Playa Tortuga, fight to save the turtles

Near Uvita, in the south of Costa Rica, local residents and friends of the Reserva Playa Tortuga have been working for several months to preserve the turtles’ egg-laying grounds, and ultimately to save the turtles themselves. Despite legal action and the publication of rulings, the authorities are having difficulty enforcing the law.

Lack of manpower or lack of will to save the turtles?

Costa Rica Découverte and many other organizations are asking the question.

Friends and nature lovers decided not to wait to save the turtles. A citizen’s initiative has led to the setting up of patrols who take it in turns to monitor the beach during nesting periods.

The main problem is beach squatters and poachers. We have decided to join forces to support and help them.

We also offer various circuits in Costa Rica with a stopover in the area: the family circuit, the Jaguar circuit, the Oroverde circuit, among others.

LET’S ACT to save these endangered species.

These grassroots initiatives have the merit of appealing to individual wills rather than, as some still think, waiting for the state to take care of all the problems. The immediate effects of the playa Tortuga patrols prove once again that, far from paperwork, meetings, reports and files, initiatives on the ground are producing results. The blah blah of certain international organizations seems to us to be from another era, and implementing local actions seems to be a good example to follow.

For our part, Costa Rica Découverte is committed to taking a class of students from Santa Ana to clean up part of Tarcoles beach, further north, which is suffering from pollution emanating from upstream urban areas.

This is where education comes in, and we want to make them aware that when they throw a plastic bag into a river in San José or Turrialba, it’s the Pacific or Caribbean beaches and the fauna of their entire heritage that suffer the disasters. This project should see the light of day in a few weeks’ time. We’ll be sure to keep you informed.

We wish long life to all the little Olivâtres turtles that will see the light of day thanks to the efforts of the Reserva Playa Tortuga. Many thanks to them!