5 Wild Animals You Can Protect On Your Next Vacation

(Note - this post was originally written for and posted on the World Nomad's Responsible Travel Blog)

It seems that every day another news article comes out about animals facing extinction. The list of reasons is seemingly endless including loss of habitat, the wildlife trade, and climate change. What the media rarely covers is the stories of hope, where communities come together to protect the animals that live around them.

There are many of these stories around the world, where dedicated conservationists are coming up with innovative ways to help these endangered species recover while improving the lives of local residents. Many of these programs include volunteer activities for travelers to participate in research and conservation programs.

Here are just a few of the opportunities for travelers to help wildlife:

• Green Sea Turtles in Baja: Years ago, many turtle researchers wrote off Baja’s turtles as beyond saving. However, an award-winning network of fishermen, scientists, and local residents called the Grupo Tortuguero formed to study and protect the region’s five species of sea turtles and numbers are rebounding. A new locally run business called RED Sustainable Tourism is helping these conservationists recruit volunteer help for their turtle research. Participants camp on a small island in Magdalena Bay and help to set nets to catch green turtles at sea and collect information on them before returning them to the water.

• Lions in Mozambique: These iconic cats are facing increasing threats and their numbers have decreased an estimated 30 percent over the past two decades. Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique is a microcosm of efforts in Africa to protect lions and other wildlife. At one point, this park is said to have had more wildlife than the Serengeti and was one of the continent’s most visited protected areas. In the 90’s, civil strife led to an estimated 95 reduction in large animals. Now that the political situation is resolved, a huge effort is underway to restore the park and revive ecotourism here. Colorado-based Reefs to Rockies is working with Explore Gorongosa to organize a “Bio-Blitz” where volunteers can help researchers on a comprehensive survey of the parks flora and fauna.

• Giant Pandas in China: Pandas live in isolated patches of mountain forest in central China. Their numbers in the wild have dwindled to less than 2,500 due to conversion of forest to farmland and other uses. The World Wildlife Fund’s China program is working to expand protected areas and encourage local residents to protect their forests. Travelers with Wild China can track pandas in the Wanglang Nature Reserve, visit a panda breeding center, and support WWF’s efforts to train local residents as tour guides.

• Penguins in South Africa: More than half of the 18 species of penguins around the world are considered either threatened or endangered. The African penguin population has decreased 95 percent since preindustrial times due to competition for fish with fishermen and other threats. Earthwatch Institute has worked with local researchers for the past decade to study and protect the penguins living on Robben Island, famous for the prison that once held Nelson Mandela and many others during apartheid. Volunteers will help collect data on the penguins including growth rates of chicks and survival rates, key information that is needed to develop long-term protection plans.

• Whale Sharks in the Sea of Cortez: The whale shark, despite being the world’s largest fish, is not well studied by scientists. Their numbers are decreasing due primarily to the trade in their fins. Though they can be found around the world, one of their primary feeding areas is the Sea of Cortez between mainland Mexico and the Baja Peninsula. Baja Expeditions, the first tour operator to bring people to this ocean paradise, has recently begun working with a local researcher to start filling in the gaps in our knowledge of these amazing creatures. Based on board a dive ship, volunteers will spend a week cruising the Sea of Cortez, diving with whale sharks to collect DNA samples, take photographic IDs, and observing their behavior.

Search all of our wildlife volunteer vacations here.

Confessions of A Sea Turtle Volunteer

(Note - this post was originally written for and posted on the World Nomad's Responsible Travel Blog)

I wasn’t always a sea turtle fanatic. I didn’t grow up with a pet turtle, snorkel with green turtles in Hawaii, or even watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I had a pretty boring suburban US childhood without a lot of interaction with nature. (Don’t tell any of my colleagues, but I didn’t know the first thing about turtles when I first went to work with them.)

The first time I saw a leatherback turtle, I nearly fainted. Expecting a normal sized turtle with a hard shell, watching a dinosaur weighing close to 1,000 pounds dragging itself out of the water was a wake up call to me. Since then, I have become a bit of an turtle evangelist and have helped hundreds of people visit turtle nesting beaches to volunteer or just watch this amazing creature.

