We are protecting sea turtles in front of our home in Cambutal, Panama. Our mission is to reduce the negative impact that humans and invasive species have on sea turtle populations by ensuring more hatchlings make it to the ocean.

We are Liza and Max, an American/French couple. We moved to this quiet beach town almost 3 years ago now and started the Tortuga Alegre Cambutal (Happy Turtle) initiative pretty much straight away.

As soon as we arrived here, we noticed so many destroyed nests along the whole length of the beach during our daily walks. There are two major threats here for these magnificent creatures:

- First, we witnessed that stray dogs and coyotes are digging up the nests and feasting on the eggs, leaving eggshells scattered on the beach.

- The second threat is humans, who poach the nests immediately after the mother turtles lay their eggs. Sometimes poachers even grab eggs straight from under the turtles! Turtles are legally protected in Panama since 2023. It has also been illegal to harvest and sell turtle eggs in Panama since 2008. Despite these protective measures, they are heavily poached all across the country, especially in remote areas like Cambutal. Poachers walk up and down this beach all night during turtle nesting season and harvest as many eggs as they can to sell them for human consumption.

This is too much pressure on the turtle populations. The Olive Ridley Turtle, the main species laying eggs on this beach, is vulnerable with a declining global population, while the Green Turtle, also nesting here, is listed as endangered by WWF and other organizations.

We decided to take action to mitigate the impact of humans on the turtles. We won’t change the world, but we can make a positive change here on our local beach, and this is how it all started. Spending hours on the beach at night to find the nests before the poachers or dogs, putting our own money to create a sanctuary where we could relocate the eggs so they could develop safely until it was time to release them. We’ve experienced failures, successes, frustration, hard work, and some rewarding moments as we released baby turtles into the wild. After 2 full years of protection, we are proud to say we released over 45,000 baby turtles! This is more than we dreamed of when we started, 630 nests saved!

This year, with new construction projects on the beach, a thriving coyote population (they are invasive here), and visible beach erosion, we have new challenges to address. It will take a lot more effort, time, money, and people to reach last year's results. Our first volunteers are already patrolling at night. We now work with the local non-profit organization already operating in the area, Tortuagro, but they lack funding too. One thing is clear, we need more funding to achieve our goals and continue making a difference. This is why we started this GoFundMe and why we are asking for your help.

How will we use your donations?

- We need to build new sanctuaries to protect 400-500 nests

- Equipment to monitor the activity and protect the sanctuaries

- Housing and feeding organizers and volunteers

- Gear for the volunteers to patrol on the beach

- Equipment to collect data and raise awareness

These expenses add up to about $20,000 annually to be able to fully protect about five miles of beach. Last year, between donations, help of volunteers, and sustainable tourism, we had some good results with about a $6,000 budget, but we did not have the impact we would like to have in the long run. Only a fraction of the beach was protected for a fraction of the season.

We value full transparency about how the funds will be allocated; if you want more detailed information about how your donations will be used, please contact us and we will gladly send you additional information.

We also need volunteers! If you are passionate about sea turtle conservation and want to experience the magic happening in this virtually untouched paradise, contact us and we will be glad to welcome you here.

Every bit of support makes a difference - please help us by sharing this GoFundMe campaign to help us reach as many people as possible.

If you live in Panama and have access to fencing material, chalkboards, shade cloth, headlamps, paint, or any type of equipment that you think could be useful for us, please contact us!