Ponta do Ouro Reserve increases protection for sea turtles – Mozambique

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Ponta do Ouro Reserve increases protection for sea turtles – Mozambique

10:28 CAT | 11 Feb 2016

Jornal Notícias

Civic education initiatives for communities in the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve (RMPPO) in Maputo province, are reducing cases of sea turtle egg poaching and contributing to the preservation of the species.

Public awareness campaigns about the importance of sea turtles and the need for their preservation, environmental education activities for children and direct monitoring are among the ongoing activities.

Speaking for the Centro Terra Viva, a non-governmental organization working for the preservation of this species in Ponta do Ouro, Raquel Fernandes explains that the awareness campaigns focus on the local population, especially children and the tourists who frequent the area.

Fernandes says that education programs, for example, have been implemented together with schools in Ponta do Ouro, so that they cover the children and young people seen as potential contributors to the preservation of sea turtles.

“In addition to this work, we also provide research data on the sea turtle to the Ponta do Ouro Reserve to enable better planning of their conservation activities,” Fernandes says.

She added that these activities are already bearing fruit, citing the arrest by the RMPPO of four individuals at the end of last year for stealing hunting sea turtle eggs.

“The arrest of these individuals resulted from a public complaint, evidence of the interest residents are taking in the preservation of these animals,” Fernandes says.

The offenders were fined approximately 26,000 meticais.

Latest survey results show that in 2014 a total of 1,054 nests were recorded, 885 in the RMPPO and 132 on Vamizi Island in Cabo Delgado. In Inhambane province 25 nests were identified, predominantly those of the Loggerhead turtle, followed in number by the Green turtle.

In the northern region the Green turtle and Hawk’s-bill turtle nesting season begins in August and lasts until the end of May, while in the extreme south, Loggerhead and Giant turtles nest between October and February.

Twenty-six turtle deaths were recorded over this period, six caused by humans, with fourteen nests destroyed by flooding in Vamizi and another 200 turtles by wild boars and honey badgers.

The Biodiversity Conservation Act provides for fine of 11 to 50 times the minimum wage for any acts that disturb natural and cultural resources in protected areas.

Source: Jornal Notícias