Gabon's eco-rangers battle to help threatened baby sea turtles survive

Scurrying 10 metres across the sand towards the ocean, it’s a frantic battle for survival for newly hatched sea turtles on Gabon’s coastline.

And even there they are not safe. In addition to predators such as crabs and birds, nests are threatened by coastal erosion and human activities like plastic pollution.

Gabon is the world’s leading nesting site for the leatherback turtle - the largest of the species - and listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"The survival rate for turtles is one in 1,000. You might have a hundred eggs, but bear in mind that among those there are both infertile and fertile eggs,” said Francois Boussamba, deputy executive director of NGO Aventures Sans Frontières.

Rangers move nests under threat by predators to a fenced enclosure near the sea where the eggs are kept safe until they are ready to hatch.

They then move the hatchlings closer to the shoreline – but never straight into the water – as they need to build up their muscles so they can swim in the ocean.

Conservationists from NGOs and the national parks agency patrol the beaches daily during the October to April nesting season, helping to ensure their survival.

The turtleback in one of four species that come to nest along Gabon's coastline and conditions at Pongara National Park’s white sandy beaches are optimal.

About 30 minutes by boat from the capital Libreville, the coastline is wild, there is a favourable equatorial climate, and the beach has a gentle slope which is ideal for females coming to nest.

But funding cuts by US President Donald Trump’s administration are having a negative impact.

"We are currently working on monitoring sea turtles with our technical partners, Wildlife Conservation Society and Aventure Sans Frontières, which are funded largely by them,” said Edouard Moussavou, deputy director of Pongara National Park.

“As the funding has been suspended, the monitoring activities for these turtles have either come to a standstill or been significantly scaled back.”

The result, he said, will be fewer staff and less data, adding that this is “really a challenge for us".

Despite the fact that, as a result, Gabon’s eco-rangers are sometimes going months without wages, they continue to patrol the beaches to protect the threatened sea turtles.