Description

ASVO (Association of Volunteers for Service in Protected Areas)is a Costa Rican organization that is dedicated to maintaining and preserving national parks, communities and beaches throughout Costa Rica. The organization was started in, was founded on January 27, 1989 in the response to the growing realization that although Costa Rica is renowned for their natural resources and biodiversity, there was very little awareness around environmental protection by many people who lived in Costa Rica. Originally focusing on the preservation of national parks, the program eventually expanded to include sea turtle conservation, community education and habitat identification.

ASVO is a non-profit and non-governmental organization whose mission is to promote the importance of preserving the environment by operating a number of grass-root conservation projects and conducting a variety of educational workshops throughout the country. Over the years environmental issues such as deforestation, species extinction, forest fires, and climate change have been addressed by the members of ASVO as they have worked to expand their programs through the country.

ASVO places volunteers in national parks and other areas protected by the Ministry of Environment and Energy all over the country. The organization currently has stations in twenty-eight different locations all over Costa Rica, from Corcovado in the south to Guanacaste in the north. These projects are divided into four categories: Wildlife Refuges, Education and Communities, Sea Turtle Projects and National Parks.

Sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica are very important projects. The main goal of the Buenavista project is to help the sea turtle populations to recover. The species of sea turtles you can find in this beach are: Leatherbacks, Olive Ridley, Carey and Green turtle of the pacific.

The reason why sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica is so important is because the sea turtles that nest there are one of the most ancient species on Earth today. Costa Rican beaches provide one of the most nesting sites in the world for the Leatherback sea turtles. Leatherback Sea Turtles have been on Earth for over 65 million years and Leatherback Turtle is highly endangered. Their habitat spans the globe from the North Atlantic in the Arctic Circle to the South Pacific of New Zealand. Extraordinary creatures, they are thought to hold important secrets about biology and medicine yet to be learned by humans.

Leatherbacks are the largest turtle, reaching a shell length of 1.7 meters and a mass of 700kg. In 1980 there were over 115,000 adult females, but there are now less than 25,000 worldwide, and they are close to extinction in the Pacific Ocean. If action is not taken soon to protect Leatherbacks in the ocean and on nesting beaches they will disappear in our lifetime. The Leatherback is so close to extinction that the emptying of just one nest of eggs has huge implications for its survival as a species. The central project of Buena Vista is to protect nesting turtles from poachers and predators, and to provide safe nesting grounds and hatcheries for eggs and newborn turtles.

As it is a relatively new sea turtle project, the Buenavista project is also quite small and not as well known as some of the other nesting areas such as Ostional or Tortuguero. Therefore sea turtle volunteers are very important to the success of this program and the protection of the sea turtle population in this area. The hatcheries need constant surveillance or many newborn turtles would dehydrate in the sun or fall prey to human poachers or other predators.

As a sea turtle conservation volunteer at this site you will be involved with the following task:

Night patrols: walking the beach to protect turtles/eggs from poachers and predators. This job would not be done by a sea turtle volunteer alone. Staff from the park will accompany each sea turtle volunteer group. The reason why a sea turtle volunteer is important to help with this job is because many poachers try to gather the eggs or turtles during the night. So if there is a large patrol of people watching the shoreline the poachers will not approach the site as they know it is illegal to hunt sea turtles.

A sea turtle volunteer will also be involved with collecting eggs to transplant to the hatchery. This is an important job because sea turtle eggs are considered a delicacy and if not brought to the hatchery to be monitored they can easily be eaten by other animals or taken by poachers.

A sea turtle conservation volunteer will also be assisting each day to count the number of eggs found in each nest and relocating the eggs to a secure egg nursery.

Another important task for sea turtle volunteers is monitoring relocated turtle nests to ensure that the eggs are secure and monitoring the nest temperatures to ensure that they are at the best temperatures for hatching.

URL: http://www.basecampvolunteerabroad.com/sites/bc-volunteer-abroad/place_details.cfm?pl_id=278
Tags: conservation, Costa Rica, volunteer, volunteering
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