INDONESIA, Tulap Village, North Sulawesi – June 2006
Public stairway in exchange for the creation of a permanent 36-acre no-take sea turtle nesting beach
Click photo to enlarge
Tulap Village is home to 1,240 people. A steep and slippery dirt path is used daily by students from neighboring Tulaun to walk to the high schools in Tulap, and is also used by village elementary school students. Along with neighboring Tulaun and Ranawangko, the village of Tulap owns part of an extensive strip of beach that is critical nesting grounds for four species of endangered sea turtles: Olive Ridley, Green, Hawksbill and Leatherback. As a show of commitment to turtle conservation they are willing to turn a length of their beach (2.4 miles long) into a permanent official no-take zone. In return, with the assistance of local organization Yayasan Tri Prasetya, Seacology will fund construction of a staircase on Tulap’s path to make it safer and more convenient. *
UPDATE January 2007 - As part of the first phase of the project the village completed clearing a two meter wide path and constructing 290 meters of limestone foundation and stairway in late 2006. They plan to pave the public walkway in early 2007.
UPDATE March 2007 - The public stairway was 100% completed in February 2007 and is being used by school children every day.
UPDATE January 2008 - All construction was completed in mid-2007 and a final report was received via field representative Arnaz Mehta. The village currently has a 15-man turtle monitoring team regularly patrolling the beach at night. A guard post on the beach is being constructed and was scheduled to be completed in 2007. Staff will check on the status of the guard post construction in early 2008.
*Support for asterisked projects is provided fully or in part by the
Nu
Skin Enterprises Force for Good Foundation
