Home How TAMAR works




ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION,
SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY ACTION


Environmental deterioration, predatory fishing, the stealing of eggs and hunting were the greatest threats to the survival of sea turtles. Repressive action alone would not have been enough to solve the problem, because fishermen hunted to feed themselves, or to sell the meat and the shells. The solution would have to be to find the fishermen new sources of income, if the awareness-raising campaigns were to succeed.

The TAMAR Program therefore developed environmental education programs that abandoned repression, coercion or theoretical speeches, and involved the communities in the conservation areas, making them partners in the activities, accomplices in the same ideal of saving and protecting turtles in Brazil. In exchange, it helped populations to improve their life, creating new means of survival and preserving their popular culture, as well as offering, above all, new job opportunities. TAMAR helped people change their lives. Today, the Program is part of the community's everyday life. About 300 fishermen work with TAMAR throughout the country. They are the "tartarugueiros" (turtle handlers), who patrol the protected areas, inspecting nests. The very same people who collected the eggs and killed the females when they came up the beaches to nest. Apart from hiring the fishermen, TAMAR-IBAMA carries out social projects within the communities, such as public nurseries-kindergarten and communal vegetable gardens, and also other projects that offer alternative sources of income, such as manufacturing clothes, handicrafts, ecotourism programs and several activities of environmental education. Residents are made aware of the importance of preserving the environment through lectures, courses, video showings, and encouragement for regional festivals, always pursuing increasing engagement between TAMAR's employees and the communities, and the strengthening of the local culture.


Much of the money raised for the maintenance of such projects comes from the sale of TAMAR's products such as T-shirts, key holders, stickers, caps, and others. In the Regência station, in Espírito Santo, the Pró-TAMAR Clothing Factory was created. T-shirts and other articles for sale in the Program's several stores are manufactured there. A large part of the community is employed in the factory itself. Together with the work at the local communities, TAMAR conducts environmental education activities; formally, in schools and institutions, and informally, through the engagement of the public. Media campaigns, exhibits, video shows, the distribution of booklets and leaflets are conducted for the public in general and tourists, above all those who visit the Program's stations in Brazil. The Visiting Centers, with museums, holding tanks, stores, and several means of communication (multimedia, video, pictures, panels, and so on) are used to promote the work of the TAMAR Program, educate general public and local villagers and raise funds within a global action to protect sea turtles.