At first I painted a beautiful picture for prospective volunteers (moonlight strolls on the beach, giant turtles laying eggs, daytime free to lounge). We quickly found that to attract people not quite prepared for the experience. I now start with the bad stuff (bugs, rain, little sleep, long walks in soft sand) and let people know that if they can put up with that, it can be the most amazing experience of your life.

Volunteering with a sea turtle conservation project is very rewarding with benefits including personal satisfaction, resume material, lots of exercise, new friends from around the world, and great stories to tell. It should not be taken lightly though; it is hard work and the local organizations that run the turtle programs expect volunteers to fulfill their obligations.

Generally the projects require at least a week’s stay and will take people for up to 3 months. The organizations that we work with require volunteers to pay for food and lodging (their budgets are not big enough to cover those expenses) which ranges from $25 to more than $100 per day. For people who can commit to at least two months and have biology degrees or field experience, some projects offer research assistant positions at no daily cost.

What should a volunteer expect when going to volunteer on one of these projects?

First, the work is generally at night when the turtles come ashore. Most projects require volunteers to wear dark clothing and avoid using lights (including cameras) to avoid disturbing the turtles. On many beaches, volunteers work one of two four-hour shifts (8 to midnight or midnight to 4 am), walking up and down the beach with local researchers and other volunteers.

When a nesting turtle is spotted, the lead researcher will keep the group back until the turtle has started to dig the nest. At this time, the turtle goes into a trance-like state where they are so focused on digging and laying eggs that they have little sense of what is going on around them. If the beach has a hatchery (where eggs are protected from poachers or other animals), the eggs will be collected in a bag put into the nest. Most projects then collect data on the turtle including the species, length and width of the shell, distinguishing marks, and where on the beach it nests. Researchers will then put a tag on the turtle (either a metal tag on a flipper or a microchip injected into the shoulder). Other work at turtle projects include working in the hatchery (checking to see if hatchlings arrive), cleaning the beach of debris, or maintaining the research center. Learn more about volunteer activities here.

So what should an eager turtle lover think about before deciding whether to volunteer and where to go?

First, think hard about how much discomfort you can put up with. If you can’t stand mosquitoes and rain and won’t survive if you can’t check your email or phone, its probably not the right experience for you. If you have health issues that walking long distances can worsen, you may want to look for something else.

Second, think about what is most important to you, the scientific aspect or the conservation and cultural aspects. Some projects have strong research programs and nicer facilities but may offer less interaction with local residents and receive large numbers of volunteers. Smaller community-based turtle projects may not have as strong of a research program or facilities but need help more than other projects and can offer homestays with local families. More established programs tend to be more expensive as well. Also, do you want to be near a town where you can hang out on off days or an isolated beach far from civilization?

I often get asked, “Really how much does volunteering help the turtles?” My response is always, “A lot!” Unlike some volunteer programs that are set up more for the volunteer than the local organizations, turtle projects need lots of help walking long stretches of beaches for hours each evening. In addition, the income from volunteer programs generates a large portion of the budget of some of these projects; they wouldn’t have the funds to continue without them.

Perhaps most importantly, volunteers coming to these communities

to spend their time and money helps to convince local residents that the turtles are more valuable alive than dead. I’ve seen first-hand the change that can take place in a town once volunteers start arriving. That may be the most satisfying part of the whole experience, bonding with people of different backgrounds over the hard work of bringing endangered species back from the brink.

People Helping Turtles, Turtles Helping People

(Note: This is an excerpted guest post from Jesse Senko of the Blue Ocean Institute. It originally appeared on the BOI Blog here.)

On the Pacific coast of Mexico, all five species of sea turtles (green, hawksbill, loggerhead, olive ridley and leatherback) have declined over the past century due to illegal poaching and incidental capture in fishing nets. One of the most heavily impacted areas has been the Bahia Magdalena region, where endangered sea turtle populations remain low despite progressive conservation measures that include complete legal protection for sea turtles and their major nesting beaches.

