Support for Community-Based Marine Turtle Monitoring and Conservation Education Project along the Liberian Bassa Coastline

Trokon Saykpa


Other projects

3 Apr 2013

Coastal Protection of Sea Turtles in Bassa Point, Little Bassa and Edina

17 Sep 2014

Continued Development of a Community-Based Marine Turtle Conservation Project in Bassa Point, Little Bassa and Edina

10 Feb 2016

Continued Development of Community-Based Marine Turtle Monitoring and Conservation Education along the Liberian Bassa Coastline

The main goal of this project is to protect endangered sea turtles in partnership with the local coastal communities. It will be implemented to improve the status of sea turtles occurring within the target area. The project key activities will involve monitoring, research, awareness-raising and conservation education as well as community development and livelihood programs. The objectives are 1. to protect sea turtles and their nests around the year and evaluate sea turtle bycatch; 2. to improve the quality and availability of awareness-raising and educational materials and 3. to contribute to small-scale community development projects for the benefit of the communities within the target area.

Green Turtle Rescued in Samuel Brown Town. ©Reuben Chinney

Green Turtle Rescued in Samuel Brown Town. ©Reuben Chinney

The project’s overall goal is to protect endangered sea turtles in partnership with the local coastal communities. This goal is achieved through collaborative conservation efforts and addressing key community needs through community development and livelihood programmes as benefit for community support to conservation.

The project will prevent poaching of nests and turtles along 22-km in Little Bassa, Grand Bassa County. This year (2017), the local school teachers will begin conservation education lectures and a variety of other nature conservation activities at their various schools. The program aimed at introducing conservation lessons and presenting some ideas for practical conservation work in the classroom. Strongly, we believed that this will enable the school children and youths to better protect their local environment in the short, medium and long-term.

The focal activities will include waste management on the beach, training and monitoring patrols, nests excavation, turtle tagging, weekly nature lectures in schools, and the distribution of additional solar charging lamps for local communities that did not benefit from the previous lamp distribution.

The key project objectives will include:

Objective 1:

To protect sea turtles and their nests around the year and inspect local fisheries for bycatch;

Objective 2:

To improve the quality and availability of educational materials in local schools and communities within the area;

Objective 3:

To contribute to small-scale community development and livelihood projects serving as benefit for the coastal community inhabitants living within the target area.

The projects expected outcomes will be:

a. twenty (20) community members are directly involved in the monitoring and patrolling of sea turtle nesting beaches;

b. increase in conservation awareness about conservation amongst school children and community members;

c. increase change in community perceptions and attitudes towards marine turtles; and

d. small-scale community projects implemented to serve as benefit for the local people support to the project.

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