Save the Gili Turtles & Help to Build a Hatchery

The 2025 turtle nesting season has been the busiest on record for Proyek Penyu — and the most challenging. For the first time, nearly all nesting turtles have been olive ridleys, a protected but less commonly sighted species on Gili Trawangan.

While our conservation and outreach activities are expanding and gaining traction fast, the increasing pressures from coastal development, erosion, and habitat degradation have pushed our team and resources to the limit.

Key Conservation Activities & Outreach Nest Monitoring & Protection

• Daily sunrise beach surveys (28- 30 per month) are carried out by a team of trained island volunteers who live on Gili Trawangan.
  
  
• Significant increase in nest relocations due to erosion, building sites, tree removal and late-night parties and beach activities
  
  
• Only 1 nest was relocated last season (2024) for training purposes — this year we’ve had to relocate many nests, highlighting the rapid degradation of natural nesting areas
  
  
• Frequent nest flooding occurred even in relocated sites due to rising tides and compacted sand
  
  
• Several unrecorded hatching events indicate successful nesting but highlight a gap in monitoring coverage
  
  

 Community Impact & Education

• 4 workshops with local businesses in June to promote turtle-friendly practices
  
  
• 1 community workshop in Gili Air, expanding our protocols to other parts of Gili Matra to collaborate.
  
  
• Encouragingly, 2 beach bars rescued turtle hatchlings from the road when they got lost with too many floodlights, in sandboxes instead of water!! after learning about ethical turtle handling. Small but mighty win!!
  
  
• A growing network of turtle-aware businesses is emerging, but continued education is vital. Repeating workshops with businesses from last year, and encouraging more this year. 
• We can start modifying the workshops to be more engaging for children's workshops. We will invite the local schools on Gili Trawangan to partake in the workshops, and then can welcome international group trips and kids groups that visit the island too.
  
  

 Team Capacity & Equipment

• New ranger uniforms and field gear were purchased in June to support our frontline turtle guardians. This gave them more authority and confidence to guide turtle releases with many tourists.
  
  
• Ongoing training and capacity building for our all-female conservation team. Their presentational skills, organisational and data collection skills have all increased dramatically as we are learning and teaching on the job!
  
  

 Urgent Needs

• Designated nesting space on the beach to safely relocate and monitor nests
  
  
• Flood-resistant relocation areas (e.g., raised sand plots or hatcheries)
  
  
• Increased funding for nest protection equipment (fencing, cages, monitoring signs along with ranger tools, equipment and salaries for call-outs)
  
  
• Sustainable support for expanding the ranger team to cover hatching events and nighttime patrols
  
  

Conclusion & Call to Action

While this season has proven that turtles still want to nest on Gili Trawangan, the lack of undisturbed beach space and growing pressures from unregulated coastal development are putting these efforts — and the turtles — at risk.

We are proud of what we’ve achieved with so little, but we need more space, more support, and more awareness to continue protecting Gili’s turtles into the future. Thank you for helping us to reach this far!

We welcome partnerships, donations, and collaborations from those who care about ethical tourism, endangered species protection, and grassroots conservation to help us further our progress to protect baby turtles and educate the local community!

Links:

• Proyek Penyu turtle instagram page