With the last newborn turtles that arrived safely to the river, the Initial actions towards conservation of three endangered river turtles in the Santa Sofia indigenous reserve, Amazonas, Colombia. 2008 program has now officially concluded. We would like to thank the funding institutions, Curuinsi Huasi, the Nuevo Jardin community and the others that supported the program, the investigators and participating volunteers. Wait soon the continuation of our conservation initiative:
This pilot program sought to identify, protect and monitor nesting sites of the three river turtle species in a reproductive beach in the vicinity of the Santa Sofia indigenous reserve, in the Colombian Amazonia. Furthermore, it carried out a strong educational campaign in the Nuevo Jardin community of the reserve, based on conservation appropriation by the young people, awareness-rising through art and ludic activities with the children, and identification and communication of traditional knowledge regarding turtles by elder people.
Carihuasari family, of the Curuinsi Huasi indigenous family association: proponents of the initiative and coordinators of the monitoring. Photo: Diana T. Gutiérrez
Taita Rogelio contributes with his knowledge and enthusiasm to turtles conservation. Photo: F. Arbeláez
Between June and mid-July 2008, four researchers and six volunteers from Bogota and Medellin traveled to the Santa Sofia Indigenous Reserve to carry out the first phase of the program, which consisted in the execution of the environmental education pilot program and the initiation of the nests monitoring pilot program.
Environmental education pilot program
The program took place in the Nuevo Jardin community (Tikuna ethnic group) of the Santa Sofia indigenous reserve. It consisted in undertaking a strong educational campaign with the community to support the monitoring program through a series of activities and workshops. It fouced on three main aspects:
1. Awareness-rising of children through play and art. This included: ludic activities related to turtles (games that simulated nesting, escaping from hunters and predators, races in turtle disguises, etc.); drawing and ceramics seeking to identify characteristics of the different species (shape, color, size) and their ecology (relationship with other animals and plants, nesting, etc.); and finally preparation of a stageplay based on traditional knowledge and turtle conservation and its presentation to the community.
Activities of awareness-rising towards turtles carried out with the children and "Torichiga" stageplay (river turtle story in Tikuna). Photos: Diana T. Gutiérrez, F. Arbeláez and Anna Premauer
"Torichiga" (river turtle story). Stageplay performed by the young people and the children of Nuevo Jardin (English subtitles available)
Tikuna version of the "Torichiga" stageplay (English subtitles available)
2. Identification and use of traditional knowledge related to turtles by elder people. interviews by the young people group and workshops with elder people were carried out, aiming to rescue ancestral memory,
myths and legends, and the historical relationship between the community and the turtles. Traditional stories and myths were used as a base for the story of the stageplay.
"Grandpas and grandmas: we invite you to share stories and knowledge on river turtles and a tasty masato"
Sharing turtle stories and a tasty masato (traditional drink). Photos: Clever (young people group) y F. Arbeláez.
3. Commitment to conservation, appropriation of the program and active participation by a group of young leaders. We worked very intensively with a group of six young people of the community. They learned to operate audiovisual equipment and were in charge of the interviews and organizing the activities with children and adults. Furthermore, they were wrote the story of the stageplay and participated actively in their preparation, scenography and performance. Currently the young leaders are participating in the conservation beach monitoring. With the ethnozoobiologic knowledge they are acquiring, they are preparing to become future leaders in turtle conservation of the community and of the reserve.
The information, the audiovisual material and the children's drawings will be used to design educational material and to edit a video that will be given to the young people to present them to the community.
The whole team: Gilberto, Nabil, Susana, Ismael, Poli and Clever. Photo: F. Arbeláez
The young leaders trained to carry out interviews and to operate audiovisual equipment. Photo: Poli (young people group)
We concerted with the neighbor communities the declaration of the "Tori turtle community conservation beach" in a small emergent island of the Amazon River in the vicinity of the reserve during the nesting season (July to November). The program was socialised with the five communities of the reserve and two Peruvian communities neighboring the beach. Communities were invited to support the initiative by not extracting eggs or turtles from this protected beach. In Colombia, two communities showed high concern for turtle conservation and leaded the initiative (Nuevo Jardin and El Progreso), while the other three (Loma Linda, Santa Sofia and Puerto Maldonado) were reluctant. However, the two Peruvian communities received the proposal with interest. Corpoamazonia, a Colombian environmental authority, and the Captainship of Peru welcomed the initiative and expressed it with support letters. After socialisation, visible signs were located on the island and the 3th of July the monitoring began, with the coordination by the Curuinsi Huasi association and participation of the young people group from Nuevo Jardin, FBC investigators and volunteer students from different cities of Colombia.
