Sabah turtle egg hunters become turtle egg saviours

SANDAKAN: Villagers on Libaran Island who once collected and sold turtle eggs for income are now helping protect nesting sites and hand over the eggs for conservation.

Volunteer Sardi Barall said local community rangers helped educate residents and monitor turtle nesting areas.

"Before this, they would take the eggs and sell them. It was one of their sources of income," he said.

Sardi said it was difficult to change the practice at first, but having local rangers made it easier to work with villagers.

Village Development and Security Committee chairman Khamisah Nakdul said residents used to eat turtle eggs but were now more aware of the need to protect them through the conservation programme.

She said villagers who found turtle eggs would bring them to the centre, where they were protected until they hatched.

The programme also encouraged villagers to keep the beach clean so turtles would continue coming ashore to nest.

"If the beach is dirty, the turtles will not come up," she said.

Khamisah said villagers were also given incentives for handing over turtle eggs they found and cleaning up the beach.

She said turtles could come ashore almost every night during the nesting period, with each turtle laying up to about 100 eggs at a time.

Friends of Sea Turtles Education and Research (Foster) president and organising chairman Alexander Yee said the conservation programme led him to moot the Sepilok Jazz Festival during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.

Yee said he and architect Cheong Kok Ann, who also served as music director, discussed using music to raise awareness of the Walai Penyu Conservation Park on Libaran Island, which he initiated in 2011.

Yee said funds raised from the festival would go towards events including Bakat Sepilok Jazz, workshops conducted by jazz technical adviser Jeremy Monteiro from Singapore and sea turtle conservation work.

WWF-Malaysia chief executive officer and executive director Sophia CK Lim said music could help people connect with nature beyond facts and statistics.

She said the festival brought people in Sabah together with people from other countries and regions to raise awareness and build a shared love of nature.

Alongside the festival, WWF-Malaysia brought conservation to audiences through a sea turtle discovery exhibition and educational activities with students and children on Libaran Island.

"I believe that conservation is going to begin from young. And if you inculcate that from a young age, it will be part of your DNA moving into adulthood.

"When people appreciate and understand nature, they are more likely to value it and want to protect it.

"Small action, if everybody plays their role, it can create a big impact."

Lim said the conservation message initiated by Yee had been accepted by islanders, as shown by the warm reception they gave when the team arrived on the island.

"At the end, with the engagement of the community, there must be ownership by them for long-term sustainability of the programme," she said.

From 2011 to 2026, Foster recorded 880 turtle landings, 72,227 eggs laid and 47,067 hatched.

It released 46,248 turtles, comprising 33,956 green turtles and 12,292 hawksbill turtles.