Caminata Parlama, Sponsored Walk Guatemala

There is an extremely high level of sea turtle egg collection in Guatemala, due to the extensive demand for these eggs in the city, due to their supposed aphrodisiac properties.

There are between 18 and 25 operating hatcheries along the pacific coast of Guatemala working for the protection and conservation of the endangered Sea Turtles. However, the level of awareness within many communities regarding the importance of complying with the egg Donation System needs to be addressed. (See Donation System document for further information.) The aim of this sponsored walk is to raise the awareness and understanding for the need for sea turtle conservation for both local egg collectors and egg consumers.

The walk will begin from the Mexican border crossing of Tecun Uman where a border stamp will be obtained for the authenticity certificate. From here, the walkers will be transported to the nearest border town on the beach called Ocos. Here we will celebrate the start of the walk by talking with the local turtle egg tradesmen about the importance of complying with the sea turtle egg donation system and then spend an afternoon with the school children with a variation of education activities and games.

A series of posters and calendars will be distributed throughout the village to display in local shops, the school, local hotels, bars, and restaurants etc, which contain environmental messages regarding the conservation of their decreasing populations of sea turtles. The participants of the walk will be residing with local families for the night, possibly with local egg collectors or egg buyers in the hope that they might be able to influence other townsfolk with our conservation messages.

In the morning we plan to leave just before sunrise and we are hoping to have a big send off. We are hoping to encourage many local school children and egg collectors to walk with us, maybe for just the first half an hour or so as this will help raise much needed awareness for our cause and create positive media coverage for the first day of the journey.

This will be a typical day repeated along the coast in many coastal villages that support sea turtle hatcheries as shown in the map above. During the education day in the villages the sea turtle life cycle will be explained, as well as the threats the sea turtles face in the ocean and on the beach. Many local people still don't understand the effects on the population caused by the severity of the egg collection. A high percentage strongly believes that the turtles have simply migrated to Cost Rica and no level of responsibility is accepted for the demise of their local population of sea turtles.

We aim to carry out our educational activities in 12 different villages, as well as “responsible fishing practices” workshops at the two ports at Champerico and the Naval Base. Many fishing trawlers operate from these two ports which are a huge threat to the turtle population as hundreds of dead turtles are washed up along the beach due to entrapment in the fishing nets. A simple device called a TED which is basically a trap door midway in the net, by law has to be installed to deflect turtles and dolphins. Many are installed but are bolted shut to avoid loosing their big catch. The workshops will help educate the fishermen of the importance of complying with fishing regulations and conserving their marine life.

The Pacific beach of Guatemala continues over 256 km of black volcanic sand which is all sea turtle nesting territory. There are no cliffs or rocks but the beach is broken up by many river mouths. We will have to organise many river crossings with the nearest local fisherman with a boat at each spot. With the help of the Navy and their inflatable dingy we hope for smooth crossings which would otherwise prove difficult to organise.

After 30 days we will reach the last beach towns of La Barrona and Garita Chapina which is the river mouth of the border of El Salvador. Here we will head for the road up to the border crossing of La Hachadura where the border stamp will be obtained for the authenticity certificate.

For the 4 weeks of the walk we are hoping to publish articles regarding different aspects of our cause to raise awareness for the conservation of the Guatemalan sea turtles. These articles will hopefully appear in the most popular read “Prensa Libre” or “Siglo 21” newspaper weekend magazines.

The 4 articles will cover topics like:

• The life cycle of sea turtles,
• Threats to the sea turtle population, such as egg harvest, incidental capture in fishing nets, beach development, pollution etc,
• The Donation System.
• Guatemalan conservation efforts, including the work of Conap, ARCAS, Project Parlama, international volunteer programme EVS, education events and workshops.

With any luck a short slot on the news will aid our awareness efforts and help spread the word of our cause across the country.

This will be a huge event and a massive awareness campaign educating local communities at beach level and the egg consumers in the city. This is not just a one off event but the start of a greater protection plan for the sea turtles before it's too late. With big sponsors from companies in Guatemala and donations from the States and Europe this could very well be a big turning point in the fate of the sea turtles of Guatemala.