Turtle Festival a success
The attendees of the Turtle Festival flocked the river side to witness the turtles being placed into the river
The attendees of the Turtle Festival flocked the river side to witness the turtles being placed into the river

THE eighth Turtle Festival concluded on Sunday at Caiman House in the Yupukari Village, Rupununi, with 150 attendees benefitting from turtle conservation education.

Since 2011, Yupukari and the Caiman House Field Station have been the base for a community-led turtle monitoring project. The goal of the project is to celebrate, sensitise and promote turtle conservation with community members.

With supporting agencies such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Guianas, Iwokrama International Centre and other conservation agencies, the project continues to be successful year after year.

Communications Consultant of WWF Guianas (Guyana Office), Dionne Cush- Barnwell explained to Guyana Chronicle that the year round project in the village focuses on two species of river turtles which are prized for their meat and eggs by local people.

The giant river turtle (Podocnemis expansa) and the yellow spotted river turtle (Podocnemis unifilis) are ecologically and culturally important to the Makushi and Wapishana.

“What the Caiman House Field Station would do is incorporate other wildlife clubs and during nesting season for the turtles, they would collect the eggs and place them in a nursery they have built for them, to help conserve the species. Because sometimes the eggs can be found by other animals and be destroyed before they hatch. So when they collect the eggs they are kept until they hatch, and at the annual festival, conservation education is given to members of the community, and they would release the little turtles into the water,” Cush- Barnwell expounded.

Some of the villagers in Rupununi carrying the turtles to put into the river

She also shared that this year, they saw over 120 turtles being conserved and placed into the river. The same conservation efforts are made for caimans in the villages, she said.
WWF Community Engagement Expert, Patricia Fredericks, said, that, as an educator, she looks forward to the interactive sessions with the youths in the community.

Aside from putting the turtles in the river, local youths and wildlife club members from 12 riverine communities were provided with the opportunity to understand the importance of resource management, scientific techniques of turtle research, to affirm the importance of turtles in Indigenous culture, and exchange local traditional knowledge in a fun and interactive manner.

“This festival is a very great initiative and I commend the toshao and others because we have to nurture the minds from young. I hope the children do what they would have learned, beyond the two days, and practise it daily in their community to achieve conservation. So we will have the turtles and caimans always,” Fredericks said.
Toshao Russian Dorrick said the event is important to the villages.

“As the people that depend on our environment for survival and our livelihood we should lead the conservation,” he said.

Dorrick highlighted that the festival is an event where knowledge is shared, and communities learn together to build their efforts to maintain biodiversity across Guyana.
Bina Hill Institute, Kaicumbay, Karasabai, Shea, Sand Creek, Kwamatta, Kuma, Quatata and Shulinab are some of the villages which attended the festival.

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