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For tortoise, terrapin and turtle care and conservation

Conservation Projects - TOCC

Terrapins Regulation Enforcement and Survey Needs for Tocc Tocc Reserve, Senegal

The BCG is delighted to be able to support the request from Tomas Diagne, (TSA Africa Chair and African Chelonian Institute) for help to fund Terrapins regulation enforcement and surveys at Tocc Tocc Reserve in Lac de Guiers in northern Senegal. The BCG will provide funding for a fibreglass boat.

The only boats in the Lac de Guiers

The only boats in the Lac de Guiers area are small hand-carved wooden canoes, which are both too “tippy” for regulation enforcement committee work and can only accommodate 2-3 people. The fiberglass boat will not only last longer, but will allow members of the enforcement committee team to take up to 4-5 other people (boat capacity maximum is 6 people) out into the reserve. This will allow for research, law regulation enforcement and educational activities. The boat is essential for locating the terrapins and feeding their locations when conducting surveys.

This is the first nature reserve dedicated to the conservation of nesting and foraging habitat of freshwater turtle Adanson’s Mud terrapin Pelusios adansonii and has been created with the help of Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA Africa) and the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection of Senegal.

The refuge is located in the wetland area on the northwest side of Guiers lake in northern Senegal and covers an area of 741.32 acres for at present.

Local communities have played an important role in this process and have committed themselves to stopping the consumption of turtles accidentally caught in their nets. They recognize that ecotourism gained by leaving the terrapins alive will bring more prosperity than hunting and eating turtle.

The freshwater turtle Pelusios adansonii is fully protected in Senegal by Decree 86.844 of February 1986. Because it is threatened in Senegal, wild populations are only found in the Guiers lake in the northwest of the country, which is a very limited range

The boat will carry the BCG logo and acknowledge that the boat has been donated by the BCG.

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