In order to evaluate alternative sea turtle conservation strategies that rely on increased participation of local residents, a team of researchers led by (SEE Turtles co-founder) Dr. Wallace J. Nichols and myself interviewed 136 people from seven coastal fishing communities in the Bahia Magdalena region. “If we want to save sea turtles we need to find novel ways to include local residents in conservation efforts, and basically that comes down to finding out how a live sea turtle can become worth more than a dead one, be that financially, emotionally, or intrinsically…but most likely some type of combination”, said Senko, the study’s lead author. “The human-sea turtle relationship is wonderfully complex. No surprise, so are the ways to restore sea turtles. Restoring what’s broken in nature requires biodiversity, economic and cultural diversity, but also emotional diversity”, noted Nichols, a marine biologist who also founded the grassroots sea turtle conservation organization Grupo Tortuguero.

The researchers found that although residents were overwhelmingly interested in participating in sea turtle conservation, peer pressure and conflict within their community often presented challenges. “It can be difficult to fully embrace sea turtle conservation when some of your friends, family, and community members may still be eating, hunting, or even selling these animals on black market circuits, especially if you are not directly benefiting from the conservation efforts in some capacity”, added Senko.

The development of sea turtle ecotourism may help protect sea turtles and provide additional revenue for fishers who previously hunted them or accidentally captured them in their fishing nets. When asked about the prospects of sea turtle ecotourism, most residents indicated that this would have a positive impact on their community. Economic incentives and increased protection for sea turtles were mentioned as benefits of sea turtle ecotourism, whereas peer pressure, difficulty obtaining permits and producing effective marketing materials, and doubts about direct economic benefits were cited as constraints. Whale watching guides were especially interested in developing sea turtle ecotourism programs, in large part because they already possess the necessary equipment (e.g. boats, GPS devices) and knowledge of sea turtle life history, movements, and abundance. “Researchers have relied on turtle hunters, fishers, and local whale watching guides to find and study sea turtles since I first arrived in Baja as a doctoral student in the early 1990s. Sea turtle research and conservation in Baja has been all about artful collaboration and mutual benefits from day one”, said Nichols.

Recently, Nichols and Brad Nahill started a non-profit sea turtle conservation travel program called SEE Turtles that relied upon some of the findings and recommendations from this study. SEE Turtles works to provide ways for visitors to work hands-on in the field with fishers and marine conservation biologists to capture sea turtles and collect/record scientific data on these endangered animals. Although the researchers acknowledge that initially sea turtle conservation jobs are likely to be supplemental, the added income from SEE Turtles has already aided local communities and sea turtle protection efforts.

“Conservation travel endeavors that generate even a modest amount of part time jobs is a great first step in developing and promoting positive attitudes towards sea turtle and marine conservation efforts”, said Senko. “If people know of others who work with sea turtle conservation efforts they may develop pro-environmental attitudes towards sea turtle conservation even if they themselves do not directly benefit from the endeavor…and we’ve already seen this from gray whales in Baja, so why not sea turtles, they are here year-round.”

The other authors in the study include current School for Field Studies/Center for Coastal Studies professor Andrew J. Schneller, Francisco “Paco” Ollervides, former Center for Coastal Studies director and current Waterkeeper Alliance research associate, and Julio Solis, Bahia Magdalena Baykeeper, Latin America Regional Representative for the Waterkeeper Alliance, and distinguished Grupo Tortuguero sea turtle biologist. The full study is published in the journal “Ocean and Coastal Management” (Email the author below for a copy).

Blog written by Jesse Senko, Blue Ocean Institute’s seafood consultant: jesse.senko@gmail.com

Why You Should Take Your Kids Turtle Watching

(Note: this post was originally written for the Green Loons Blog)

10. Sea turtles don’t bite (and if they try, they are easy to get away from).

9. They are easy to spot since we know when and where they are nesting in places like Baja Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Southeastern U.S.).

