TUI Turtle Aid Kenya
Tourism is the largest industry in Mombasa’s northern coastal region of Watamu and the southern coastal region of Diani. But new hotels on the beach and their influx of tourists has negatively impacted the environment, with debris from fires and increased plastic waste left on the beach, noise and light pollution and through general disrespect for rules in place for marine protected areas.
Local Ocean Conservation (LOC) has been engaged in turtle protection on both beaches for a number of years, educating tourists and the local community in turtle protection awareness and mitigating poaching and human-wildlife conflict. This work has also widened out to include key stakeholders in the tourist industry to enable conservation-friendly tourism and improve the safety of the beach environment for nesting turtles.
TUI Turtle Aid Kenya helps to protect the turtle population on the north and south coast of Kenya by working closely with the local community through monitoring, relocation, education and community engagement. It also mitigates existing threats, such as the use of destructive fishing methods, poaching, plastic pollution and the risks associated with large-scale tourism to both destinations.
TUI Turtle Aid Kenya focuses on nesting beaches to the north and south of Mombasa. Nightly patrols protect 37920 hatchlings in Watamu and Diani and ensures a safe nesting environment and protected nests. A turtle rehabilitation centre rescues, treats and rehabilitates 210 sea turtles back to health before releasing them back into the ocean.
Local tourism businesses, hotels and stakeholders are encouraged and supported to gain the Turtle Aid Certification, with 21 beachfront businesses receiving the turtle-friendly tourism certification. By working with these businesses, turtle-friendly beaches are created and tourists engaged about sea turtles and their protection.
Local communities receive conservation awareness through educational workshops, with 800 community members and 3000 tourists touring the visitor centre and learning about sea turtle conservation work and the impact of the project. Community-organised turtle-friendly tours and tourist activities are connected with hotels and their guests to generate sustainable local income.
Project Partner
Local Ocean Conservation (LOC) is a non-for profit organisation and leading expert on sea turtle conservation in Kenya. LOC is based in Watamu and use sea turtles as a flagship indicator species to measure and improve ocean and coastal health. Working at grassroots level, they seek to bring about behavioural changes within the local fisher community that result in communities protecting turtles and ocean habitats, based on their own social, economic, and cultural interests and values.
Through Local Ocean Conservation, the Diani Turtle Watch (DTW) programme was initiated to extend the conservation efforts along the ever growing Diani Beach amid consequent human-wildlife conflict.
