Help Our PEnyu
By participating, you will get the chance to help conserve the endangered Green Turtles and will be led by volunteers of Help Our Penyu throughout your programme. Part of your fee is donated directly to Help Our Penyu, further helping to conserve these gentle reptiles of the sea.
Why Sea Turtles?
Four of the seven species of Marine Turtles nest on Malaysian beaches. The beach of Rantau Abang was one of the most significant rookery beaches for the Leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) of the world with 10,000 nests per year in the 1950’s on just a stretch of beach 2km long. Sadly, only a handful of nests per year are laid, with no live hatchlings since 2001. The decline is similar for the Olive Ridley and the Hawksbill turtles. The Green turtle is fairing slightly better but with a population decline of 80% in just 50 years, it won’t be long until they are considered almost locally extinct as well – this is why Ecoteer is creating HOPE.
What HOPE is doing
Help Our Penyu (HOPE) will be the first independent (not formed by the government or university institutes) non-profit organisation focused on sea turtle conservation in Malaysia with the goal of doubling nesting sea turtle populations in the State of Terengganu through empowering the Malaysian public and local communities – after all it is humans who are killing the sea turtles. The aim of HOPE is to double the nesting sea turtle population of Terengganu, Malaysia from the baseline level set in 2010 in 2060.
