Turtle Foundation

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Turtle Foundation
founding 2000 (Turtle Foundation Germany)
Seat International office: Cologne, Germany
main emphasis Protection of sea turtles and their marine habitats
method Implementation of own protection projects, public relations, environmental education
Action space international
Website www.turtle-foundation.org

The Turtle Foundation is an international association of closely cooperating non-profit organizations for the protection of sea ​​turtles and their habitats. The Turtle Foundation is primarily operational and currently maintains two sea turtle conservation projects in Indonesia and the Republic of Cape Verde . In addition to the direct protection of the nesting beaches from poaching by locally hired rangers and volunteers, the Turtle Foundation carries out accompanying measures such as local and international awareness-raising work, environmental education and help for the local population in the project areas.

organization

The foundation consists of six national institutions that are registered in their countries as non-governmental , non-profit and tax-exempt organizations according to local law: Turtle Foundation Germany (since 2000; seat: Cologne , status: legal foundation under civil law ), Turtle Foundation Switzerland (since 2006; seat: Buchs , status: foundation ), Turtle Foundation USA (since 2006; seat: Bellingham WA ; status: non-profit organization according to 501 (c) (3) ), Turtle Foundation Cape Verde (since 2012; local name: Fundação Tartaruga Cabo Verde; seat: Sal Rei , Boavista , status: non-profit organization under Cape Verdean law), Turtle Foundation Liechtenstein (since 2014; seat: Vaduz ; status: foundation ) and Turtle Foundation Indonesia (since 2018; local name: Yayasan Penyu Indonesia; seat : Tanjung Redeb , Borneo , East Kalimantan Province , Berau District , status: non-profit organization under Indonesian law). The activities of the individual organizations are partly managed jointly via the international office in Cologne.

Support association

The association was initially founded in 2009 in Münsing as the Turtle Foundation Förderverein e. V. founded. Since it was renamed Turtle Foundation Friends - Association for the Protection of Sea Turtles eV in 2015, the association's headquarters have been in Oberreifenberg . The purpose of the association is to promote the protection of species and animals, especially of sea turtles, by raising funds through membership fees, donations, proceeds from events, etc. for the realization of the goals of the Turtle Foundation.

history

The Swiss co-founders Christine Zindel and Frank Zindel experienced the professionally organized overexploitation of the nests of the endangered green sea turtle during a diving holiday on the Indonesian coral island of Sangalaki off eastern Borneo . Shortly afterwards they saw the documentary “Wanderer in den Weltmeeren”, in which exactly these processes on Sangalaki were discussed, and contacted the author of the film, Eberhard Meyer. Together with him, the Indonesian ethnologist Hiltrud Cordes and other members, they founded the trust foundation “Schildkröten-Stiftung - Turtle Foundation” in Germany in March 2000 . Through intensive negotiations with the local government and public relations work, the Turtle Foundation was able to obtain a collection quota for turtle eggs on Sangalaki for the first time. From January 2002, a complete ban on egg collection was finally achieved on Sangalaki and a protection station was put into operation, from which local rangers monitored compliance with the collecting ban all year round. In 2008 another protection project for nesting loggerhead turtles , which are severely endangered by poaching, was started on the island of Boavista in the Republic of Cape Verde. Since 2006, five other national organizations have been founded in addition to the German Turtle Foundation. In 2015, the Turtle Foundation Liechtenstein was awarded the Binding Prize for nature and environmental protection .

tasks and goals

The aim is to stop the threatening extermination of sea turtles, to let the populations grow back to healthy levels in the long term, and to end unspecific, torturous actions on sea turtles. The Turtle Foundation promotes the sustainability of its conservation projects through accompanying environmental education measures and programs to create alternative sources of income for the local population with a view to the nature-friendly and sustainable use of the habitats on the coast and the sea.

Projects

Derawan Archipelago, Eastern Borneo, Indonesia

The world's eighth largest and Indonesia's largest nesting area of green sea turtles is located in the Derawan archipelago off East Borneo (Indonesian province of East Kalimantan , Berau administrative district ) . After the beginnings on Sangalaki, local rangers funded and trained by the Turtle Foundation protected three important nesting islands of the archipelago (Sangalaki, Bilang-Bilangan, Mataha) from egg thieves from January 2008 to October 2012. Since the project on Sangalaki was taken over by the local nature conservation authority in October 2012, the operational activities of the Turtle Foundation have been limited to the islands of Bilang-Bilangan and Mataha, where around 50% of the annual nesting activity of the green sea turtle in the Derawan archipelago takes place. Since 2014, the Turtle Foundation in the Berau district has been campaigning for the protection of the hawksbill sea turtle, which is threatened with extinction and hunted for its tortoise shell . Together with local partners, the Turtle Foundation carries out environmental education and awareness projects in the region.

