Conservation of the Loggerhead Sea Turtles - Nesting

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Cape Verde Youth activities Environment Youth activities Environment +1 Permanent

About the project

📝 Detailed information

🏢 About the local organisation

The missions of our partner are the protection and conservation of wildlife and fragile ecosystems of Sal Island and Cabo Verde. Raising awareness in the community through educational programs, environmental activities and capacity building; working with public and private stakeholders to move towards a more sustainable development; working directly with the tourism industry to reduce their impact on the environment; creating new opportunities in the local community that involve the environment… These are some of their missions.

💼 What the programme involves

The project encompasses patrolling beaches (night and morning) to monitor nesting and deter hunting, data collection, research, working with tourists and local businesses, operation of hatcheries, and outreach activities and beach clean-ups. The work is undertaken by local and international field assistants and volunteers. Although there is a wide scope of activities within the project, protection of nesting turtles continues to be the main focus and this can be stressful and tiring, but ultimately highly rewarding.

As a volunteer, your primary role will be to patrol the beaches at night with other assistants in order to deter hunters and ensure the turtle can nest safely. During patrols, you will also assist with important fieldwork activities, including tagging and measuring turtles, and relocation and excavation of nests. You may also get involved with other aspects of the outreach activities and assisting other local community focused charities with small projects.

With this experience, you’ll learn about turtle conservation techniques and will have the opportunity to make a real difference to the survival of marine turtles.

🏠 Accommodation on site

Volunteers are based in a field camp (living in a shared tent with other volunteers) – 6 nights per week, with a rest night off in Santa Maria. Meals will be provided to volunteers during their time in camp, but not during rest days.

🍲 Food

Please note that water and basic meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) are provided in the camp. However, meals are not provided on rest days.

📍 About the location

Sal Island belongs to Cabo Verde, an independent republic since 1975, ex colony of Portugal. It is one of the most stable democracies of Africa and also one of the safest countries. The official language is Portuguese although a local Creole is widely spoken. Sal Island is the main touristic destination of the archipelago, and the tourism is concentrated in Santa Maria (in the south of the island), where the project is based.

The tourism industry is growing very fast. This has a positive influence on the local economy, but a negative impact on the environment. The biggest problem is the nonexistence of waste management.

The education rate is high, being public and widely spread among all the community. However, the quality of education is not so good, even more in nature and environmental issues.

🎒 Leisure activities

As a very touristic destination, Sal Island presents some different options: any kind of water sports with international renown for kite-surfing and surfing. Diving and snorkeling are also very present.

Visits around the island to spots of interest and to other communities, nature excursions such as easy trekking, shark watching, sailing trips and/or bird watching.

The association has agreements with several companies (surfing, diving and nature excursions) that apply very good discounts to all the volunteers.

⚠️ Requirements

Desire to participate in conservation;
At least 18 and under 45 years old;
Must understand written and spoken English;
Good level of physical fitness;
High level of energy and flexibility;
Able to cope with physically challenging conditions (camping, long walks, working late nights, hot weather, insects);
Ability to work and live with people of different backgrounds and nationalities.

ℹ️ Additional information

Volunteer contributions cover accommodation, utilities such as water and electricity, and meals during your working period. Volunteer contributions also provide critical funds needed to support basic but essential needs of the project, allowing us to patrol the beaches more effectively, and ultimately protect more turtles.

The price is 275€ for one week, 340€ for two weeks and 400€ for three weeks. For each additional week, the price is 50€.

We strongly recommend a stay of at least 3 weeks, but the minimum stay is of 1 week.

At your arrival, you will be required to pay a 100€ refundable security deposit against loss or damage of project equipment, and you should bring sufficient funds for any other activities that you would like to do. Once a volunteering period has been agreed, you will be asked to pay via bank transfer 100€ of your fees in advance. This payment will ensure that your place is booked as we have limited spaces and the demand is big. The payment will not be refunded if you cancel your volunteering – unless the cancellation is due to travel bans and/or flight restrictions, as a result of the pandemic. If once you arrive at the project you decide to leave the before the agreed date, your total contribution will not be refunded (this does not apply for the refundable security deposit, which will be refunded).

The period when volunteers are welcome runs from the 23rd of June until the 20th of October.

Interested in this project? Create your account and apply online.