Juan Sebastian Ayala
Evaluate leatherback nesting activities while strengthening community capacity for conservation management in the Pacific of Colombia.
We will provide technical training to local community for better monitoring and conservation of endangered marine turtle species through workshops that provide theoretical and practical training, we will confirm record leatherback nesting activity at index sites in the Pacific of Colombia through patrolling beaches, and we will promote ecotourism programs and outreach to facilitate future conservation actions by engaging with local communities and in this project.
We expect to confirm data of leatherback and increasing public concern about its conservation.
We will conduct workshops with local communities of El Valle - Bahia Solano in Colombia to update and improve their knowledge and skills for nesting beach assessments.
Target groups will be trained in new and standardized techniques and data collection methods through both theoretical and hands-on practical sessions. We will share printed materials and field guides to researchers who are working on the ground.
We will lead night patrols to document and quantify leatherback seasonal activity at key nesting sites along the El Valle beaches. The project field coordinator will organize all field activities and will oversee community teams. This project will foster an ecotourism program for the benefit of this local community, and we will train them in social media networks and marketing in order to attract responsible tourism.
In the first and second month we will work in the Pre-project at monitoring site, of the third to sixth month in the local monitoring training and the nesting beach monitoring, of the seventh to tenth month in the sharing conservation activities and findings, of fourth to eighth month in the data collection and analysis, of the third to tenth month in the fostering the ecotourism program and social media campaign to finalize the final report in the tenth month.