Activist Gone Wild (Life)
How a Small Nicaraguan Community is Trying to Kick Out a Large American Conservation Group
Story by Shana White

Many countries have an array of foods that a visitor may find either a delicacy, exotic or just plain weird to eat. For example, in certain parts of France and in the Cayman Islands, crabs that live in cemeteries and sewers are cleaned with grated coconut and then eaten on special occasions. In China, shark fin soup is a popular dish. And on the Atlantic coast of Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua – turtle fins, also used in a soup, is a dish that has been eaten for many years. Now, after generations of eating turtle fin soup, the Wildlife Conservation Society, an American animal rights organization, is trying to get Nicaraguans to stop.

Central American countries such as Costa Rica has stopped the capture of turtles. Eating and catching turtles is currently legal in the keys and coast of Nicaragua because it is recognized by law that eating turtle is a staple of the indigenous peoples diet. However, the distribution of turtles in Nicaragua is illegal. The Wildlife Conservation Society made a proposal to the coastal communities of Nicaragua to develop a limited time frame of when it is okay to catch turtles so they can have time to spawn. The community in Pearl Lagoon accepted their plan, but the only thing they wanted from WCS was some line of communication on how their limiting of turtle catching was effecting the spawning, and how WCS was being funded. When that communication stopped, the people in Pearl Lagoon starting organizing, not to save the turtles, but to get the Wildlife Conversation Society out of their towns.

I traveled to Nicaragua to visit my family who live in the small towns of Pearl Lagoon. The region is mainly Afro-Caribbean and filled with hard working people trying to earn a living any way they can. Even though Nicaragua is a Spanish speaking country, on the Atlantic, the first language is a broken English that has a Creole sound.

Electricity is very scarce in the area, and since there is no running water, people use the wells. Although it is a humble little place, they have an international perspective. The radio, which plays when the electricity comes on in the evenings, has a show that talks about “American imperialism,” and “President Bush's corruption.”

Since Pearl Lagoon is near water, seafood is not only a good way for people to get jobs, but it's a main source for food. When the right season is in – June or July - turtles are wanted in many people's soup pot. In Pearl Lagoon, turtles are keeping people alive.  

A few years ago, the Wildlife Conservation Society, concerned with the potential extinction of sea turtles, teamed up with Nicaraguan communities to develop a campaign to reduce the catching of turtles. The organization created the Sea Turtle Conversation Program, which worked with Nicaraguan community organizations, police, and elected officials. The program brought in employees and held presentations on how the continuance of catching turtles would possibly lead to extinction.

In Pearl Lagoon, despite the dependency on turtles for the local economy, the community understood the concern and decided to work with WCS. But now, it seems WCS has become more of a problem then their need to get off a turtle diet.

My aunt Velma, who is part of a village community board, took part of the WCS workshops when they began. She said she didn't mind the workshops, even if the American organization was telling them things the community already knew. “They were telling us how there are alternatives to eating turtles – like fish,” she says. Everything seemed to be working well, Velma says, until WCS starting becoming very distant, and not reporting back on the plans. When pressed to see if the number of turtles increased as catching decreased, the WCS was silent. The community also wanted transparency on the funding of the organization because community members were being asked to buy food from WCS fundraisers. The WCS would not respond to the requests. That is when the community began organizing to get the organization out of their region.

It seemed to be a bold move -- a small community challenging a major US organization that has ties to the national government. My aunt Velma, who is also the town's seamstress, became a central organizer.

“We started holding weekly meetings to strategize on how to kick out WCS.” Velma says. She said, “In order for WCS to leave, we knew we needed everybody involved in the Pearl Keys.” They are currently outreaching to towns all over the Keys to get more support for their effort to get rid of WCS.

The Wildlife Conservation Society is an organization that has been around for 111 years.  Based out of New York, it has created projects that bring awareness to wildlife, and has a mission of sustaining wildlife around the world. In Nicaragua, the WCS building itself tells of the separation from the local community. WCS has a gated off building. It is a nicely painted house located in the middle of town with an emblem of a Sea Turtle on the front gate.  It looks a lot more affluent than the houses surrounding it. Inside, they have an office typical to America, not Nicaragua. They had the only computer I had seen in the area. Most of their employees walking in and out of their building are white. Their presence is extremely noticeable because there are very few white people in Pear Lagoon to begin with.

When I contacted WCS, Stephen Sautner, who was in charge of media relation of Programs, he would not give a comment on the situation in Pear Lagoon.

To be honest, I was surprised that they even accepted this group in the first place. From my conversations with my family in Nicaragua, a foreign group from the U.S. coming to a small village to try to change the people's tradition is not something that is readily accepted. But the Nicaraguan people know what they want in and out of their community and WCS is no exception. As for the community in Pearl Lagoon, they are still planning how they are going to deal with the sea-turtle program. But if they succeed in getting Wildlife Conservation Society to leave, which is still the plan, Pearl Lagoon can be a big example of the large power of small communities.

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