Guidelines for viewing turtles in Vanuatu
Turtles can be seen nearly everywhere along the coasts of Vanuatu’s islands and green, hawksbill and leatherback turtles come to Vanautu beaches to lay they eggs. Turtle encounters are therefore common in Vanuatu, however marine turtles globally are threatened with extinction. Whilst seeing turtles brings pleasure to people, these interactions have the potential to cause turtles harm. Other human activities close to turtles, or in their habitat, can also be damaging. For this reason we have developed these guidelines for interacting with turtles in Vanuatu to give people the tools to view turtles in a responsible way and to ensure they minimise the impact on our turtles.
The Turtle Guidelines
The Code of Conduct for Tourism Operators
Tourism can be beneficial for turtles if they inspire behavioural change to reduce threats to turtles, such as marine plastic pollution. But tourism can also be damaging or exploitative. We have therefore also developed a code of conduct for tourism operators, to ensure turtle tourism is sustainable and of benefit to the turtle population here in Vanuatu and to ensure a better tourism experience for visitors and local tourists.
We have also developed some materials to help spread the word. Please download and print the posters in your preferred language
Boat operating near turtles
Paddling, surfing, sailing near turtles
Turtle friendly beaches
Swimming diving and snorkelling near turtles
Turtles have a complex lifecycle, using different habitats at different stages of their lives. Understanding where turtles are when can help us understand the threats to their survival and aid our efforts to conserve them. Explaining the lifecycle to tourists or other interested people can foster an interest in helping turtles. Here is a poster we developed demonstrating the lifecycle of sea turtles and giving some details of the turtles we see in Vanuatu. Feel free to use this poster in your tourism enterprises or for other educational uses. A PDF version can be found here.
A template for a sign to mark a beach as a nesting beach has also been created for any one to use to help protect a nesting beach on their land. Please download the template here.
How did we develop these guidelines and the code of conduct?
The guidelines and code of conduct have been developed with extensive consultation with Government, NGOs and the tourism sector. The powerpoint presentation delivered during the workshop to explain how we came to the recommendation in the guidelines can be found here
Project Funding
This project is funding under the Pacific BioScapes Programme. The Pacific BioScapes Programme is a European Union (EU) funded action, managed and implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). The Programme contributes to the sustainable development of Pacific Small Island Developing States through the implementation of 30 focused activities taking place across a diversity of ecosystems in 11 countries (Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu) that will address critical issues concerning coastal and marine biodiversity, and ecosystem-based responses to climate change adaptation. For more information, please visit: www.sprep.org/bioscapes