I love turtles. When we conserve turtles the ripple effect will be felt by the community through increased tourism and healthy oceans. When we were carrying out our routine beach clean-up in 2018, we found a dead turtle full of plastics in the stomach.
If plastics can kill turtles, they can also kill us. Our goal is to change the narrative and encourage our people to protect turtles.
I do night and day patrols to monitor and record turtle nests. I also collect plastics during patrols to ensure nesting sites are free of trash. I make ornaments out of the plastic waste for sale.
I am the treasurer of Solar Women Group. Our aim is to stop plastic pollution by working towards an ocean with less plastic waste through recycling and repurposing for reuse. I am also a member of the Kiunga Turtle Conservation Group in Lamu which comprises 20 youth. We work as marine turtle conservation volunteers for WWF-Kenya.
WWF-Kenya with funding support from WWF-UK is improving monitoring efforts through the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) devices issued to turtle conservation groups and other stakeholders to enhance monitoring and surveillance of sea turtles. The groups receive training on carrying out beach patrols, nest verification and translocation, tagging and monitoring of sea turtles. Intensive and extensive monitoring of nesting beaches has increased hatchling success rates.
Story as told by 21-year-old Amu Abubakar, a member of Kiunga Conservation Group and Solar Women Group in Lamu County.
Story Written by Judy Kosgei
