Zoologia Caboverdiana Vol. 4, No. 1 (2013)
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Is community-based conservation a feasible option for sea turtles in Sal, Cape Verde Islands?
(2013)
Cape Verde is one of the most important nesting sites for loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta, with the island of Sal having the second biggest population in the country. Loggerheads in Sal face a number of threats, from poaching to coastal development. The non-profit organisation SOS Tartarugas was founded in 2008 to ensure the conservation of the species. Community-based conservation (CBC) is one of the most popular strategies for carrying out wildlife conservation in Africa and even though the organisation employs international staff and volunteers, involving Cape Verdeans in the project is one of its main objectives. The implementation of CBC in Sal has however been very difficult. This study employed two different methods, a Delphi survey and semi-structured interviews, to describe the desirability and feasibility of a CBC approach in Sal and assess what challenges its implementation faces. Results strongly confirm the desirability of CBC in Sal, but also point out a number of challenges, from lack of education to the need for stable jobs for the Cape Verdeans involved in conservation.
Santa Luzia (18º52´, 18º60´N; 24º41´, 24º48´W) is the smallest island (35 km2) in the Cape Verde archipelago1. Although uninhabited today, two families of goatherds lived on Santa Luzia until the mid-1960s. In 1990, together with the nearby islets of Branco and Raso, Santa Luzia was designated a Nature Reserve by law. The island is extremely arid and barren, with hills, stony plains and sand-dunes being the main features. The highest elevation reaches 395 m a.s.l. The vegetation is characterized by a single floristic zone (Duarte et al. 2008), dominated by drought resistant species such as Cistance phelipaea, Polycarpaea nivea, Zygophyllum simplex, Heliotropium ramisissimum, Frankenia ericifolia and Euphorbia tuckeyana (Schleich & Wuttke 1983, Dinis & Matos 1994, Sánchez Pinto et al. 2005). The northern shoreline of the island is characterized by steep cliffs, 10-30 m in height. The remaining shore consists of sandy beaches in the southern part and rocky beaches along the western, north-eastern and eastern coast of the island (Dinis & Matos 1994).
Dragonflies from the Cape Verde Islands, collected between 1960 and 1989 and kept in institutes in Portugal and Cape Verde, were studied. The Cape Verde collection at the Centro de Zoologia, Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical, Lisbon, Portugal, includes eight species of dragonflies represented by 279 specimens collected in 1960-61 and 1969-72. The entomological collection at the Instituto Nacional de Investigação e Desenvolvimento Agrário (INIDA), São Jorge dos Orgãos, Republic of Cape Verde, includes four odonate species, represented by 27 specimens, collected in the years 1987 and 1989. Anax tristis Hagen and A. rutherfordi McLachlan, single male specimens of which were collected in Santo Antão, 27 October 1972, are new taxa for the archipelago. Both are tropical migrants of which the nearest known occurrence in continental Africa is more than 1,000 and 1,500 km, respectively, from the Cape Verde Islands. The two collections contain several specimens from new localities within the archipelago, particularly from the islands of Maio and Fogo. Current knowledge of flight season and island distribution are summarized and updated.
The Cape Verde Islands rank among the world’s most important breeding localities for the loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta, while hawksbill Eretmochelys imbricata, green Chelonia mydas, olive ridley Lepidochelys olivacea and leatherback Dermochelys coriacea turtles are also known to occur in Cape Verde seas (Marco et al. 2011). Olive ridley and leatherback turtles are solely known as migrants, but hawksbill and green turtles regularly use these waters as feeding grounds (Marco et al. 2011, Varo Cruz et al. 2011). Here, we document a rare nesting event of green turtle on the island of Sal, one of the windward (barlavento) islands, situated in the north-east of the archipelago.