Dear Friends and Supporters of Turtle Foundation,

Today, 23 May, is World Turtle Day! This day was established 17 years ago by the conservation organisation American Tortoise Rescue to commemorate the fate of threatened tortoises and turtles and their dwindling habitats, in order to encourage people to protect them. We take this day as a welcome opportunity to report about the latest developments in our sea turtle projects.

On Boa Vista, Cape Verde, preparations for this year's loggerhead turtle nesting season are in full swing. Now, the first animals can appear on the beaches at any time – the first of five beach camps has already been set up! This year we are particularly excited about what to expect, because last year we were completely surprised: After two record years in a row, previous statistics might had rather predicted a natural and temporary decline in nesting activity for 2018. Instead, we were literally overwhelmed by three times as many turtles as in 2017 crawling ashore to nest! This phenomenon is still subject of lively discussion among experts, and there is no simple explanation in sight; due to the long generation time of these animals, even the recent protection initiatives do not provide a satisfactory answer. We therefore do not know what we will await this season: Another huge rush of nesting turtles? Or, on the contrary: a particularly "quiet" nesting season? Whatever will happen, we are ready to protect the turtles from poachers! (Picture: Nesting loggerhead sea turtle on Boa Vista)

Last year, in addition to our regular beach patrols, our new "Drone Task Force" made a significant contribution to keeping poachers away from the nesting beaches. Accompanied by local police officers, the team regularly monitored the most endangered beaches with a night vision drone. Details of this project are described in an article of the African Sea Turtle Newsletter. Of course, the Drone Task Force will be active again this season in order to continue its success story in controlling sea turtle poaching on Boa Vista. Further, we are looking forward to the first deployment of our conservation dogs Karetta and Kelo! The dogs are being trained in Switzerland since autumn 2017 and will soon arrive on Boa Vista to demonstrate their ability to track down evidence of poaching activities. (Picture by Christiane Slawik: Conservation dogs Kelo (left) and Karetta with trainer Marlene Zähner)

In Indonesia, the restructuring of our green turtle conservation project in the Derawan archipelago off the east coast of Borneo is progressing. In the beginning of the year we started a new conservation activity on the Island of Belambangan, which was not been protected at all so far. It is estimated that up to 2,000 nests per year fell victim to poachers until last year; now finally we could put an end to that. (Picture: Ranger Beny Piama on Belambangan relocates a sea turtle nest that was endangered by inundation)

On the Indonesian Mentawai island of Sipora off West Sumatra, the second nesting season has just come to an end, in which we protected both nests and the nesting females of the rare leatherback turtles from poaching. This valuable nesting site was just discovered in 2017. We saved 45 nests and at least nine adult animals from human consumption and were able to deepen our relationship with the population of the nearby village of Betumonga. (Picture: Our hatchery on Sipora, where the eggs of the leatherback turtles could develop undisturbed)

On Bali, Indonesia, we launched our new nationwide campaign against the illegal trade in turtle shell products. In Indonesia, despite the official ban, a large number of highly endangered hawksbill turtles are still poached for their shell. There, the trade in turtle shell jewellery even flourishes in the internet! In our campaign we will do everything possible to create public awareness for the fate of the hawksbill turtles and to contribute to finally consign the turtle shell trade in Indonesia to history. (Picture: Not only turtle shell jewellery, but also stuffed hawksbill turtles are sold at markets in Indonesia!)

For our last year's work, events, and successes please read our 2018 Annual Report, which you can download as PDF at this link:

Turtle Foundation Annual Report 2018

We would also like to invite you to visit and follow our new presences on Youtube and Instagram!

Our work to protect the endangered sea turtles naturally costs money. We would therefore again like to thank all our donors, at this occasion especially the prize sponsors and participants of our annual Turtle Foundation Raffle benefiting our conservation projects, which was held in February at the travel fair FESPO in Zurich, Switzerland. The raffle was a great success; all 300 tickets were sold out well before the raffle started!

Of course, we are also happy about your donation, which you can submit online at any time on our donation page. Every amount is a valuable support of our work for the protection of the threatened sea turtles and their habitats! Help us to turn every day into a good "World Turtle Day"!

We wish you a wonderful springtime and all the best for the rest of the ongoing year!

With best regards,

Dr. Hiltrud Cordes
Program Director of Turtle Foundation

PS: For our conservation project on Boavista, we are still looking for adventurous volunteers for the nesting season between June and the end of October! Please inform yourself and apply on our website: Volunteering on Boa Vista: Online Form