Monitoring and protection of marine turtles on the coast of Muanda

The Mangroves Marine Park, (76,000 ha), is located at the mouth of the Congo River, on the Atlantic coast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 560 km from Kinshasa. This estuary, due to the overlap between fluvial waters and marine waters, confers particular ecological characteristics which attract a remarkable flora and fauna including three species of marine turtles: the olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea, VU), the leatherback turtle ( Dermochelys coriacea, VU) and the green turtle (Chelonia mydas, EN).

The main threats to these sea turtles are poaching, (meat and eggs), accidental capture by artisanal fishing and pollution caused by the presence of an oil refinery. The NGO ACODES has been implementing, since 2011, a program to protect and study marine turtles and their nesting sites on the entire 40 km of the DRC’s coastline. This program, deployed in the National Marine Park of Mangroves, obviously involves the communities bordering the coast.