8. Sea turtles are endangered and visiting their nesting beaches can help to protect them by providing income to conservation groups local communities.

7. Watching turtle hatchlings scurry to the water is better than any cartoon, video game, or nature show.

6. The beach where turtles lay their eggs are warm and most have great waves for body surfing and nearby places to snorkel.

5. Giant leatherback turtles are Earth’s last living dinosaur more than 6 feet long and up to 1,000 pounds or more!

4. A few turtle nesting beaches in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico, and India have “arribadas” where thousands of olive ridley turtles nest at one time. Imagine that photo!

3. For older kids (16+), some turtle projects offer families the opportunity to play marine biologist and volunteer for several nights helping collect information and protect the eggs.

2. In places where turtles are well protected like Hawaii, you can swim near green turtles and watch how graceful they are in the water. (Remember not to touch them!)

1. Your kids can watch a turtle laying its eggs at night (without lights) and not bother the turtle (they go into a trance while laying).

Good News for Lions

While passing through DC on my current business trip, I had a day full of news and opportunities to participate in lion conservation. With lions in such a dire situation (some researchers say their numbers have dropped 30 percent over the past two decades to fewer than 30,000), many organizations are stepping up their efforts to protect these iconic animals.

In the morning I met John Kaseona who works with IRDNC, a Namibian wildlife organization that works with local communities to develop ways to protect endangered animals in ways that benefit residents. Namibia passed a forward-thinking law in the 90’s that gave tribes full control over tourism on their communal lands. These communal conservancies now protect growing populations of lions where their numbers are dropping in most places.

John heads soon to Denver, where he will be presenting on March 7th in partnership with Reefs to Rockies. If you are around Denver, go and check out what is sure to be a fascinating presentation. SEEtheWILD is proud that Reefs to Rockies tour, Nambia & Botswana’s Desert & Delta, works closely with these conservancies and benefits the Desert Lion Project that IRDNC and others work with. We’re hoping to work more with John and his partners as SEEtheWILD grows.

That evening, I attended a cocktail party about lion conservation at the headquarters of National Geographic. Their new Big Cats Initiative is an exciting new way that people can learn about and support the conservation of lions, tigers, and other big cats. They recently released a fascinating movie called The Last Lions, be sure to go see it if its playing near you. At the party, people from IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare), the Humane Society, and Born Free announced that they had just filed a petition to list lions as endangered species in the US. Hundreds of lions are imported into the US from hunting safaris. Their parts can be bought for thousands of dollars, fueling a trade that threatens these animals in the wild. Tigers and other animals outside of the US receive this protection, which would prevent the importing of these parts.

I also had the pleasure of meeting with staff of the African Wildlife Foundation. We look forward to supporting their Conservation Enterprise program to help support community-based wildlife conservation efforts through our trips. AWF is the primary partner with Disney for their upcoming movie African Cats, which comes out on Earth Day, April 22nd. If you go see the movie during the first week, Disney will donate 20 cents per person to AWF for their lion conservation work (a donation of at least $100,000).

How children benefit from an ecotourism experience

(Guest post from Irene Lane, founder & president of Greenloons)

Just because you are going on a family vacation doesn’t mean that learning should take a break too. Ecotourism is full of what educators call teachable moments or, more definitively, unplanned opportunities to explain a concept that has unintentionally captured a child’s interest.

Whether it is touring the rainforests of Belize, watching turtle hatchlings make their way to the sea in Costa Rica, or understanding the water issues that surround the Okavango Delta in Botswana, ecotourism is a vacation experience that provides boundless opportunities to teach younger generations about the fragility of ecosystems and the significance of heritage.

Who among us has not witnessed the common occurrence while visiting the local zoo, going hiking through the wilderness, or even watching a local artistic exhibit of younger children looking with absolute wonder and amazement at the spectacle of music, art, flora or fauna? There is delight followed by an onslaught of illuminating questions about people and the natural world.