"Tori" (river turtle in Tikuna) turtle community conservation beach. Photos: Diana T. Guriérrez and F. Arbeláez
Monitoring of the beach continued until November 2008. The members of Curuinsi Huasi continued with their interest and enthusiasm, and were the motor of the activities. The young people group from Nuevo Jardin also participated, together with a FBC investigator and a volunteer from Bogota. Teams of three to four monitors would travel to the island each night and surveyed the beach waiting for turtles to nest. Whenever they found turtle traces, they would follow them to the nest to gather general data (species, date, time, distance to water, etc.) and each nest was geopositioned and placed in a reference map. Then, they would carefully erase the traces to avoid fishermen to find them during the day. Despite program promotion and dissemination, fishermen from neighbor and far communities (as far as Leticia) would still arrive to the beach at night in search of eggs and turtles. Even after trying to dissuade them, many stayed and managed to get the nests before the monitors (who did not have other tools than education, as they were not an official environmental authority). Unfortunately, being this an unprecedented initiative in the area, we were not able to protect all the nests. In the whole season, only 32 nests were laid, 14 of Podocnemis sextuberculata (six-tubercled river turtle) and 16 of P. unifilis (yellow-spotted river turtle). This is an revealing figure of the populations decline, as in previous years a single fisherman could extract up to 12 nests in just one night. From these 32 nests, we were able to protect 17: 2 of P. sextuberculata and 15 of P. unifilis. In 19th of November, the newborns ended hatching up from the protected nests, after 80 to 93 days of incubation. Many eggs were lost (almost 80%) by natural causes, mainly due to ants and mole crickets that are abundant on the beach. At the end, 112 newborn turtles (12 P. sextuberculata and 100 P. unifilis) arrived safely to the river. One adult of P. unifilis (possibly a female) was rescued from a fishing net and then released on the "Tori" conservation beach.
"Tori" turtle community conservation beach. Rogelio points at one of the protected nests. Photos: F. Arbeláez.
The video of the Torichiga stageplay and a picture presentation of the activities were given to the young people group of Nuevo Jardin, who presented them to the community in several occasions. Furthermore, the video was exhibited in two neighbor schools and diffused in local television in Leticia. The young people group and the members of Curuinsi Huasi were interviewed on local radio and television, who promoted the program and invited communities to put their sand grain to turtle conservation. Results of the program were socialised in a meeting were traditional authorities of four Colombian and Peruvian communities and environmental authorities from both countries were invited. In this meeting, the continuation of the program in 2009 involving the four communities and the effective support by the environmental authorities were discussed. Another meeting was planned before the start of the 2009 program to get the support from the authorities. It is to expect that these additional components will increase effectiveness of community conservation efforts next year.
Dissemination activities with neighbor schools: the video of "Torichiga" was shown and the children made colorful signs in Spanish and in Tikuna that invited adults to preserve the turtles and that were located on the beach. Photos: F. Arbeláez
Participation and appropriation of the project by the Nuevo Jardin community, together with gathered etnozoobiologic information, data collected on the beach and acquired experience in the monitoring by Curuinsi Huasi and the young people, will allow to continue and adjust the program for its continuation on 2009, with further involvement of the communities of Peru and Colombia. The aims are to give capacitatin to groups of young people from the four participating communities so that they become leaders in turtle conservation in the region, and to get a stronger support from environmental authorities from both countries to the activities the local conservation groups carry out. Success of this program will allow to draw attention to local and regional authorities in order to expand it in the future to other communities and indigenous reserves of the Amazon River in both countries. Visit the webpage of the Community-based conservation program of river turtles by indigenous Peruvian and Colombian communities of the Amazon River, 2009-2010
Volunteer program
Seven volunteers from Bogota and Medellin participated in all the activities of the program in 2008. Their enthusiasm and collaboration allowed the fine development and success of the planned conservation activities.
Thanks to all participants for putting their sand grain to conserve these species!Volunteers and researchers in action. Photos: young people group
Notice: Opinions and ideas expressed in this page and annexed documents are authority and exclusive responsability of the researcher and do not compromise in any way Fundacion BioDiversa Colombia or any of the institutions that support or has supported the project.
Podocnemis unifilis (yellow spotted river turtle). Photo: F. Arbeláez
Cleveland Zoological Society
Carihuasari family, of the Curuinsi Huasi indigenous family association: proponents of the initiative and coordinators of the monitoring. Photo: Diana T. Gutiérrez 
