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Marine Turtle Newsletter 96:27-28, © 2002

Marine Turtle Newsletter-Online

Conservation Programme on Sangalaki Island, East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Axel Obermeier
Turtle Foundation, Hauptstrasse 1, Ammerland, D-82541 Münsing, Germany E-mail:axel.obermeier@web.de

Sangalaki Island, in the Berau district of East Kalimantan province, Indonesia, contains one of the largest known nesting populations of green turtles in the Celebes Sea. Turtles nest year-round at this site.

Since at least 1937 turtle eggs have been collected on this tiny island (ca. 0.15 sq km), which has reportedly attracted an average of 200 nesting turtles (mostly green turtles Chelonia mydas) per night half a century ago (Lindsay & Watson 1995). In the 1970's nesting females still averaged about 150 per night. Since then the numbers appear to be have dropped precipitously: By 1993/1994 the numbers of nesting turtles were down to 20-50 per night (Graham G. Taylor in Tomascik 1997) and further declined to an average of ten laying turtles per night in 2000/2001. While there is naturally some inter-annual variation in nesting numbers, there has clearly been a dramatic decline in the number of nesting turtles on Sangalaki.

In 1999, the government of Indonesia added Chelonia mydas to the list of other marine turtle species protected by law. Collecting eggs and turtles is illegal, outside of a quota of 4000 green turtles a year allowed to be collected for Balinese rituals. However, the local government in Berau, in violation of national law, has issued permits for egg collection on Sangalaki and four other nearby islands. This concession has been auctioned each year to the highest bidder.

In 1993, Borneo Divers Sdn. Bhd., a Malaysian dive operator, set up operations on Sangalaki and purchased the egg concession. For one year the nests were protected and allowed to hatch naturally, although the conservation effort was under the serious threat by armed military looting gangs. In 1994, the concession was lost and sold once more to a trader, and virtually 100 % of the eggs have been collected since then. Until recently, the only conservation effort occurring was a nest adoption programme, initiated by Borneo Divers, whereby guests at the resort can "buy" a nest from the egg collectors, and the nests are monitored, allowed to hatch, and the hatchlings released to the sea. For instance, between November 15th, 2000 and April 10th, 2001, over 6000 hatchlings were released from adopted nests.

In 1999, a NGO called the "Turtle Foundation" (TF) was formed by some dedicated filmmakers and divers with the goal of implementing a conservation program on Sangalaki. In a joint effort with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia and Kehati, an Indonesian biodiversity organisation, they worked with the local government to firstly establish a basic monitoring program and then the conservation of 20 % of the turtle nests.

In November 2000, two Turtle Foundation personnel went to Sangalaki to implement the monitoring program, and in February 2001 -after several months of delay- they were granted full permission to conserve 20 % of the green turtle nests. Since then the conservation program has consisted of leaving some nests in situ on the beach to hatch naturally, and moving some nests to a newly built hatchery. According to the 20 % quota roughly three nests are conserved per day - aside from any adopted nests. In contrast to in situ nests, nests in the hatchery are safe from inundation and predators (such as rats and monitor lizards), which both take a significant toll on conserved in situ nests. Hatch success data from nests transferred into the hatchery shortly after eggs have been laid show that almost 90 % of all clutches and nearly 70 % of all eggs produce live hatchlings. Furthermore, hatchlings from the hatchery are collected each evening and safely released a few meters from the surf ensuring sure all turtles reach the sea safely. Since the hatchery guarantees an increased hatch success rate as compared to in situ conserved nests, as many nests as possible are moved into the hatchery; with its maximum capacity of 60-80 nests this translates into an average of slightly more than one nest per day (i.e. 30-40 % of all conserved nests) transferred into the hatchery. When moving nests, preference is given to those which are located at sites which would be prone to inundation.

Another task of the Turtle Foundation's Sangalaki field workers is to constantly remove logs from the beach. The ever increasing logging activities and forest fires on mainland Borneo have led to a dramatic increase of drift wood. As a consequence the turtles' access to the island has become restricted, because huge trunks block parts of Sangalaki's beaches. This wood and its decomposition products have fertilised the sandy ground and provided a good substratum for ground vegetation: Vines are increasingly covering many beach areas and may need to be removed or at least prevented from further growth. These changes of Sangalaki's beaches may be a cause of the very high rate of "false crawls": 40 % of all turtles coming ashore and attempting to nest return to the sea without laying their eggs.

