Equipo Tora Carey
The Sea Turtle Directory
Country: Costa Rica
Organization / Project Name: Equipo Tora Carey
Website: http://equipotoracarey.org/
Description: Being a community-based project, we believe in the deep connection between conservation and local communities; conservation cannot be fulfilled without an active local community and vice versa. This is why we want and need to work together with the local community, not without or even against them! Our objective is to mobilize and empower these locals – the most important resource at the project’s disposal – in order to fight coastal-marine destruction! Our three pillars of work are conservational effort, research and education. With patrolling our beaches every night and cleaning our beaches weekly, we not only actively protect nesting turtles and their eggs from being poached, but also gather a lot of valuable data. With this information, we try to predict the marine animals’ behaviour in order to protect them more efficiently. Finally, education is our way to raise the awareness of conservation in the community, especially among the children, to ensure a lasting change of habits. All of this work is also performed by locals. They are the essential part of ETC! All together, we embark on the conservation process and want to create a positive movement that involves everyone; people of all ages and from all walks of life joining the effort to protect our oceans!
Species of focus: Olive ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea), Hawksbills (Eretmochelys imbricata), Green turtles (Chelonia mydas)
Volunteer program: Yes
Tourist activities (Y/N): Yes
Primary Areas of Work: Nesting beach monitoring, Genetic sampling, In water research, Fisheries bycatch reduction / management, Community development, Policy, Rescue and rehabilitation, Satellite telemetry, Beach protection, Environmental education/community outreach