History
Our Home. The concept of what is now La Tortuga Foundation was born in 2002, through the union made by a group of technicians and scientists, who in the face of the serious situation that the country’s marine spaces are going through, decide to organize themselves to promote their conservation, protection and sustainable use, through the creation of alliances with researchers of recognized trajectory. At the beginning of 2005, La Tortuga Foundation was established as a non-profit scientific organization and registered its Constitutive Act before the theturtlefoundation Registry of the Diego Bautista Urbaneja Tourist Municipality of the state of Anzoátegui, Venezuela.
Our Motivation. The seas and oceans cover about 70% of the earth’s surface and are the habitat of more than 90% of the living biomass, providing multiple resources and benefits to the human race. Today, more than half of the world’s population depends on marine resources as their main source of food, a situation that will increase substantially in the coming years. But aquatic environments turn out to be the most fragile and the most impacted by the industrial and domestic activities that, for their development, man performs on land, so they require special attention.
Venezuela’s marine waters do not escape this threat. The State exercises sovereignty over some 860,000 km2 of the Caribbean Sea, has 2,813 km of coastline and 314 islands. In these spaces, the richest biochemical cycles in the world occur, therefore, at a strategic point for the economic and food security of the nation.
Our achievements. More than 60 Scientific Expeditions carried out in coastal and island areas of the east and west of the country, Anzoátegui, Falcón and Sucre States, as well as in the Federal Dependencies Isla La Tortuga and Isletas de Píritu. These actions provide important data on the current conditions of the areas evaluated and their possible future alterations, allowing us to promote the correct environmental management of marine resources and protect important natural reservoirs for the benefit of current and future generations.
More than 90 Ecological Days for educational and awareness purposes. Activities in which more than 5,000 volunteers have participated, including children, youth and adults, carried out in the States of Sucre, Anzoátegui, Miranda, Falcón, Vargas and in the Federal Dependencies Isla La Tortuga and Isletas de Píritu, managing to remove from the marine spaces about 100 tons of polluting elements, generating the creation of citizens sensitive to environmental problems and disseminators of the imperative need to conserve our environment and natural resources.
We have also carried out more than 300 workshops and various dynamic activities of education and awareness through the programs: "Let’s live Nature in Our Schools" and "RAO Anzoátegui", aimed at audiences of different ages that include topics on reduction, reuse, recycling and responsible practices for the conservation of natural resources. We have also developed environmental assessment activities, providing the knowledge collected to propose and create environmental management and management plans.