Sipora, West Sumatra, Indonesia

In 2017, a nesting population of leatherback turtles that was previously unknown to the outside world was discovered on the Mentawai island of Sipora off West Sumatra . The animals that nest there belong to the leatherback turtle subpopulation of the northeast Indian Ocean , which is likely to be critically endangered. However, the eggs as well as the nesting animals themselves are regularly consumed by parts of the local population. Since the discovery of the nesting beach, the Turtle Foundation has been running a combined beach protection and community development project on the beach of Buggeisiata on Sipora in cooperation with the local population.

Boavista, Republic of Cape Verde

The Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Africa are home to the world's third largest nesting population of the endangered loggerhead turtle , with much of all nesting activity taking place on Boavista. The population is considered to be critically endangered and is one of the eleven most threatened sea turtle populations in the world. On the beaches of Boavista there is considerable poaching of female turtles, which come to nest on the beaches between June and the end of October every year because of their meat. After around 1,200 turtles were killed on the beaches of Boavista in 2007 alone, the Turtle Foundation set up a field station in 2008 with the support of the Cape Verdean government and the military in the east of the island to guard a particularly endangered stretch of beach, reducing poaching there by 90% could be reduced compared to the previous year. The project was increasingly expanded in the following years and now (2017) comprises a total of five temporary field stations and over 30 kilometers of beaches patrolled every night in the north-west, north-east and south-east of Boavista during the nesting season. The night patrols are carried out by employed Cape Verdean rangers as well as local and international volunteers. Other stretches of beach on the island are protected by community-based projects funded by the Turtle Foundation. In addition to the direct protective measures, the Turtle Foundation carries out projects on Boavista for public relations, creating alternative income opportunities and environmental education. For local children and young people, several educational stays are organized every year in the field stations of the Turtle Foundation ("School in Nature").

financing

The Turtle Foundation finances its projects for the most part through charitable foundations, but also through state donors, corporate donors and private donors. In the financial year October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018, the total expenditure of the Turtle Foundation amounted to € 707,290, of which € 625,115 (88%) went to the protection projects after deducting administrative costs.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Articles of Association of Turtle Foundation Friends e. V. (PDF, approx. 140 kB)
  2. ↑ Margrit Gabathuler, Martin Gabathuler: Fight for survival off Borneo: The Turtle Foundation fights for the protection of nesting beaches. In: Taucher Revue No. 132, 2008, pp. 12–17 ( full text PDF approx. 1.1 MB , accessed on August 13, 2017)
  3. ↑ Awarding of the Binding Prize for nature and environmental protection on the website of the Binding Foundation . Retrieved August 28, 2017
  4. ↑ T. Reischig, NR Basuki, VA Moord, H. Cordes, R. Latorra: Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Berau archipelago, Indonesia: assessment population, nesting activities, and protection status. In: Jones, T. Todd and Bryan P. Wallace (Eds.): Proceedings of the Thirty-First Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation, p. 228 (online) . Download the conference poster (PDF, approx. 1.1 MB)
  5. ↑ Turtle Foundation: Annual Report 2014 (PDF, approx. 1.4 MB)
  6. ↑ IUCN status report on the Northeast Atlantic subpopulation of the loggerhead sea turtle. English; accessed on August 23, 2017.
  7. ↑ Conservation International : Turtles in trouble - 11 most threatened sea turtle populations in the world identified. English; accessed on August 23, 2017.
  8. ^ BP Wallace, AD, DiMatteo, AB Bolten, MY Chaloupka, BJ Hutchinson, FA Abreu-Grobois, et al .: Global conservation priorities for marine turtles. In: PLOS One , 6 (9): e24510. doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0024510 (full text English)
  9. ↑ A. Marco, Abella, A. Liria-Loza, S. Martins, O. López, S. Jiménez-Bordón, M. Medina, C. Oujo, P. Gaona, BJ Godley, LF López-Jurado: Abundance and exploitation of loggerhead turtles nesting in Boa Vista Island: the only substantial rookery in the eastern Atlantic. In: Animal Conservation , Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 351-360. doi : 10.1111 / j.1469-1795.2012.00547.x (full text English, PDF)
  10. ↑ Turtle Foundation: Annual Report 2008 (PDF, approx. 1.6 MB)
  11. ↑ Turtle Foundation: Annual Report 2018 (PDF, approx. 2.9 MB)