Sea Turtle Monitoring and Protection along the Muanda Shoreline, Muanda Mangrove National Park, Democratic Republic Of Congo

19 Jan 2017 Muanda Mangrove National Park, Congo (DRC), Africa Marine | Reptiles | Turtles

Samuel Mbungu Ndamba

The leading beach monitoring to assess and protect nesting sites of sea turtles, nests translocation into hatcheries, bycatch and environmental awareness in coastline of D.R.C.

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The current work plans to implement the following conservation actions:

(1) Monitoring of sea turtle nesting beaches: DRC beaches have to be patrolled every day during the sea turtle nesting season. The presence of field technicians is a good dissuasion for nesting female poaching and nest harvesting. Beach monitoring allowed for a drastic reduction of hunting and harvesting from nearly 100% to less than 10% during the past six years. Beach monitoring is also a way to quantify nesting activities and to follow the year-to-year trends of nesting.

(2) Nest translocations into hatcheries: Translocation strategy is developed in Muanda areas to reduce the issue of nest destruction by erosion and harvesting. The erosion is leading to short ribbon of sand and increase the exposure to flooding. Flooding of the nest increase the risk of incubation failure. The translocations of nests into hatcheries allow for improving the success rate and it increase the global production of the beaches thus reinforcing the sea turtle population.

(3) Awareness and environmental education program: The sea turtle program developed in partnership with ACODES and the Muanda Mangrove National Park also include an environment education program toward kids in schools and an awareness and outreach program toward coastal communities and local authorities.

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