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Hope On The Horizon

Conservation by Cooperation in the Eastern Pacific

Posted on Mar 30th, 2006

Conservation by Cooperation in the Eastern Pacific Read the full SWoT report Dedication. Passion. Love of nature. Some say such words are overly sentimental. Some say that deep personal relationships get in the way of one’s goals, that it is hard to maintain one’s status as a respectable scientist and also be an effective advocate for the ocean, and that to restore nature is only a matter of dollars and enforcement. Some wholeheartedly disagree. If we are to repair what is broken in nature, to replace its still-beating heart, it will take a revolution full of passionate celebration and commitment to each other. On the Baja California peninsula, in the towns along its shores, you’ll find the heart of that ocean revolution. The Grupo Tortuguero is a prime example of a community of people coming together to do what they feel is right, regardless of economics and short-term personal benefits. The killing of sea turtles for food had always been a boon for the fisher people of northwest Mexico, and the laws designed to control turtle hunting were seldom (if ever) enforced. Yet many people have made a conscious choice to change their behavior and to band together to preserve their natural heritage, celebrating the ocean and its potential for abundance. In 1999, a group of fishers, coastal residents, scientists and conservationists in Baja California united to form the Grupo Tortuguero (www.grupotortuguero.org). Their objective was and is to use on-the-ground action to address the main threats to sea turtles in this region of the world—poaching for eggs and meat, and incidental capture in fishing nets, by trawls, and on longlines—and to recover the populations of the five species in the Eastern Pacific.  The Grupo Tortuguero now represents more than 25 coastal communities and a dozen sea turtle monitoring projects. Activities include nesting beach and in-water monitoring, biannual meetings, sea turtle festivals, publications, distribution of educational materials, and maintenance of connectivity between the various approaches to sea turtle conservation in the region. Perhaps its most important victory has been its continual reminder to concerned individuals that they are not alone—that we can all work together as part of a creative, evolving, and thriving conservation movement. Wallace J. Nichols, Ph.D. is Director of Conservation Science at ProPeninsula, Co-Director of Ocean Revolution, a Research Associate at the California Academy of Science, and Vice Co-Chair of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group, North East Pacific Region (j@oceanrevolution.org). He really likes turtles.

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