Historic drought endangers turtles
The historic drought that the Amazon has suffered since September made it di cult to rescue threatened turtle eggs.
The historic drought who suffers Amazon since September made it di(cult to rescue turtle eggs threatened in the largest rainforest in the world.
But it did not prevent the activists Ighting for saving the species in Brazil will commemorate the freedom the weekend of 800 baby chelonians.
The liberation of the small chelonians in an environmental reserve cut by the Amazon River It was the result of an initiative to convert dozens of inhabitants of riverside communities in the region, who previously dedicated themselves to hunting turtles, into monitors specialized in searching for threatened eggs and rescuing them.
Las 800 babies were released on a beach in the Negro Riveras known in Brazil to the Amazon before joining the Solimoeswithin the environmental reserve Jaú National Park, about 195 kilometers from Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon. Quickly, and instinctively, they ran to the river to begin their adult lives.
Project
The project for the training of environmental agents is a joint initiative of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBIO), dependent on the Ministry of the Environment, as well as the organization Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The project allowed the training as environmental agents of 115 inhabitants of Ishing and gathering villages in three environmental reserves in Amazonas, the largest state in the Brazilian
Amazon and of which Manaus is the capital.
The new monitors live in three communities of the Jaú National Park, in eight of the Unini River Extraction Reserveand in four of the Capanã Gande Extraction Reserve.
Geographic diversity allows the initiative to have agents to protect turtle nests and rescue threatened eggs both in the lower region of the Negro River and in the region where the Purus )ows into the Madeira.
More beach
The drought also increased the size of the beaches and consequently the area that has to be monitored.
According to chelonian specialist Camila Ferrara, a WCS researcher, the extreme heat of recent months also cooked the eggs in the sand and caused the death of the embryos.