Besides nightly numbers of new nests and false crawls, data collected by the Turtle Foundation include average number of eggs per nest, hatch success rates from both adopted and conserved nests, rainfall, amount of vegetative cover under which turtles nest, and location of nesting areas using GPS.

In order to promote and sustain the conservation program and goals, a Monitoring Team has been organised with representatives not only from Turtle Foundation, WWF, and Kehati, but also from local government and other stakeholders involved including departments of fisheries, environment, and planning, and the owner of the egg concession. The potential for tourism in this area is great, as there is already a dive resort with world-class diving featuring green and hawksbill turtles and many other fauna

Together with Kehati and WWF, the Turtle Foundation is currently building a research station on the island, which is scheduled to be completed in early 2002 which shall provide a home for conservation personnel (currently Turtle Foundation staff are living in a beach hut in the dive resort). Education programs for local Indonesians as well as visiting tourists are planned. Further goals include complete protection for Sangalaki island, not only for the nesting turtles but also from fishing pressure. Finally, the turtle nests on the other neighboring islands Kakaban, Samama and Maratua, where eggs are also collected, shall be protected as well. In total, these additional islands attract about the same number of turtles every night as Sangalaki.

Most recently our and other parties conservation efforts have further paid off and resulted in an endorsement from the District government to abandon turtle egg collection and to put Sangalaki under complete protection starting January 2002.

We are currently trying to discuss and negotiate with all stakeholders ways and possibilities to successfully implement a complete protection programme. A very obvious threat is illegal looting of nests as occurred in 1993/1994. Beach patrols are necessary to safeguard all nests on the island. Other considerations centre on the issue of enabling a high overall hatch success rate. This is especially important if we want to (at least partially) make up for the decrease in nesting numbers. Even with the present comparatively low numbers of 10-20 new nests per night, complete conservation means that at any given time the number of incubating nests on Sangalaki would amount to an average of 800-900. We plan to continue to move those nests prone to inundation into the hatchery. Furthermore some nests which are deposited near beach huts, may be transferred into the hatchery, because the light from the huts might cause hatchlings misorientation. It is also planned to monitor the impact of rats and monitor lizards on in situ-conserved nests and their hatchlings. If possible, however, we prefer build a very big hatchery that can carry essentially all nests of the island. This, however, would require a significant increase of the number of conservation personnel on the island for transferring and monitoring of nests. An alternative to this strategy might be by involving local stakeholders in beach patrols and enforcement, allowing eggs to incubate naturally.

The Turtle Foundation is a very small organisation without any heavy administration apparatus and is therefore extremely flexible and efficient. However, the foundation is exclusively financed by donations and therefore entirely dependent on support from sponsors and donors. For more information please visit our website at: . Our recent success is very encouraging. Now, that a sustained 100% protection seems to be within reach, prospects for the future of the turtles are more promising than ever. Provided a continuous financial support from private and corporate donors, we are optimistic to be able to establish and maintain a marine turtle protection area in the Celebes Sea and help prevent green turtles from local extinction.

Note added in proof:

As of January 2nd 2002, the turtle egg collectors left Sangalaki Island. The success of the implementation of the 100% conservation status will be reviewed by local government authorities at the end of June 2002. If successful, the conservation will be expanded to the four neighboring islands of the Derawan Archipelago; should the protection fail, egg harvesting will be resumed. In collaboration with local stakeholders we are now pushing towards an effective protection of Sangalaki's turtle nests (beach patrols; community education etc.) to achieve a successful and sustained conservation status.

LINDSAY, C & L. WATSON. 1995. Turtle Islands, Balinese Ritual and the Green Turtle. Takarajima Books, New York.

TOMASCIK, T. 1997. Ecology of the Indonesian Seas. Part II. Periplus Editions, Singapore: 1108-1131