These teachable moments mark milestones for a child’s personal growth and development. And, the value system that is at the core of ecotourism can be a positive influence on all age groups, not just the very young. Specifically, children can benefit from an ecotourism vacation because the experience offers an opportunity for:

• Instruction about indigenous wildlife – ecotours are not only small group tours that allow for up-close-and-personal views of nature, but ones that are generally led by a naturalist that have been trained to understand plants, birds, insects and animals of the region and their relationships to ecosystems, thereby bringing education alive;
  
• Increased awareness about environmental degradation – an important component of ecotourism is to inform tourists about ways to minimize waste, soil erosion, air and water pollution so as not to disturb the environment - lessons that no doubt will stay with children;
  
• Involvement with conservation efforts – whether it’s helping to record sea turtle activity in Baja or understand the destructive role of invasive plant species in the wilderness, ecotourism allows for deep knowledge of the fragility of the natural world;
• Focus on the depletion of natural resources – whether its learning about how an eco-lodge harnessed solar or wind power for their operations or how countries are implementing renewable bio-energy to power engines, ecotourism teaches how the impact of tourism is affecting sustainable land development, public transportation choices, and how other countries are using low-carbon technologies today;
  
• Exposure to cultural experiences – from tasting new foods to learning phrases in a foreign language, ecotourism interprets cultural traditions and experiences that provide long-lasting impressions about the world;
• Inspiration for a life’s passion – while snorkeling through a coral reef or observing animals in their natural habitat in Africa, ecotourism sparks the imagination to dream about a career or even find a solution to an environmental problem;
  

Ecotourism even offers opportunities to incorporate your family vacation with your child’s science, social studies, foreign language, even art and music lesson plans. One of the most helpful and free resources available now is on the Rainforest Alliance site, which offers a Kindergarten – 8th Grade curriculum guide.

One example lesson plan for a Kindergarten student is entitled Biodiversity which challenges children to think about the diversity of local flora and fauna in local forests versus tropical forests as they classify insect and tree species, while the 8th Grade lesson plan entitled Guatemala's Changing Forest has children learning about the Maya Biosphere Reserve by analyzing maps and determining recent changes in forest cover. Dedication to the cause of the environment and its preservation can have a long-lasting impact on the way our younger generations feel more connected to ecosystems as well as view social involvement and economic success. Not only will children establish a deeper, longer-lasting connection with the region they are visiting during an ecotour, they will learn more about how they can make a more positive impact on the world.

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Irene Lane is the founder & president of Greenloons, which is a company dedicated to providing nature enthusiasts and wildlife conservationists worldwide with trusted information about responsible, sustainable, and certified ecotourism travel vacations and volunteer conservation efforts both in the U.S. and internationally. For more information, visit Greenloons at http://www.greenloons.com.

Wanted Alive, Not Dead: The Financial Value of Thriving Bears in BC

(This is an excerpted guest post from Maple Leaf Adventures president, Kevin J. Smith. Find the full post here.)

For a moment, I want you to put aside all that you know and feel about the sport hunting of bears.

Put aside the ethics, the emotions and the images of bear hunting. Believe me, I do understand all the strong feelings associated with the hunt; I have been involved with these conversations in B.C. on every level. From the official land use planning tables to the heated dockside disagreement, from the downtown boardroom to the up-coast estuary, this is one of the most emotionally charged issues on the B.C. coast.

You can waste hours, months, and years sitting at a table and talking in circles about the appropriateness of a person with hired guide, high-powered rifle, and half-mile scope setting one foot out of their boat onto the mud of a coastal estuary and killing a bear, and arguing about whether that is ethical, sustainable or “sporting.”

Instead, I want you to think about the business case.

I am a businessman, and my growing business is part of a growing industry called bear viewing. What if we get rid of all the emotional baggage and simply look at the almighty dollar and the irrefutable bottom line? In 2010 is a bear worth more living or shot dead?

The Market Opportunity

Eco-adventure tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the world’s travel economy. Adventure travel grows 10% each year worldwide. In 2008, the Adventure Travel Trade association estimated spending on adventure travel worldwide at $150 billion. At 10% growth per year, that will be $300 billion by 2015.

