An unusual community, located in the middle of the country in the province of Veraguas decided to cut with ancestral tradition and stop the hunting of turtles and their eggs and create a team to protect them.
The Araucaria foundation trained the community so that, aside from looking after the turtles, they learned how to attract ecotourism guests. MarViva gave the project their support and sponsored a nursery to help protect the egg nests.
After much arduous digging in the sand, Malena´s turtles deposit more than sixty eggs in their nests. They then cover the eggs and wait, in the hope that their progeny will survive. The spawning mothers arrive little by little between July and August. During the months of September and October spawning turtles are seen, practically on a daily basis. The newborns start leaving at the end of August.
In 2002, the community of Malena, located in Panama´s Veraguas province, made a fundamental decision to protect the local turtle hunting , the gathering of turtle eggs, and the massacre of the surviving baby turtles by pet dogs and other disturbances to the sand where the turtles nest. Even though these species of turtles are considered endangered by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), human actions hostile to turtles are still found in many coastal communities because of a lack of community education and failure to consider other food alternatives like chicken eggs.
Becoming a safe home for turtles was not an easy process for the Malena community. In the beginning, it seemed almost hopeless, as a few lone visionaries fought against sand removal and made agreements with nearby communities to respect the nests. Nine families took charge and since that time, they have taken turns walking over the egg-laying mothers and doing everything possible to care for the nests.
In 2006 , the MarViva Foundation stepped in to a support this model community by constructing a second nursery and a beach shelter for the patrolling guardians. Marviva also trained children and adults to handle the nests, identify the turtles, and care for the nurseries.
Members of the nine families in charge of the project have subsequently traveled to various places inside and outside of Panama to train other Volunteers, visit similar model communities, and bring knowledge back to Malena. Malenas´s community efforts have not been in vain; thanks to this community´s organizational skills and its desire to protect turtles at risk, eight to nine thousand newborn turtles have been released to the sea per year. In
In 2008 the Malena turtles had a particularly good year: 14000 baby turtles had a made it to water. It is hoped that many of these baby turtles will return to this beach years later as adults to complete the cycle.
Ecotourists visiting Malena are treated to walks by lovely waterfalls and sightings of dozens of green iguanas that scamper freely, certain they are in no danger of being hunted. The Malena community has also created a volunteer program that allows adventurous traveles and nature lovers the opportunity to help patrol the beaches, care for the nurseries, and release the turtles. These activities are available during the nesting season, which runs from June to November.
The turtles have chosen Malena as the place where they will deposit their progeny-a vital part of their life cycle- and Malena as chosen in turn to proctect the turtles. Working to pretect the turtles is satisfying for the guardians, and also makes this community an oasis in which is it possible to discover people living in harmony with their environment. The example set by Malena gives visitors a new perspective, the community demonstrates ways to enjoy natural resources without destroying them. Here, people have evolved from hunters turtle eggs and meat, to guardians of the beach. By acting as ecotourism guides, these community members give outsiders the chance to witness the meaning of “life”, when they see dozens of little turtles emerge from the sand and struggle toward the sea.
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