Centro de Rescate de Especies Marinas Amenazadas (CREMA)

The Rescue Center for Endangered Marine Species (CREMA) is a Costa Rican NGO founded in 2012. We are a research and conservation organization navy that works to protect the resources of the seas and promote sustainable fishing policies in Costa Rica and Central America. In 2015, CREMA began a research and conservation project for sea turtles in coastal communities from the canton of Nandayure, Guanacaste in Costa Rica. Four different species of sea turtles nest and live in this area, where local communities have supported research initiatives and volunteer programs as a way to activate economy and tourism in the area.

However, the lack of political will and the growing urban development on the coasts of Costa Rica has caused the beaches of Nandayure to become are affected by large quantities of waste, both recoverable and non-recoverable, which directly affects the adult turtles that frequent these beaches, as well as the development of neonates in the nests. Taking this into account, since 2019 CREMA began a collaboration with the community initiative led by Aníbal Cortés García, leader community that is responsible for collecting, classifying and sending waste to collection centers solids of 14 coastal communities. In this way we have managed to carry out more than 100 beach cleanups, collecting and transporting more than 7 tons of waste.

The project benefits the conservation of sea turtles mainly in the extraction of recyclable and non-recyclable waste in approximately 10 km of the nesting of four species of sea turtles. Currently, there is a community initiative led by Aníbal Cortés García that is recognized as the only alternative that the communities close to the conservation of sea turtles to adequately manage solid waste. Don Aníbal Cortés García provides the service of collection, valuation and final disposal of the solid waste in 14 communities in the Bejuco district. This grant will help Don Garcia to coordinate recycling activities in the region.