Demographic trends and a growing eco-savvyness of travelers means that environmentally sustainable and ethical adventure travel are increasingly the options people seek.

We’ll get to some local statistics in a moment, but let’s first consider the big picture.

Wilderness trips and wildlife viewing trips grow in popularity each year, with Costa Rican eco-lodges, Africa safaris, and Galapagos wildlife viewing trips just three well-known examples. These high quality tourism opportunities support award-winning businesses; employees and communities take great pride in the natural wealth they have to share with their visitors.

Here in B.C., we have one of the world’s last places to see wild bears in their beautiful natural habitat. This is of growing interest to adventure travelers.

And, it provides a unique offering for B.C., helping to establish its “position” in the adventure travel market, so that a B.C. industry, operated by B.C. owners and employing B.C. residents, may prosper.

This is the opportunity we have as a province.

What Is the Bear Viewing Industry?

Bear viewing is a segment of the wilderness tourism industry.

We take people into spectacular wilderness areas – such as verdant meadows at the mouths of rivers framed by the mountains, fjords and rainforest of the B.C. coast. Here, we guide small groups of people to amazing sightings of grizzly, black and spirit bears exhibiting their natural behaviour: fishing for salmon, training cubs to swim, playing, and so on.

We have expert naturalists who explain bears and their world to our guests. Our guests take thousands of photos – each.

There are different types of bear viewing businesses, from day-trippers going to viewing stands, to lodges in the rainforest, to 75-foot boats like ours who offer multi-day cruises in wilderness areas, to $3,000-per-night fishing lodges that promote and offer bear viewing as an amenity.

This is a high-value industry. We offer a hard-to-get wilderness experience that is highly sought, and described by many as the “experience of a lifetime”. It is expensive for us to provide, and I estimate that at least 80 cents of every dollar we earn is rolled right into the B.C. economy in the form of wages, trip operations, maintenance, supplies, permits and other expenses. These businesses are also almost 100% B.C.-owned.

This industry is based on a “renewable” resource: great viewings of healthy, wild bears. It is low impact and thrives in areas where conservation of natural areas is in place. In fact, it is a poster child for the “conservation economy” in the Great Bear Rainforest. It is sustainable over the long term, based not on a boom-and-bust model but one of steady, long-term use.

The “Take-Home” Message

Here is what I hope you will remember:

• We have an opportunity as a province of promoting a unique, high-value industry for our people: bear viewing.
• The bear viewing industry in B.C. will experience positive growth by ending the commercial trophy hunt.
• The benefits of this growth will quickly outstrip any costs to B.C. of ending the hunt.
• It’s an industry developed and run by British Columbians, and for which we have a unique competitive position in the world.
• It’s green and it is a viable, attractive industry that actually benefits from, rather than conflicts with, conservation.
• This is a keystone in the burgeoning B.C. conservation economy and it promotes B.C. favourably in the world.

How can you argue? This is a powerful reason to end the trophy hunt. These bears are wanted – alive.

How You Can Help:

• Read about how Raincoast Conservation Foundation is buying guide outfitter licenses to help this cause.
• Sign a petition to the BC government asking for an end to commercial trophy hunting.
• Learn more about Maple Leaf Adventures here.
• Join a Maple Leaf sailing tour in Canada or Alaska here: Great Bear Rainforest, Haida Gwaii, Whales & Totems, Alaska By Sail, and Gulf Islands National Park.

Kevin J. Smith is one of twelve certified Full Bear (viewing) Guides in B.C. He has over twenty years experience working with and around bears. He has a degree in resource management from the University of Victoria, and is a vice-president of the Commercial Bear Viewing Association of B.C. An ecotourism entrepreneur, he is the president of Maple Leaf Adventures, where on the platform of the classic schooner Maple Leaf, he leads small groups of guests on bear viewing expedition cruises in the Great Bear Rainforest each year.

Photo Credits: Spirit bear- Kevin J. Smith; Bear watching- Greg Shea; Curious Grizzly- Kevin J. Smith (all of Maple Leaf Adventures)