Today, six out of the seven species of turtles are either Critically Endangered or Endangered (IUCN Red List 2003). The decline and even the threat of the extinction, of sea turtle populations around the world is nowadays well known and well documented. Commercial exploitation, driven by domestic markets and high volume international trade, is largely responsible for this trend. Also, sea pollution and coastal degradation are important factors in the survival of the species.
FNPF is determined to play a role in the protection of sea turtles in the area of Bali and acknowledges that protecting the species itself is deeply interlinked with protecting the turtle’s natural habitat.
Mangroves are well known for their high biological productivity and their consequent importance to the nutrient budget of adjacent coastal waters. They export organic matter, mainly in detritus form (leaf litter) to the marine environment, thus providing a highly nutritious food source for themselves, for animals found in the mangrove areas, as well as for those in neighboring estuarine and marine ecosystems, including turtles. Apart from nutrient export, mangroves also contribute to offshore fisheries by acting as nurseries and shelters for many species.
FNPF is considering reforestation of mangroves as a primordial complement in the process of the sea turtle conservation.
A further step is the protection of natural turtle nesting sites to increase survival rates of turtle hatchlings. Conservation centers and hatcheries were set up all around the world during the last decades in order to increase sea turtle population. However, the long-term efficiency of hatcheries has being questioned, thus the protection of natural nests and nesting sites is acknowledged as the preferred option for turtle conservation.
Nusa Penida island is well-known for its high and stunning cliffs and famous for its amazing diving sites. In fact, it will be officially declared as Marine reserve in 2012 in order to protect the reef and its hundreds of coral species from massive tourism or intensive fishery. However, the island has developed a strong seaweed farming industry, occupying most sandy beach areas and thus reducing potential nesting sites for turtles to a few difficult to access beach sites.
One of the last remaining beaches on Nusa Penida and the surrounding islands that sea turtles can access is a stretch of sand near a remote village, situated on the south-east of the island. Like all villages on Nusa Penida, the village passed a traditional regulation to protect the birds. But they have now also agreed with FNPF to extend this traditional regulation to protect turtles, and wishes to work with FNPF to also restore the mangroves trees.
While there is strong anecdotal information about turtles using this beach as a nesting site, reliable scientific data about numbers of turtles and turtle species is still missing. FNPF will install a monitoring station as a base for observation and protection work. The monitoring will provide information concerning turtle species nesting on the beach, while protection activities will simultaneously protect natural nests against predators such as monitor lizards, birds, crabs. This will result in increasing numbers of turtle hatchlings and their initial survival rate.
FNPF will provide a professional and specially adapted education program to train selected members of the community to run the turtle monitoring and beach protection. FNPF has considerable experience in turtle protection in Kalimantan, where it mobilized a local community to successfully a known turtle nesting beach from predators (in Kalimantan the main predators are dogs and wild pigs).
