Welcome!

“Proteha nos Tortuganan” (Protect our Sea Turtles) is a public awareness campaign designed primarily for school-age children, with some elements targeted to the broader community. The goal is to educate, change attitudes and build grassroots support for sea turtle conservation.

By telling the story of this successful campaign, and providing examples, we hope to encourage other groups in the wider Carribean (and beyond!) to adapt and use this campaign to raise awareness of sea turtle conservation in their own communities.

History of the Campaign

This campaign was conducted in 2005, as an initiative of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA), a recently formed foundation that represents the interests of nature conservation management organizations of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. The campaign ran simultaneously on the four small islands of Bonaire, St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius.

The campaign was based on the highly successful “Save the Lora” campaign that was conducted on Bonaire in 1998. “Save the Lora” was in turn adapted from the world-renowned Rare Pride campaign model that has been employed in over 40 countries for over 35 years. The “Proteha nos Tortuganan” campaign was tailored to meet the specific needs of each of the four islands.

This Archive

Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire (STCB) was one of three local partners that conducted the Bonaire “Proteha nos Tortuganan” campaign. Founded 15 years ago, STCB plays a leading role in sea turtle conservation in the Dutch Caribbean. One of STCB’s major strategic goals is to enhance and encourage sea turtle conservation in the wider Caribbean. Accordingly, STCB, with funding support from DCNA, has created the following archive of the “Proteha nos Tortuganan” campaigns.

We encourage other small conservation groups to freely use and adapt the planning tools and material on the following web pages. We would like to stress that this campaign model is not intended to replace the Rare Pride campaigns. For any group looking for an excellent array of tools, training and support, we highly recommend a visit to the Rare web site at http://www.rareconservation.org/programs.

Questions, comments and suggestions are welcome. Email STCB program staff at stcb@bonaireturtles.org.

On Bonaire, three local conservation organizations (STINAPA Bonaire, Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire and Coral Resource Management) partnered to conduct the local campaign.