Over 150 000 turtles released in Cape Verde during the 2024 nesting season

International

Projeto Biodiversidade and BIOS Cabo Verde, two environmental conservation organisations from Cape Verde, have presented the outcome of the 2024 loggerhead sea turtle nesting season.

Both of these organisations receive support from RIU Hotels & Resorts, the hotel chain that operates six establishments in the destination and is involved in biodiversity protection and conservation initiatives as part of its Proudly Committed sustainability strategy. The births took place in the hatcheries set up by these organisations on the islands of Sal and Boa Vista, which help make Cape Verde home to one of the world’s most important nesting populations of this species.

This season, the island of Boa Vista hosted 60% of Cape Verde’s turtle population, with 22,427 nests in the Tartarugas Natural Reserve alone. Six hundred of these nests were protected in hatcheries with a hatch rate of 77.9%, which led to 34,592 hatchlings being released into the sea. What’s more, 7,576 turtles were monitored and 169 were rescued. BIOS Cape Verde also continued experiments on nests to mitigate the effects of global warming and obtained promising results in terms of hatchling sex ratios.

Projeto Biodiversidade recorded 36,587 nests on the island of Sal. A total of 2,225 were protected in hatcheries, one of which is located in front of RIU’s hotels. The hatch rate reached 82.3% and 115,962 hatchlings were released into the sea. A 27 km stretch of coastline was patrolled and 1,645 turtles were monitored. The hatcheries were shaded to help reduce the incubation temperature by 2°C with the aim of increasing the proportion of male turtles, a key measure to counteract the effects of climate change.

There has also been a significant reduction in poaching over the last few years, falling from 440 cases in 2021 to just 110 in 2024 on the island of Sal. The nurseries are monitored by volunteers from BIOS Cape Verde and Projeto Biodiversidade. RIU supports these organisations by paying for food at the beach surveillance team’s camps.

This initiative helps strengthen measures to protect the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), which is classified as vulnerable in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species. RIU is involved in programmes to protect a variety of animal species and their habitats in Mexico, Jamaica, Mauritius and Aruba, where it supports projects that work to preserve jaguars, green macaws, whale sharks and cottontail rabbits, among other species.