Sungai Pinang - The Turtle Village
Donation protected
THE PROJECT:
Matthew Williams-Ellis and myself John Alexander are the founding members of Sungai Pinang - The Turtle Village
On our recent travels we visited a small fishing village called Sungai Pinang in West Sumatra (population c 500). We believe this remote, undeveloped and deprived village has the potential to become a self-sufficient and thriving community through the conservation of local turtles who sadly no longer visit this beach. Our aim, through the development of our Turtle Conservation Project, is to improve simultaneously the lives of both the local people and their turtles.
Historically, turtles laid eggs on the village beach, but the killing of the turtles for food and the stealing of the unhatched eggs to be sold on the black market in Pedang, has resulted in the turtles no longer returning to the village.
Our hope for the project is to educate the village to love and protect the endangered turtles by creating a community centred around the turtles themselves.
Mamed is our legendary Indonesian friend and now the local conservationist in Sungai Pinang running the day-to day operations of the Turtle Conservation Project. It has been his absolute dream to run such a project but has lacked the opportunity/funds to fulfil this. To put it in perspective, Matt and I offered to get him started by offering 2 million rupees (£100). This has completely transformed his life and he has now returned to the village to make this project work for the turtles and for his local village.
Our Problems:
Fishermen killing the turtles for food as they arrive on the beach to lay their eggs
People stealing the eggs and selling them on the black market in Pedang.
Litter on beaches/in the sea - the turtles consuming the plastic mistaking it for jellyfish or being trapped in plastic bags.
Our Aims:
To educate the villagers to protect turtles through a community project.
To build a safe environment for the young hatchlings for their first 3 months before releasing them into the wild.
To create a circulation of local spending through increased tourism. Visitors will stay in local houses, spend in local shops, and use local boats for fishing and snorkeling trips.
To generate a consistent source of income by buying daily food for the turtles from the local fishermen.
Our Ideas:
The first Turtles to be released into the wild from our project (after 3 months) will be tagged, individually named and released by the local children and thus giving a sense of involvement from a young age.
Changing the attitudes of littering and creating a project to reward and pay (per kg) for litter collected.
What has been done so far (1st March 2015), how much has been raised so far?
Matt and I gave Mamed £100 before we left the village just two days ago. This will pay for 2 temporary pools with young turtles from a similar conservation site 100km away. This will be set-up in the village to give a visual sign of our intentions with the project and will harness all the excitement of a brighter future for the village. Through this page, we will update you on all the exciting progress of the project.
How can you help? What will your money go towards?
Project set-up costs:
You are joining us right from the beginning of our project. At the moment we are borrowing an old Guest House to house a few turtles but we need to build our own turtle house.
Our turtle house project: This will house 1000 turtles until they are ready to be released. We are fixing an old structure and will cost £2000....So far (Jan '17) we have raised £1100 so we need your help! This is just the start of our project
Other costs: It costs £4 to feed the turtles for a week so you can see how far your money goes!
In theory, this project is a simple and achievable one. It is a small-scale project that requires a small amount of investment to set-up and when the building to house the turtles has been built, the running of the conservation requires very little funds to be successful and sustainable.
How the conservation can be self-sufficient:
Once we have raised enough money to build the turtle house we will build a tourist centre. Then, the project should be able to generate its own income. Here's how!
- Visitors pay a fee to visit the turtle centre.
- Tourists pay to tag,name and release a turtle.
- A small kitchen provides snacks and refreshments for visitors
- Snorkling and fishing trips from our small traditional boat
- Rental of masks and snorkels
- local artwork and postcards for sale from Matthew and myself
Do ‘LIKE’ our FB page if you would like to help our turtles!
Matthew Williams-Ellis and myself John Alexander are the founding members of Sungai Pinang - The Turtle Village
On our recent travels we visited a small fishing village called Sungai Pinang in West Sumatra (population c 500). We believe this remote, undeveloped and deprived village has the potential to become a self-sufficient and thriving community through the conservation of local turtles who sadly no longer visit this beach. Our aim, through the development of our Turtle Conservation Project, is to improve simultaneously the lives of both the local people and their turtles.
Historically, turtles laid eggs on the village beach, but the killing of the turtles for food and the stealing of the unhatched eggs to be sold on the black market in Pedang, has resulted in the turtles no longer returning to the village.
Our hope for the project is to educate the village to love and protect the endangered turtles by creating a community centred around the turtles themselves.
Mamed is our legendary Indonesian friend and now the local conservationist in Sungai Pinang running the day-to day operations of the Turtle Conservation Project. It has been his absolute dream to run such a project but has lacked the opportunity/funds to fulfil this. To put it in perspective, Matt and I offered to get him started by offering 2 million rupees (£100). This has completely transformed his life and he has now returned to the village to make this project work for the turtles and for his local village.
Our Problems:
Fishermen killing the turtles for food as they arrive on the beach to lay their eggs
People stealing the eggs and selling them on the black market in Pedang.
Litter on beaches/in the sea - the turtles consuming the plastic mistaking it for jellyfish or being trapped in plastic bags.
Our Aims:
To educate the villagers to protect turtles through a community project.
To build a safe environment for the young hatchlings for their first 3 months before releasing them into the wild.
To create a circulation of local spending through increased tourism. Visitors will stay in local houses, spend in local shops, and use local boats for fishing and snorkeling trips.
To generate a consistent source of income by buying daily food for the turtles from the local fishermen.
Our Ideas:
The first Turtles to be released into the wild from our project (after 3 months) will be tagged, individually named and released by the local children and thus giving a sense of involvement from a young age.
Changing the attitudes of littering and creating a project to reward and pay (per kg) for litter collected.
What has been done so far (1st March 2015), how much has been raised so far?
Matt and I gave Mamed £100 before we left the village just two days ago. This will pay for 2 temporary pools with young turtles from a similar conservation site 100km away. This will be set-up in the village to give a visual sign of our intentions with the project and will harness all the excitement of a brighter future for the village. Through this page, we will update you on all the exciting progress of the project.
How can you help? What will your money go towards?
Project set-up costs:
You are joining us right from the beginning of our project. At the moment we are borrowing an old Guest House to house a few turtles but we need to build our own turtle house.
Our turtle house project: This will house 1000 turtles until they are ready to be released. We are fixing an old structure and will cost £2000....So far (Jan '17) we have raised £1100 so we need your help! This is just the start of our project
Other costs: It costs £4 to feed the turtles for a week so you can see how far your money goes!
In theory, this project is a simple and achievable one. It is a small-scale project that requires a small amount of investment to set-up and when the building to house the turtles has been built, the running of the conservation requires very little funds to be successful and sustainable.
How the conservation can be self-sufficient:
Once we have raised enough money to build the turtle house we will build a tourist centre. Then, the project should be able to generate its own income. Here's how!
- Visitors pay a fee to visit the turtle centre.
- Tourists pay to tag,name and release a turtle.
- A small kitchen provides snacks and refreshments for visitors
- Snorkling and fishing trips from our small traditional boat
- Rental of masks and snorkels
- local artwork and postcards for sale from Matthew and myself
Do ‘LIKE’ our FB page if you would like to help our turtles!
Organizer
John Alexander
Organizer
