Abstract
The unplanned development of a port city generates urban growth in its coastal zone that stresses the local biotic and abiotic resources, affecting the nesting beach areas of sea turtles. This work evaluated the impact of social collaboration on sea turtle conservation in response to coastal rigidization. Over the past twenty years, the Manzanillo Port (Colima), located in the Mexican Central Pacific, underwent vigorous development and urbanization. This growth has produced stressors including increasing levels of marine noise pollution due to the transit of merchant ships, the decrease in 4.3 ha in beach areas, and increased light pollution, which likely reduced the number of turtles that reached the nesting stage. Despite the above, the number of turtle nests has increased thanks to social collaboration through protection actions, education programs, and the participation of volunteers along with public and private organizations supported by the media and social networks. These actions are part of citizen science and contribute to the balance between urban development and the protection of sea turtles, reducing environmental vulnerability in the coastal zone. This success story can be reproduced in coastal cities for other wildlife species to achieve a social-ecological benefit through advocacy projects that involve the empowerment of local inhabitants and the appropriation of their landscapes and natural elements. These projects will contribute to alleviating the effects of coastal rigidization in the face of future challenges that will require solutions to different environmental aspects of imminent climate change.
Highlights
Despite having a legal framework, regulations, and laws for sea turtle protection, illegal sea turtle captures are still prevalent as a result of the identification of nesting areas, the continued improvement of fishing gear, and other economic activities such as tourism [8], given the current limited surveillance or lack of command-and-control strategies in coastal management
The objective of the present work was to evaluate the impact of social collaboration on the conservation of sea turtles in response to urban-port growth and Coasts 2022, 2, FOR PEER REVIEW
The frequency of references in regional newspapers regarding topics related to sea turtle conservation in the camp shows this rising trend (Figure 4); when this topic was surveyed on social networks like Facebook (Tortuguario Manzanillo, s.f.), we found that it currently has over 15 thousand followers
Summary
According to the United Nations, about 40% of the population around the world lives in coastal areas, boosting infrastructure development to meet the basic demands of the population [1] This unplanned development has affected coastal ecosystems and natural populations of vulnerable species such as sea turtles [2–4]. Together with the illegal consumption and trade of turtle eggs and meat, has resulted in the decline of the nesting populations of sea turtles in Mexico; it exceeded its maximum capture level in 1970, when the country contributed more than 70 % to the world’s production of turtles, mainly olive ridley. Despite having a legal framework, regulations, and laws for sea turtle protection, illegal sea turtle captures are still prevalent as a result of the identification of nesting areas, the continued improvement of fishing gear, and other economic activities such as tourism [8], given the current limited surveillance or lack of command-and-control strategies in coastal management
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