Costa Rica Volunteering-Conservation-Sea Turtle Matapalo Beach Central Pacific Coast

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 area is not considered a protected area by the government and the project does not receive any funding; the project is managed by a nonprofit organization, so they need a lot of support.
The Matapalo Sea Turtle project needs volunteers to help protect the sea turtle nesting area of Playa Mata Palo, to help increase the number of sea turtles nesting successfully on the beach and the number of hatchlings which survive. The types of turtles which will be encountered on this project are largely green turtles, carey turtles and hawksbill turtles, with the occasional baula (leatherback turtle) as well. Poaching is a major problem in this area of the coast. The project works closely with the national coastguard (they sometimes have supper at the project!) to ensure that communication is open and as much security as possible is being provided to the turtles. Without the help of volunteers to keep the beaches clean and tidy, keep the hatcheries running, and to observe and document types of arrivals of turtles, the majority of turtles nesting on these beaches would fall prey to poachers. Volunteer presence is key to the survival and procreation of these species of turtles.
The project is extending their efforts to promote community awareness and interaction through projects with the clinic, schools, and other local people. They are always open to new suggestions, fresh ideas from people willing to implement them.

What tasks will you be required to fulfil?

From June 1 to November 30:
1. Construction of the breeding grounds.
2. Beach signaling.
3. Patrol walks to protect nests and females, and for data collection purposes, (Biometry, marking, etc.)
4. Transfer of nests and monitoring of the breeding grounds.
From December 1 to December 31:
1. Registry of breeding ground information.
2. Liberation of newborn turtles.
3. Nest exhumation.
From January to May:
1. Building of hatchery
2. Sifting sand for debris
3. Beach maintenance
4. Turtle patrol
From June 1 to December 31:
1. Maintenance and construction of infrastructure.
2. Beach cleaning.
3. Community projects.

Requirements:
Must have an ability to work in hot, humid conditions; be in good health, prepared to walk 15km daily; and possess a desire to help in conservation.

Requirements

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)