Adaptive threat management framework: integrating people and turtles

Abstract

In the 35 years since its inception, the Brazilian National Program for the Conservation of Marine Turtles (TAMAR) has had great success in protecting the five species of sea turtles that occur in Brazil. It has also contributed significantly to worldwide scientific data and knowledge about these species' biology, such as life cycles and migration patterns. TAMAR's conservation strategies have always relied on a variety of environmental education and social inclusion (EESI) activities highly adapted to the socioenvironmental evolving contexts of its 25 locations distributed across nine states. Diversity and flexibility are critical to enable timely and effective local responses to existing or potential threats to sea turtles. The intuitive, locally adapted, decentralized, and independent way EESI activities have been carried out have generated positive results in the resolution of specific and evolving local problems through the course of the project. This article brings EESI under the same conceptual framework that underlies its conservation approach by adopting an adaptive threat management framework to organize and qualify its educational and social inclusion interventions according to the main categories of threat addressed by TAMAR.

Global phylogeography of the critically endangered hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)

“…The hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) is a critically endangered species that occurs in tropical and subtropical waters around the world (Mortimer and Donnelly, 2008). The main threats to this species' conservation are anthropogenic impacts, such as nesting area degradation, pollution, fisheries bycatch and exploitation through commercialization of the unique hawksbill shell, as well as meat and eggs (da Silva et al, 2015). Threats have been intensified recently since hawksbill turtles preferred feeding areas are coral reefs, a greatly endangered marine ecosystem (Mortimer and Donnelly, 2008).…”

Revisiting the genetic diversity and population structure of the critically endangered leatherback turtles in the South-west Atlantic Ocean: insights for species conservation

“…The long-term conservation work carried out by Projeto Tamar (the Brazilian Sea Turtle Conservation Programme) increased nest numbers in recent years, with the nearly complete cessation of egg harvesting and turtle take, together with nest protection, management and enlargement of protected areas. New threats are emerging, however, such as the high levels of incidental captures in fisheries in Ceará, Espírito Santo, São Paulo, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul States (Sales et al , 2008; Fiedler et al , 2012), and also the coastal development seen in Espírito Santo (Almeida et al , 2011; da Silva et al , 2016).…”

Ethnozoology Mediating Knowledge About Sea Turtles and Environmental Education Strategies in the North-Central Coast of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

“…In Brazil, since the early 1980s, the TAMAR project established a long-term program for the conservation of sea turtles through measures that involve local communities and beach users (Silva et al, 2016). The results of the actions reveal that since the creation of TAMAR, constant increases in the number of nests have been observed and more than 15 million pups have reached the sea (Silva et al, 2016), with the success of the program attributed to efficient communication and integration among researchers, fishermen, residents and tourists.…”