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Marine Turtle Newsletter 53:1-3, © 1991
Javier Alvaradoand Alfredo Figueroa
University of Michoacan Faculty, Aptdo. 35-A, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico
The most important nesting and breeding grounds for the black sea turtle (Chelonia m. agassizi) on any mainland shore are the east Pacific areas of Maruata Bay and Colola in Michoacan, Mexico. The black turtle story on the Michoacan coast is an example of a formerly abundant resource which was utilized at a subsistence level for centuries, but which is now in severe peril because of commercial exploitation. The black turtle shares geographical boundaries with the Nahual indigenous group on the Michoacan coast. The local village elders remember when the beaches at night during the fall months were covered with nesting turtles, but now they are severely depleted because of the over-harvest of both adults and eggs. In the late 1960's, it is estimated that 500-1000 females nested nightly in Colola at the peak of the season. Today, only 60-100 females arrive to nest each night during the peak of the season (or about 800-1000 turtles per year).
As late as the 1950's there were no settlements at Maruata and Colola. The Nahual people made sporadic trips from their pueblos in the sierra to the black turtle nesting beaches to collect eggs. Eggs were transported by mule and burro back to the villages, where they were eaten fresh or hardboiled and dried for storage to supplement a meager diet of beans, corn, squash, and chiles. For many decades the Nahual people continued their limited harvest of eggs without affecting the turtle population. The expansion of international markets for sea turtle leather as a substitute for crocodile skin in the 1960's brought great hunting pressure to bear on the sea turtle populations of the Mexican Pacific. When a market for sea turtle products was introduced to the Nahual in the early 197O's, settlements in Colola and Maruata grew rapidly. The heavy exploitation of both adults and eggs resulted in a black turtle population collapse.
In response, Kim Cliffton, an American with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and in coordination with the Mexican Instituto Nacional de la Pesca, began a black turtle conservation program in Michoacan in 1980. In 1982, the Black Sea Turtle Recovery Program became the responsibility of the University of Michoacan, with the support of U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and World Wildlife Fund-U. S. Every nesting season (August-January) hatcheries are set up at Colola and Maruata by University of Michoacan biologists. Eggs are transplanted to new nests dug in a corral situated on the nesting beach and protected from poachers and natural predators. Data of various kinds are collected and the hatchlings' successful release to the sea is assured.
Although black turtle fishing is prohibited in Mexico, trying to stop the illegal hunting of turtles remains the most difficult challenge. The turtles' high commercial value in the Mexican marketplace exposes them to intensive exploitation. Economic pressures to support families make sea turtles and their eggs a prime target for coastal people because the eggs are easy to obtain and bring a high price. Therefore, in 1986 a team of five University of Michoacan biologists with several years of field experience in the area was assembled to develop a coherent strategy to incorporate the local people into the on-going process of sea turtle (and habitat) conservation. Considering that conserving the black sea turtle population is part of the larger issue of maintaining the ecological, cultural, and economic stability of the whole region including the turtle beach, the adjacent villages, and nearby ecosystems, four areas of special concern were identified:
Environmental education
The objective of the environmental education program is to promote, in a regional context, people's awareness of their relationships with nature. This objective includes encouraging an appreciation of the value of local fauna and flora, as well as improving the quality of life of the people in the local villages through conservation-oriented behavior in their domestic and subsistence practices. In order to achieve this objective, important local environmental issues were examined and media appropriate for communicating this information were selected.
Since 1986 various media have been utilized to communicate the status of regional resources to three target groups (adults, primary school children, secondary school students) in the villages of Colola and Maruata. Graphic information (posters and bulletin boards) on different conservation issues is displayed in permanent kiosks located at both Colola and Maruata. Text is presented in both Spanish and Nahual. With the help of local teachers, audio-visuals, seminars, and workshops are presented regularly at local schools.
Economic alternatives
Since sea turtles and their eggs have represented an important source of income for local people, the University of Michoacan's Black Sea Turtle Recovery Project is attempting to provide the villages of Colola and Maruata with economic alternatives. In coordination with the office of Culturas Populares of the Mexican Secretariat of Education, local native crafts have been promoted at a regional level since 1986. In 1988, four artisan groups were consolidated in the Maruata area.
Another promising economic alternative for the local population is ecotourism. The Black Sea Turtle Recovery Project has developed a small-scale, well-planned, ecological tourism program in which turtles are the primary attraction and profits go to a local community improvement fund. This idea was implemented in the winter of 1989 with the participation of two pilot groups of ecotourists. For the first time local people are beginning to realize that live turtles can be profitable. We hope that by working with the villagers to create alternative sources of income, the pressure on sea turtles and other resources will be significantly reduced. To this end, other economic alternatives are now being examined.
Alternative sources of food
To supplement the diet and income of local people, a pilot project to promote family vegetable gardens was initiated in 1985. Elementary school children and their teachers helped plant the first experimental demonstration garden plot in the village of Maruata. After two years of experimental work, the vegetable types best adapted to local conditions were selected to continue in the demonstration plots. Today it is common to see vegetable gardens in the yards of families in Maruata. In 1988, the family vegetable garden project was initiated in the village of Colola with the participation of secondary school teachers and their pupils.
Another option that may improve the local diet and at the same time encourage forest conservation is iguana farming. A pilot project initiated in 1988 is still in the research phase. The green iguana has traditionally been hunted by local people for meat and eggs and is now fast disappearing from this region. The objective of this project is to repopulate wild iguana populations with juveniles produced and raised under protected conditions. The surplus will be used by local people for subsistence consumption. It is expected that this alternative source of food will help diminish the dependence of local people on sea turtle egg and meat consumption.
Rational utilization of local ecosystems
The tropical forest is the main natural system from which the Nahual people obtain resources to cover their most basic subsistence needs. With the destruction of the forest, peripheral existing resources, such as the sea turtle, will be under ever increasing exploitation pressure.
The Nahual people on the Michoacan coast are mainly farmers who live in well-dispersed villages. Their economy can be described as agrarian subsistence. The main agricultural practice is slash-and-burn agriculture which is carried out for the cultivation of corn, beans and squash. Because of population increase and economic pressures, large areas of forest are being felled at a rapid rate and cultivated fields are given less time to recover. The traditional slash-and-burn agricultural practice is not ecologically sound under these conditions. The destruction of the forest is also resulting in the loss of potentially important genetic resources and a general ecological deterioration of the region.
In an attempt to address this situation, the Black Sea Turtle Recovery Project is developing a comprehensive program of forest conservation. This program is examining ways of improving the productivity of the traditional agricultural systems so that cultivated fields are utilized for longer periods of time. To encourage forest conservation, our program is also researching ways of promoting the diversification of forest utilization.
In conclusion, in order to effectively conserve the black turtle in Michoacan, we will have to continue our efforts to protect the turtle population there by
However, we are also aware that for our conservation efforts to be successful in the long-term the needs and aspirations of local people have to be incorporated into the conservation process. We believe that our multi-disciplinary, integrated approach is by far the best for the black turtle, the people, and the habitat they share.