Leatherback Turtle Conservation Projects in Costa Rica

It was a great occasion to do something useful while having fun, getting to know more on the sea turtles and having the possibility to get in touch with a different culture.

Me and my friend decided to take mostly the nightly shifts to patrol the beaches and secure the just laid turtle eggs: shifts were from 10pm to 6am. In the afternoons we had ~2 hours of different activities (we played with the children and helped in their educational activities and we painted the beds in the ASTOP hostel.)

SEEtheWild is a nonprofit organizations that connect volunteers with community-based wildlife conservation projects around the world. SEEtheWild coordinates the trips and give out information to volunteers, but SEEtheWild doesn’t actually run the programs – trips are run by tour operators and volunteer organizations, who are screened by SEEtheWild to ensure that volunteers, wildlife and local communities abroad get the most out of the conservation projects.

I talked with co-founder and director Brad Nahill about SEEtheWild's conservation projects.

SEE Turtles, which expanded into expanded into SEEtheWild in February 2011, focuses on sea turtle conservation in Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Trinidad, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Sea turtle conservation is an ideal volunteer activity because it is safe, simple (no training necessary), and in high demand (there are an estimated 3,000 turtle nesting beaches around the world, almost all of which have small budget projects and need volunteers).

SEEtheWild works to promote the protection of wildcats, bears, birds, sharks, and whales. Currently offering 30 to 35 trips through partnerships with travel and wildlife operations, SEEtheWild hopes to expand to up to 50 trips in the next six months. During this growth, SEE also plans to extend trips to include more locations and at least two new animals.

In less than four years, SEEtheWild has connected hundreds of volunteers with wildlife conservation programs. They’ve accomplished this feat while generating more than $300,000 in support for wildlife conservation and local communities.

Nahill and co-founder Dr. Wallace Nichols both came to the voluntourism industry with a background in conservation field work. Having worked in Costa Rica and Mexico, they created SEE Turtles after witnessing the conservation efforts of local Baja fishermen. The fishermen had the best intentions for the wildlife and their community, but they lacked the tourism knowledge or resources to be successful and profitable. Nahill and Nichols worked with the communities to explain the concept of ecotourism and the positive effects protecting sea turtles would have, and SEE Turtles began soon after.

“We started [an easy but effective project] with sea turtles because we wanted to offer trips that were tourism with a volunteer aspect, but didn’t want the cost to be an impediment for people to go volunteer,” said Nahill. “We wanted to provide a high profile, free resource to connect volunteers directly with conservation programs.”

The organization serves as a free tool for volunteers to find the conservation project that fits their needs best. Aspiring volunteers can fill out a matching form that tells SEEtheWild the type of trips they are interested in, when they want to go, what their budget is, and any other requirements they might have.

SEEtheWild has very specific criteria for projects and organizations they partner with. The four main criteria are:

• Direct benefit to conservation project
• Use of local businesses
• Minimal environmental impact
• Strong educational focus, letting the traveler be more active before, during and after

What makes SEEtheWild stand out?

Half of the commission SEEtheWild receives from partner organizations goes directly to programs protecting wildlife. In terms of donations, that commission, five percent of the trip cost, is five times the industry norm that most companies give back to the communities. All of the trips also focus on supporting locally-owned hotels, restaurants, shops, and other businesses. Therefore, taking a trip through SEE dramatically increases the benefits local organizations receive.

“There’s a big disconnect with all wildlife [conservation programs] between the benefit projects receive and the amount of money volunteers spend,” said Nahill. “We think we can help increase the amount of impact volunteer trips have on local conservation.”

The SEEtheWild team also prides itself on being transparent about its work. Every itinerary on the websites show conservation pricing, a breakdown of how much of the program fees go directly to conservation and to local communities and local programs. One of the criteria SEEtheWild and SEE Turtles’ partners must meet is donating 25% of the volunteer fee to a conservation program of a minimum of 25 percent of the volunteer fee. Whatever wildlife interests a volunteer may have, SEEtheWild is sure to find a fitting conservation program.

Program Highlights

• How long?: Most volunteers choose to go for one week up to two months. Several projects have research assistants/interns who stay for at least two to three months.
• Where?: SEEtheWild tours go all over the world, with 17 countries in total. The majority are in the Americas, with some trips to Asia and Africa as well.
• How much does it cost?: Connecting directly to a volunteer program abroad costs $20-100 per day for food and lodging. The pre-arranged trips range from $700 (Swimming with Whale Sharks) up to almost $6,000 (Travels & Tigers in India).
• What do fees cover?: Turtle trip fees cover food and lodging. Airfare and public transit to project are separate. Packaged trips include just about everything except for airfare.