Chiriquí Beach in Bocas del Toro Province, Panama, is part of the Damani-Isla Escudo de Veraguas Wetlands Reserve, a protected area of approximately 24,000 hectares designated by the Ngöbe-Buglé Comarca (indigenous territory), which includes tropical wet forest and mangroves.
Chiriquí Beach is historically considered to be the most important nesting beach in the Caribbean for hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata). The reduction of hawksbills at Chiriquí Beach and throughout their entire range is mainly due to hunting, particularly to supply the international trade in tortoiseshell. Nesting has declined 98% since the 1950s actually the hawksbill is currently listed as a critically endangered species (IUCN 2003).
On the other hand, the presence of some three to five thousand leatherback nests (Dermochelys coriacea) on Chiriquí Beach every year makes this the second-most important leatherback beach in the Caribbean after Trinidad.
The natural resources of the Chiriquí Beach region represent important capital for the development of two Ngöbe communities, Río Caña and Río Chiriquí, located at opposite ends of the beach. In its first two-year phase, this project aims to consolidate the conservation and recovery of sea turtles at Chiriquí Beach, facilitating their connection with improvements in the livelihoods of their custodians.
It also intends to guarantee the monitoring and protection of the sea turtle populations that come to nest, begun in 2003 by the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, through permanent community participation. This social initiative includes conservation, research and natural resource management tasks. It involves strengthening community organization and preparation of a participatory plan for the conservation and development of the natural heritage associated with the sea turtles of Chiriquí Beach.
After acquiring the informed consent of the communities, personnel from CoopeSoliDar will lead the design and coordination of workshops with the local stakeholders, to create a work plan that will reflect everyone’s knowledge, visions, interests, values, commitments and roles.
Equality will be the ruling principle, in the participation in the preparation of a conservation and development plan, as well as in access to the benefits the initiative might generate. A feasibility study and a business plan for an ecotourism enterprise are some of the development options that will be explored in this project.
The alliance between WWF, Caribbean Conservation Corporation and CoopeSoliDar intends for this local conservation and development model, whose cornerstone is the sea turtles, to generate pertinent lessons for other Latin American and Caribbean regions.
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