Costa Rica Volunteering-Conservation-Sea Turtle Gandoca Manzanillo

Description

ASVO (Association of Volunteers for Service in Protected Areas)is a non-profit and non-governmental organization that is dedicated to maintaining and preserving national parks, communities and beaches throughout Costa Rica. ASVO's mission is to promote the importance of preserving the environment by operating a number of grass-root conservation projects and conducting a variety of educational workshops throughout the country. Over the years environmental issues such as deforestation, species extinction, forest fires, and climate change have been addressed by the members of ASVO as they have worked to expand their programs to different regions in the country.
The organization was founded on January 27, 1989 in the response to the growing realization that although Costa Rica is renowned for their natural resources and biodiversity, there was very little awareness around environmental protection by many people who lived in Costa Rica. Originally, ASVO focused on the preservation of national parks but as the program grew they expanded to include projects such as sea turtle conservation, community education and habitat identification.
For over 20 years, ASVO has been striving to call the people throughout Costa Rica to work together to stop the devastating environmental problems. In an attempt to address some of these issues, the members of ASVO have partnered with different Costa Rican schools, government agencies, community groups, local and international volunteer organizations and other environmental agencies. Through these partnerships the members of ASVO hope to raise awareness and encourage people to get involved to help solve these pressing issues.
The issues that ASVO are trying to address are very important for a number of reasons. In Costa Rica the government has allocated more than 25% of the countries land as National Parks or areas where ecosystems should be protected. The challenge is that the Costa Rican Government is unable to fund all the jobs, resources and supplies required to ensure that each area is constantly maintained, monitored and that required data that is needed to be collected from each park is conducted and kept up to date. Therefore organizations like ASVO play an important part in helping to achieve environmental objectives set out by the Costa Rican Government.
Although ASVO initiatives comprise of a number of different goals the three dominant ones include deforestation, illegal hunting or poaching of endangered species and promoting educational seminars to a wide range of people. Each of the above are important to address.
During the 1990's Costa Rica had one of the worst deforestation rates in Latin America. According to reports issued by "State of the World's Forests" at the beginning of the century they had approximately 99 percent of rain forest coverage that diminished quickly to 88 percent and by the 1940's the rain forest coverage was down to 35 percent. Now with the help of government initiatives and organizations like ASVO the current rain forest coverage is at about 50 percent.
The reason that forests where being cut down at such alarming rates were for two primary reasons: a) increased demand for cattle b) lush wood that could be exported to other countries who were wanting that commodity and it provide increased revenue for the country to improve things like infrastructure. There was a high demand from the United States for beef exported from Costa Rica which provided incentives for people to increase agricultural output and start cattle farms. Many historians believe that the increase demand for exported cattle was the the number one cause of the rapid decline in the cutting down of massive areas of rain forests.
Although deforestation has stopped dramatically, the existing forests are still under threat by illegal logging in protected zones, agricultural development in protected zones, and the need for increased environmental awareness projects to stop people from continuing to impact protected land areas.
The increase of deforestation has put a huge amount of pressure on existing ecosystems in Costa Rica. As trees were cut down the natural habitats for so many species became inhabitable. This causes growing concern and challenges because of Costa Rica's vast variety of wildlife that is found throughout the country. As a result the number of flora and fauna that are on the list of possibility of becoming distinct continually grows.
In recent reports from the Costa Rican Ministry of the Environment and Energy have stated that more than 500,000 species live within the country. This represents 4 % of the total number of species estimated worldwide. As a result, Costa Rica is listed in the top 20 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. Therefore, organizations like ASVO have an important role to help preserve the natural wonders of Costa Rica.
ASVO has been very successful at setting up grass-root initiatives that are designed to help increase patrolling of park grounds to ensure the park lands are kept safe; that endangered species like the leather-back turtle have a safe place to lay their eggs and a hatchery to monitor them when they are young plus creating educational seminars to various demographics. However, perhaps one of their greatest achievements is providing educational seminars to people whose livelihoods depend on illegal poaching or cutting down trees on protected land, by explaining the impacts this type of activity has on the ecosystems of Costa Rica. In many cases they have not only provided education but demonstrated alternative ways to make money so that they would not have to depend on poaching endangered animals as a way to make a sustainable income.

Why does this organization need volunteers?

The sea turtles that come to the beaches of Costa Rica have been poached for years. Many of these turtles are now on the endangered species list and if efforts to preserve these turtles are not implemented some types of sea turtles will become extinct.
The turtle nesting season here lasts from March to May.
There are numerous reasons volunteers are needed; three of the reasons in the forefront are: 1. To make the community of Gandoca aware of the need for, and to bring them to aid in, the protection of the marine turtles that come to nest in their community. 2. To begin and execute a methodology of control and protection of the marine turtles. 3. To promote educational activities within the Gandoca community and neigboring communities, in order to incorporate the social activists in activities that contribute to the protection and recovery of the environment.
This placement needs volunteers because the community members on their own cannot handle the amount of work needed to protect the numbers of sea turtles which nest at Gandoca. Sea turtle populations thrived until recent times. Human interference has become the main cause of recent declines; anthropogenic activities impact every stage of their life cycle. Historical and modern threats to species survival include direct harvest, mortality associated with fisheries and other factors, and damage to nesting and foraging habitats. The inclusion of all sea turtles on endangered species lists reflects past exploitation and the need for better management. Direct harvest is historically the biggest threat because the impacts do not become evident until the population of the nesting beach has become dangerously close to extinction. At least 20 to 40 years can pass after harvesting begins before the number of females nesting on a beach annually starts to decline. It can appear that a population is stable and abundant when there is a large aggregation of nesting turtles, but this does not reflect reality. In theory, small harvests could be sustainable, but in practice nesting ground harvests are difficult to control and interfere with reproduction. Turtle habitat is being eliminated by human environmental modification. On nesting beaches habitat is lost through unregulated coastal development, structures have caused erosion to be exacerbated and access of turtles to beaches to be impeded, and nesting and nocturnal sea finding abilities are disrupted by artificial lighting. Pollution such as oil, plastics and non-biodegradable debris and industrial urban waste and agricultural run-off all degrade turtle habitats.

What tasks will you be required to fulfil?

Volunteers will have the opportunity to participate in the following activities:
- Receive training in working with marine turtles.
- Mount nightly protective beach patrols to protect marine turtles.
- Aid in beach cleaning activities
- Identify and record turtle trails.
- Look for and find turtle nests.
- Count the eggs and relocate them to a more secure location (nursery).
- Monitor turtle nests.
- Aid the baby turtles in their return to the ocean.
- Aid in taking the temperature of the nests.
- Aid in biometric measurements (length and width).

Requirements:
Not essential background but the ability to work in a tropical environment, good health, and a desire to aid in the conservation of marine turtles, and natural resources in general.

Requirements

Language

English

Upon arrival in country our staff will pick you up at the airport and return you to our Orientation Center for a safety briefing and general country orientation. For this program you are required to complete one - 4 weeks of language training and orientation which is included in the cost of the program. At the end of that week you will transfer to your placement to begin volunteering. Our staff are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week should you require help of any kind.

Cost (per person)