropical fish and sea life and enjoying the warm water and beautiful surf of Cahuita, a funky tropical village along the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. The next day we traveled deeper into the Talamanca rain forest to the homeland of the BriBri indigenous people. We stayed at Finca Educativa, a community sustainability organization working with 26 different indigenous communities - helping local people develop micro-businesses and ecotourism ventures that enable them to become economically self-sustaining while also conserving their environment and culture.

One of the sites we visited was a remote village called Yorkin ("Your-keen). To get there, we traveled with guides by dugout canoe 10 kilometers upstream along the Yorkin River on the Costa Rica/Panama border. It was an amazing experience with lush tropical vegetation along the river banks and hills, an incredible diversity of bird species, and banana and cocoa plantations in the river valleys. We arrived at the "Casa de Mujeres," an ecotourism lodge where we learned about their organic agricultural practices, their use of medicinal plants, how they build their homes with materials borrowed from the forest, and their delicious organic cocoa (chocolate) business. We got to see the whole chocolate production process from picking the bean pods off the trees to drying them; from crushing the beans to grinding them into a thick, rich dark chocolate paste; and, finally, to adding sugar to form a gooey chocolate candy that melted in our mouths as we oooed and awed. It was the freshest and most delicious chocolate we had ever tasted and an important income producer for this remote community.

We learned how this ecotourism venture is enabling the BriBri to generate a sustainable income and to continue living in their river community nestled between the beautiful Talamanca mountains. Like so many of the sustainable communities we have visited, it is the women who are organizing to form partnerships to produce sustainable income for their families and villages while also protecting their environment and preserving their culture. We have seen so many inspiring examples of sustainability through community during this semester program - examples that give us hope for the possibility of achieving global sustainability. We have seen so many examples of what one person, one women's group, and one village can do to inspire a whole community's commitment to live sustainably.

When we look at the problems the world faces, I think we are starting to feel like we will never be deeply discouraged again because we have see the power of people working together to solve local problems. And, in a very real way, all global problems are local problems that have creative solutions through community. I think we are all feeling inspired to return home and to work with our communities to explore ways that we can live more respectfully and sustainably. We are learning how hope is a renewable resource.

Sustainability Through Community: Costa Rica

We left Tegucigalpa, Honduras on a whirlwind 13 hour bus ride to Managua, Nicaragua on March 29th. A quick night's sleep, and we were off on another 10 hour bus ride to San Jose, Costa Rica. After a day of talks in San Jose on environmental issues facing Costa Rica with an Emphasis on successful programs linking conservation and development, we headed to the beautiful, mountainous, rain forest region of Talamanca on the east coast bordering Panama and Costa Rica.

During our first 10 days in Talamanca, we are working with Association Wak Ka Koneke, a community development organization within the Kekoldi Indigenous Reserve. The Indigeneious BriBri people have lived in these mountains for many generations. In the words of the BriBri:

We have seen many changes and know that more will come in the future. We would like to ensure a sustainable future for our children by protecting our natural resources and our cultural heritage. Our bird and iguana conservation and ecotourism programs are some of the ways that we are able to do this.

Through partnering with Kekoldi, CELL is learning how the BriBri are conserving one of the most biologically diverse land areas in the world while at the same time providing a sustainable economic benefit to their families. The BriBri are a beautiful, culturally proud, hardworking indigenous tribe. They formed the preserve and the Wak Ka Koneke non profit organization so that they could do biological research, run ecotourism and educational programs, and generate revenue that will enable them to expand their reserve by purchasing additional land for conservation. As Sebastian, a BriBri leader and founder of Wak Ka Koneke says, "Our goal is to conserve our land so that future generations can enjoy what we have now."

We spent five days in Kekoldi learning about their conservation and education programs. On the second day, we visited the Iguana Conservation program. Green Iguanas are an endangered species in Costa Rica as they are hunted for meat, oil, and skins to make drums. Only one-in-one-hundred iguanas in the wild survive to adulthood, and most of these have been hunted. However, at the Kekoldi Iguana Conservation Farm, 95% of the iguanas grow to maturity (in two years) and are then released into the wild. This program has been very successful in helping to restore this endangered species to the Talamanca region.

For the next two days, we participated in two bird conservation programs: 1) mist netting song birds, and 2) monitoring raptor migration. Birds are an important indicator species of the health of local ecosystems and, in the case of migratory species, an indicator of the health of populations and ecosystems globally. The loss of wild habitat to development; toxic pesticides; and air, land, and water pollution, are causing the decline of bird species worldwide. Preserves like Kekoldi not only provide vital habitat for birds, they also help ensure the survival of song birds and many other species with whom they share their habitat.

Mist netting: This was really cool. We set up three - 12 meter long by 3 meter high fine-meshed black nets that are virtually invisible in the forest. Then we waited. It was like going downstairs Christmas morning... We caught a variety of birds: long-billed and strip-throated hermit humming birds, ochre-belly fly catchers, white-collored manakins, etc. There are over 50 species of humming birds alone in Costa Rica. This place is a birders paradise. The humming birds are my favorite - darting around like a 2 inch helicopters on steroids.

Once we capture the birds, we then record information: age, sex, physical condition, resident or migratory status, and weight. A tiny band with serial number is usually placed on their right leg, and they are then released into the rain forest no worse for wear. This research not only generates scientific knowledge on the biodiversity of the Kekoldi Reserve, the data on the migratory species becomes part of an international data base providing valuable information on migratory patterns, physical characteristics, and ecosystem management.

Raptors: Kekoldi is the world's second largest raptor migration site with 3.5 million birds flying over the reserve's observation tower annually. Seventeen species of raptors migrate across the skies of the reserve and three species (Turkey Vulture, Swainson's Hawk, and Broadwing Hawk) account for 98% of all birds counted. Raptors are also important environmental indicators. An extreme example of this is from Argentina where a farmer found 5,000 birds poisoned to death by pesticides a few years ago. With this information and data collected from bird migrations, conservationists in Argentina were able to successfully lobby for the prohibition of harmful agricultural pesticides (dangerous chemicals supplied by the United States and harmful to not only birds, but to other species - including humans).

We also had a chance to hike deep into the rain forest to a remote waterfall. It was amazing - a steady stream of water cascading down a sheer rock face into a deep, fresh water pool 70 feet below. The waterfall and surrounding cliff formed an amphitheater with lush, dense, mist-soaked vegetation covering a steep 280 degree bowl around us. We jumped off a rock cliff into the deep, cool water and swam over to the waterfall to soak in the mist and shower of plummetting water and the magic of this tropical paradise.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here in Central America. We're learning so much about "sustainability through community"
- learning that it's not simply about preserving rain forests, or protecting animal and plant species. It's also about people; and it's about community. If we want to preserve rain forests (or any other habitat), we have to find ways for people to meet their economic needs without destroying the natural environment where they live. Kekoldi is on a sustainable path to do just that; and these beautiful people are teaching us how "It is possible."

For more information on Kekoldi, you can check out their website at: www.kekoldi.org and for more information on CELL, you can check our our website at: http://www.cellonline.org/.