Five of the world’s seven species of marine turtles come to the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, in Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, to breed or forage. The islanders patrol nesting sites, survey adult turtles at sea, educate students about the animals’ life cycle, work for ecotourism operations, and sell jewelry made from plastic waste or cow horn instead of tortoiseshell, the traditional material of choice. It wasn’t always that way. Traditionally, locals viewed sea turtles as seafood, and often harvested them as a source of both food and income. But this hunting also endangered sea turtle populations and marine ecosystems. “The year I arrived here [in 2013], 357 sea turtles were killed,” says Sara Vieira, a marine biologist from Portugal and coordinator of conservation NGO Programa Tatô. “You could find sea turtle meat and sea turtle eggs in every market and São Tomé shop. It was quite shocking.” All this changed in 2014, when the government of São Tomé and Príncipe approved a law that was decades in the making. It criminalized the possession, trade and transportation of sea turtles in both São Tomé and Príncipe, the two islands that make up this nation. Community members on Príncipe participate in regular sea turtle monitoring projects, collecting data about and working to protect endangered sea turtles. Image courtesy of Fundação Príncipe. But having lived there for nearly a decade, Vieira says, she knew that, like anyone who faces a disruption to the way they make a living, getting some locals…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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