Fundacao Tartaruga - Cabo Verde
The Cape Verde archipelago hosts the world’s third largest nesting population of the loggerhead turtle but has recently been identified as potentially the largest loggerhead rookery in the world. The mission of Fundacao Tartaruga (Turtle Foundation) is to contribute to sea turtle conservation at our own project sites by cooperating with local communities to create a future where both sea turtles and people can thrive.
Rangers of the Fundacao Tartaruga are working to produce products from plastic waste outside the sea turtle nesting season on Boa Vista/Cabo Verde and sell them to tourists. In order to optimize this work and to shred larger quantities of plastic waste, this grant will help purchase a motor-power granulator machine. Rangers from the local group “Onze Estrelas” are collecting suitable plastic waste on sea turtle nesting beaches, shred it, put the granules into the injection machine, heated it and created new items like key-chains in the shape of a sea turtle, shark or penguin; a key-chain representing the outline of the island of Boa Vista and a small flowerpot.