Support Sea Turtle Conservation in Punta Banco!

Patrick McMahon is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

The Punta Banco Sea Turtle Conservation Project needs your help!

Situated in the southernmost corner of Costa Rica, the small town of Punta Banco has been protecting endangered sea turtles since 1996. The main threats for turtles, which are nesting on the local beach between July and December, are poaching of the eggs for human consumption as well as beach erosion. Therefore turtle nests are being relocated to safe hatcheries.

In the last 7 years the project has been completely in the hands of the local environmental commission, which is part of the Punta Banco neighborhood association. While the focus with other organizations in the past used to be "just" conservation, the project now also tries to leave a positive socio-economic impact on the village community.

Around 50 local volunteers, who are trained by a resident biologist, are paid for their ecological services. By paying them for their important work, consisting of patrolling the beach to find and relocate endangered sea turtle nests to the hatcheries, burying the nests in the hatcheries, liberating neonate turtles and carrying out nest exhumations, we've created a village microeconomy. As the turtle nesting season coincides with the rainy season, where work is hard to find for local people, this project has been highly appreciated by them and helps many families to economically get through this tough time of year.

In the past four years we averaged more than 700 nests per season, resulting in close to 50.000 released baby turtles annually.

These numbers have astonished neighboring projects and make us a very successful role model for the entire region, as we try to include as many local people as possible in order to protect the turtle nests and at the same time financially aid the families in the village.

The funding for our operations has mainly come from private donations, as well as the sale of nest adoptions and t-shirts. Also we carried out an annual sea turtle festival to fundraise. As you can imagine, funding has gone down significantly since the beginning of the pandemic, mainly because of a lack of tourism and the prohibition of activities like festivals. We are in dear need of funds to be able to successfully make it through this season!

With your donation you will help us pay local volunteers for their ecological services and buy materials to rebuild one of the three hatcheries.

Muchísimas gracias for your precious support!

¡PURA VIDA!