The Sea Turtle Foundation is constantly being approached by community groups for education material on how to improve the lives of sea turtles, particularly during nesting and hatching season. We don’t currently have the necessary resources to support these requests. The Sea Turtle Community Education program will address this gap. The education ‘pack’ will consist ...
Sea Turtle Foundation
Sea Turtle Community Education program
GOAL
$12,000
Australia > National / Multi-state > Metro and Regional
Field of Interest
- Education/training and employment
- Environment conservation and climate change
Target Population
- Flora / fauna
- General population
Sea Turtle Foundation
Sea Turtle Foundation is a non-profit, non-government organisation that protects and conserves highly endangered sea turtles through research, education and action. We are Australia's only organisation dedicated solely to the protection of sea turtles.
Our vision is a world where sea turtles swim safely through healthy oceans, their habitats are protected and their future is secure. We have been applying evidence-based science, transformative education and powerful advocacy to provide a voice for sea turtles since 2001.
Our focus areas are:
Education – delivering volunteer training sessions, school and community education programs and online education materials to specific groups (e.g. recreational boaters) and public.
Advocacy – providing the 'voice of sea turtles' on priority topics (marine debris and plastic, light pollution, coastal development, beach nets) – across all states.
Research – supporting and publicising new research to boost researcher profiles and improving the evidence base
Action – arranging events to improve the outcomes for sea turtles (e.g beach clean ups prior to nesting season)
With all 6 sea turtle species in Australia either rated as Vulnerable or Endangered, it is more important than ever to minimise human impact on these beautiful ocean creatures.
Project Summary
The Sea Turtle Foundation is constantly being approached by community groups for education material on how to improve the lives of sea turtles, particularly during nesting and hatching season. We don’t currently have the necessary resources to support these requests.
The Sea Turtle Community Education program will address this gap.
The education ‘pack’ will consist of a series of resources designed to provide community groups with practical information they can use:
– Beach clean up guides – how to organise and run a beach clean up to prepare beaches for turtle nesting season
– Nesting Code of Conduct – what the public should do when turtles are nesting (e.g., laying their clutches of eggs)
– Nesting support – actions to support nests whilst eggs are incubating (6-8 weeks)
– Hatching Code of Conduct – what the public should do when hatchings are emerging from eggs and making their way down the beach
– Council lighting – education materials for local councils re best practice for lighting during hatching season
– Developments – education material re best practice for coastal development
This program will enable community groups across Australia to take local action to improve outcomes for their sea turtle population. These resources will be available in perpetuity and at no cost.
The Foundation is the most appropriate organisation to address this education need as we have access to Australia’s leading sea turtle experts who can assist in developing the education materials.
Project Outcomes
We will know that our Sea Turtle Community Education program has been successful when we see community groups, schools, and individuals taking actions to positively impact the lives of their local sea turtles using the materials developed. These actions can be one off events (e.g. beach clean up), or sustained activities (e.g. ongoing lobbying of Councils to change beach lighting setups).
We will also know the program resources have been successful when we stop getting requests for education materials as the program materials satisfies our ‘clients’ needs.
The key qualitative objective is number of downloads. Our objective is 45 downloads of the pack from the Foundation website in the first three months post launch, and 120 downloads after 12 months.
Our qualitative feedback will be feedback from users. This will consist of indirect proactive user feedback via emails, posts on social media, etc. We plan to gather direct feedback by contacting organisations who have downloaded the pack to understand what actions they have taken. This will enable us to understand the impact, and also gather feedback for any future updates.
Budget Breakdown
TOTAL BUDGET: $20,000
FUNDING
| Funding source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sea Turtle Foundation | $8,000 |
| Funding gap | $12,000 |
EXPENSES
| Expense item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Content development (Sea Turtle Foundation funded) | $5,500 |
| Project planning, administration, impact assessment (Sea Turtle Foundation funded) | $2,500 |
| Graphic design (External) | $9,500 |
| Production costs and distribution of materials | $2,500 |
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