Turtle heroes: Protecting Sea Turtles in Suriname

We organized two summer vacation activities in Galibi, an indigenous village in the East of our country. One in September and one in October. The GHFS summer vacation activities aimed to educate the children on the importance of water, soil, mangroves, and sea turtles and teach them fun and easy experiments that they could do at home. To educate the children on the importance of climate change, we partnered with the Suriname Red Cross.

The children were excited to see us, and we realized that it had been two years since we last saw them. Due to COVID restrictions, we could not travel to Galibi, and the teachers explained that the school had been closed for most of the year, leaving the children with much free time and limited educational activities. We were all excited to come together to learn and have fun.

Since the Saturday in September was World Cleanup day, we started the weekend with a beach cleanup. All the children and adults came together to clean the beach and their village. We filled more than 60 bags with trash, a lot of it plastic. 

The next day we started with a story about a water droplet called Drupke and his journey through the hydrological cycle, from the mountains to the rivers, sea, clouds, and back. After the story, the children shared their experiences with water, how they use it, why it is essential, and where they can find it. Through a story about mangroves the children learned about their role and importance for our coast and the sea turtles. They also learned about the different mangrove trees we have in Suriname. They then had to paint a Mangrove ecosystem on a T-shirt. We were impressed by the artistry of these children! In just 1 hour, they created beautiful Mangrove ecosystems consisting of mangrove trees, land, sea, and different animals. You can view a short movie about the cleanup and the educational activities on our YouTube channel.

The next day we started with a soil filtration experiment during which the children saw how different soil substrates help filter water and learned about the importance of soil for water. Next, we read a story about an olive ridley sea turtle called Olijfje and her journey out of the nest and to the sea. We talked about the dangers sea turtles face on the nesting beaches and the sea and highlighted why it is vital that we keep the nests safe because most eggs will not make it to adulthood. The children then got the opportunity to paint or draw a sea turtle on a canvas bag that we had made for them. After this activity, the Red Cross played a few games with the children that helped them understand climate change. 

We love working with children, and it is even more impressive when the children you are working with are so eager to learn! Conservation work is not always easy, but when you look into the eyes of children filled with hope and excitement for the future, it is easy to remember why we need to push forward!

At the end of this year, with the holiday season upon us, we send YOU best wishes for the season and a happy 2022! Thank you for supporting us; we could not do our work without you! 

Links:

• Cleanup and educational activities in Galibi

Who is part of the solution to plastic pollution?

In September, we will participate in Clean up the World Weekend, an event aimed at raising awareness on the amount of pollution in our environment and bringing people together to clean it up. It is unfortunate that we still need to have these days and organize events to raise awareness on pollution. Despite knowing the harmful effects of pollution, especially plastic pollution, humans continue to produce, use and discard plastic in an unsustainable manner. As we know, our trash usually does not stay in one location but travels to other places, countries and even other continents. 

This waste is a problem for animals everywhere, including sea turtles. In the ocean, they can get entangled in waste, such as plastic rings and fishlines, or mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and ingest it. But the accumulation of waste on the nesting beaches can also cause problems for the sea turtles, preventing the adults from finding an ideal nesting place and sometimes forcing them to return to the sea before being able to lay their eggs. The hatchlings can get trapped in or hindered by the waste on the beach which can slow them down, giving predators an even better chance of catching them or causing them to dry out if they stay in the sun for too long. Recent studies have also shown that microplastics found in the sands on the nesting beaches, can raise the temperature in the sea turtle nests. The sex of sea turtles is determined by the temperature in the nests. Lower temperatures mean more males and higher temperatures more females so higher temperatures in the nests mean that more females will hatch. It is clear that plastic pollution is a danger to sea turtles in all of their life stages and unfortunately, we are still seeing a large amount of waste being accumulated by humans.

While it is obvious that there are a lot of issues, we notice an increased awareness of the issues and more importantly, an increased willingness to be part of the solution! We receive calls from various people, organizations and companies saying “we want to help!”. That is why we are involved in various projects and activities to raise awareness and find solutions for plastic pollution in Suriname. In September only, we are working on our own awareness activities and are involved in 2 projects that target this issue. These projects and activities are being organized with or by different organizations that target different groups from adults to children. The first is a Green Challenge Summer School for children between the age of 8 and 14. The children will participate in a designathon during which they will learn more about plastics and design solutions for plastic pollution in Suriname. The individuals or groups with the best designs will get the opportunity to pitch their ideas to four investors in the “Turtle Tank”, a panel consisting of four Surinamese companies that produce plastics. The winner will get SRD100,000, provided by the panel, and assistance to further develop their design.

We were also approached by the Foundation for Sustainable Nature Management in Alusiaka (STIDUNAL), a community organization for environmental protection consisting of members of the indigenous village Galibi where one of the biggest sea turtle nesting beaches is located, to help them develop a billboard to raise awareness on pollution among the community members and visiting tourists. They created a sketch of the design and we helped find a volunteer to execute it and fund the production of the billboard. We hope to be able to deliver the billboard when we go to the village in September for our summer activities. During the summer activities which are aimed at the children in the village, we will play games and teach the children about the mangroves, sea turtles and the harmful effects of pollution. Since the activities are scheduled during the Clean Up the World weekend, we will also organize a beach clean-up with the community members.

Sometimes it may seem like our work is not enough, and the reality is that a lot more work needs to be done. But we cannot do it alone, it’s simply impossible. That is why we continue to organize the cleanups, the awareness sessions and summer activities to educate people, raise awareness and even change hearts and minds! People participate, not knowing much about the environment and the dangers of some seemingly harmless activities they had been engaged in. They leave, empowered with knowledge and fueled by a passion for the environment and join the growing group of people around the world who want to be a part of the solution!

Thanks to your contribution these activities are possible, and help save lives of sea turtles.