In this Fast Five Profile, we ask nature-based conservation travel project, SEE Turtles, to share their thoughts and tips on responsible travel
1. Who are you? Brief description of trips you offer
Brad Nahill, Director & Co-Founder,
SEE Turtles.
SEE Turtles is a non-profit conservation tourism project that links people with turtle sites in ways that directly support protection efforts. We work with turtle conservation organizations in developing countries such as Costa Rica, Mexico, and Trinidad to bring people to projects where their visit will generate income for both the project and local communities. The trips that we promote range from hands-on volunteer
trips to adventure tours that include turtle watching as well as other activities. We also connect people who want to do longer-term
volunteering with turtle conservation projects.
2. How do you define Responsible Travel?
We promote “Conservation Travel” where every trip benefits wildlife conservation programs through income generation, education, and promoting alternatives for local residents to consuming the eggs, meat, and shells of sea turtles. There are many places around the world where a traveler can see a sea turtle in the wild and have a great experience; however in most cases that turtle doesn’t directly benefit from that visit. To truly leave a positive impact, travelers need to seek out well-run local conservation programs and businesses to support with their dollars and let them know how important these efforts are to their visit. We’ve seen communities such as
Parismina, Costa Rica literally transformed from economies based on turtle exploitation to ones based on conservation due to interest from travelers.
3. What does your company do to make sure it travels responsibly?
Through SEE Turtles, we are helping small community-based organizations reach eco-travelers in the US. To date, we have connected more than 250 travelers with turtle conservation projects, which has generated more than $130,000 for conservation and nearby communities. Volunteers recruited through our program have completed more than 500 shifts while benefiting local residents through home stays.
Our project takes several steps to reduce the social and cultural impacts of tourism on the remote turtle sites that we promote. Perhaps most importantly, we only send groups and volunteers to communities that request our help, our partners nominate their communities so that we can be sure the presence of visitors is welcome. In addition, we provide pre-trip materials to all participants that share any specific things to avoid in the communities visited on each trip.
Finally, part of our site selection criteria is to work with sites that already receive some visitation, it is our policy to not send people to places that do not have experience with visitors to avoid encouraging new infrastructure and conflicts in the communities.
SEE Turtles also promotes “conservation pricing” where the amount of money of the tour cost going to conservation and communities is laid out.
4. Tell us about a successful initiative. And an unsuccessful one - what did you learn?
Our most significant achievement over the past few years was to provide funding for Pro Peninsula, one of our partners in Mexico to purchase longline fishing gear from a shark fishing cooperative that was catching an estimated 700 sea turtles every year, almost as many as the entire North Pacific commercial fishing fleet. Most of these sea turtles died on the hooks, unable to reach the surface to breathe. We first learned of this opportunity on a scouting trip to the town of Lopez Mateos, Baja California Sur in August, 2007. The cooperative’s leader, Efrain de la Paz, was at first reluctant to change their fishing practices to help save sea turtles. But years of education by
Pro Peninsula and their partner Pro Caguama helped to change his mind, though he could not afford to purchase new, less damaging fishing gear and the group didn’t have the funds.
That’s where SEE Turtles came in. One of our primary goals is to help turtle conservation projects find new sources of funding. Our group was shocked by both the sheer number of turtles caught by just one small group of fishermen as well as their desire to change their practices. While our long-term goal is to help fishermen move into responsible tour guiding, we couldn’t pass up this opportunity to help save so many turtles. Upon our return to the US, the members of our group all chipped in and sent an urgent appeal to friends and family. Within two weeks, we had raised the $10,000 needed to help de la Paz and his colleagues purchase new, turtle-friendly fishing gear. As part of the agreement, the cooperative also moved their operations to a spot with far fewer sea turtles. Over the lifetime of this agreement, this quick action will save thousands of endangered loggerhead turtles.
We have had less success in generating funding for our partners in Trinidad for a number of reasons. While this Caribbean island has a lot to offer travelers, including some of the most important leatherback nesting beaches in the world, filling trips to this location has been lagging the other places that we work with, including Baja California Sur, Mexico and Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast. Travelers aren’t generally familiar with Trinidad as a travel destination, so we need to invest in educating people about this site, which can take years to come to fruition. The turtle sites here are a popular local attraction, though local communities are hoping to lure international visitors who spend more time and money in the coastal communities. To date, the number of people that we have been able to send through these sites has yet to have a major impact when compared to the local visitors.
5. What’s some advice you can offer to travelers wanting to travel responsibly?
We suggest that travelers seek out organizations that clearly lay out how their visit will benefit efforts to improve the lives of local residents (including flora and fauna). We have developed a set of guidelines for travelers visiting sea turtle habitats, both on nesting beaches and in the water. These guidelines show people how to interact with turtles without negatively affecting them or the local communities.
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