Help Us Stop the Poachers

Two groups desperately need your help. The local group of the World Wildlife Fund and the Buala Boys of Sea Turtles Forever. These two groups patrol the beaches every night battling poachers to save the turtles. The group from the WWF patrols the beach from the estuary in Playa Junquillal to Playa Blanca. The group from STF patrols the beaches from Playa Blanca to Avellanas. These groups operate on a very small budget of less than $20,000 per year. Please go to their website and make a donation to support them:
Sea Turtles Forever

Below is an article that appeared in AM Costa Rica last week. Two years ago there was virtually no poaching of eggs at Playa Blanca. This year at least half of the nests we have found there in the mornings have been robbed of all or most eggs.

Here is a photo of Noah moving seven eggs that were left by poachers. Each nest normally contains 80-120 eggs.

By Bryan Kay
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Turtle egg poaching at Playa Junquillal in Guanacaste has taken a sharp rise — just a couple of months after conservationists said the practice had been almost wiped out.

The World Wildlife Fund, which has been working with local people to combat the problem, announced in September how the fund's efforts had wiped out the illegal activity.

But Gabriel Francia, the man behind the awareness project, said there has been a recent spike in poaching in the area to about 25 percent.

He blamed the increase on a population surge, saying the likely culprits were people who are living in the area for short periods of time, such as those working in the booming Guanacaste construction trade.

They don’t have children in the schools, and they don’t have any long-term relationship with the area, he added.

Francia earlier had said in a press release about the first arrivals of the leatherback species for the nesting season how poaching had dropped from 100 percent to nearly zero.

The World Wildlife Fund has been working with the Junquillal, Paraiso and Pargos communities for two years in a project known as the Pacific Leatherback Conservation Project.

One of the key planks of the project involves working with children in the local schools. Francia said the hope is that youngsters will take the message about the dangers of turtle egg poaching home to their parents.

Valerie Guthrie, another of the project organizers, said they can’t completely rule out locals as responsible since eating turtle eggs is “super cultural” in Junquillal. But she said moves were now being made to work in conjunction with the construction companies to disseminate the same message.

Local hotel owner Rainer Frommlet said the project had been successful, but estimates that around 50 percent of local people continue to flout the law.

“The ratio of those who respect the turtles to those who don’t is probably still 50-50,” he said. “But before it was probably 70-30 against.”

A.M. Costa Rica/Bryan Kay

Menor and Jaime Jen await the end of egg laying by an olive ridley turtle so they can hide them elsewhere.

Reformed poachers Jaime and Menor Jen, two of the local volunteers, blame much of the residual poaching on alcoholics who steal the eggs and sell them.

“The problem with alcoholics is they take them so they can get a drink,” said Jaime Jen. “They sell them for 2,000 or 3,000 colons for 100.” That's from about $4 to nearly $6.

During a recent night patrol of the beaches at Junquillal, the two men told a reporter how they had been unaware of the damage they were causing to marine turtle populations until the project began.

Pacific leatherbacks — one of three species the Junquillal project works with, along with the olive
ridley and the black — are an endangered species. Biologists say that numbers have dropped by around 90 percent in the last two decades. Egg poaching has been identified as part of the problem, but accidental catches by fishermen, climate change and coastal development have also been cited as factors.

Meanwhile, as the Jen brothers spoke of their fondness for the creatures, an olive ridley emerged from the sea to lay eggs.

The pair waited patiently as the turtle laid 106 eggs in a nest it had burrowed in the sand. Then the two men collected the eggs and put them in another spot where poachers will be less likely to find them.

They carry out the patrols every night, but claim they have no intention of returning to their old ways.

“We learned about the problems in the sea and the numbers. Plus, they are beautiful,” added Jaime Jen.

Construction Begins on Commercial Center

Tierra Pacifica broke ground on its new commercial center on November 14, less than 48 hours after receiving the necessary permits.
La Plaza de Tierra Pacifica is expected to be completed in November 2008 and is located adjacent to the front gate on the public road to Playa Junquillal. The prime location of the 17,398-square-foot commercial site will provide future business tenants with excellent exposure to vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
La Plaza will include a 6,562 square-foot two-story restaurant and bar with a rooftop garden terrace, as well as eleven retail shops and professional office spaces ranging from 315 to 630 square feet. The owner of the Surf Cafe restaurant-bar is in the process of finalizing an agreement with Tierra Pacifica over operation of that business, which will offer a cosmopolitan menu with a full selection of wines and spirits, bar area including pool tables, and a sunset grill on the terrace providing magnificent ocean and mountain views.
Some of the 11 other commercial spaces are expected to be occupied by retail businesses such as a clothing store, souvenir shop, a day spa, a bakery, a bookstore, an ice cream parlor, a retail electronics store, an art gallery, and a furniture store. Professional offices likely will include architectural and interior design services, attorneys, clerical services, accountants and general contractors. Prices for commercial spaces start at $60,000.
La Plaza de Tierra Pacifica will feature a Spanish pueblo design motif with railed balconies, varied window moldings, tile roof, wrought iron light fixtures and a grand central entryway that opens into an expansive botanical courtyard.