Hi. My name is Dan Brinkmeier. I am the Community Outreach Conservation Program Developer in The Field Museum’s Office of Environmental and Conservation Programs. I work with the Cofan who live in the Rainforest Preserve at Zábalo to document and illustrate one of their best-known projects, the Proyecto Charapa or Save the River Turtle Campaign. The community monitors and collects endangered baby river turtles from nests on the beaches of the Aguarico River and then raises them for a year before releasing them back into the wild, which increases their chances for survival.

The Cofan compile the turtle data and analyze it with biologists at The Field Museum to maximize the benefits from their stewardship project and to export their successful practices to neighboring communities. The turtle project has expanded from releasing 300 hatchlings in 1992 to releasing 3,400 baby turtles in 1998. Now in its 10th season, the Cofan have released over 21,000 turtles. The Cofan are starting to see more females nesting on the beaches again; a sign that some of the yearlings released in 1991 have successfully entered the breeding population and that the turtles are making a substantial comeback. The Cofan have realized that if they are going to save the turtles, they can not do it alone. To get the word out, The Field Museum is helping the Cofan develop educational tools such as comic books, posters and small exhibits. These tools can be used throughout the Amazon to teach other communities how to replenish endangered populations of river turtles.

continue to the ecosystem

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