Akashinga’s community-led turtle team is delivering outsized impact in an under-studied part of central Mozambique. The team, who are from communities with the Save Seascape, Sofala, are trained in basic turtle, megafauna, and fisheries monitoring methods. During the latest August spring-tide cycle, the team rescued and released two large green turtles, incinerated two bycatch carcasses with authorities, and documented three empty carapaces.
On World Turtle Day, while returning from community awareness activities, the team passed recently identified poaching hotspots in the mangrove channels and intercepted fishers with two green turtles: a juvenile already butchered and a large adult still alive. As the fishers fled, the team mounted a low-tide rescue, freeing the turtle from the mud and escorting it to coastal waters to prevent recapture. Separate from this, a fisher handed over a Critically Endangered juvenile hawksbill, adding rare evidence of hawksbill use of mangrove habitats and informing future management.
This work is building foundational trust and resilience toward community-managed fisheries areas, reinforced by outreach campaigns, including presentation of REPMAR posters, safe-release guidance, and secure reporting. The ‘Guardas de Tartarugas’ monitors provide essential coordination and collaboration with coastal police, CCPs, local leadership, the Machanga District Administration, and fisheries officers (SDAE/SDPI/ADNAP)—strengthening stewardship and conservation outcomes across the Save Seascape.