During my Leadership-in-Action this summer, I had the pleasure of volunteering with COPROT at one of their camps in Carate, Costa Rica. COPROT are a community-driven conservation project that aims to conserve sea turtle nesting habitats on the beach in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Before embarking on this project, I was certainly ignorant to the importance of sea turtles. Not only because they are both umbrella and keystone species, and therefore are a crucial part of ocean biodiversity; they also are of great important both culturally and economically for a lot of coastal communities around the world. Throughout this output, I hope to convey this significance to all readers.

COPROT’s mission can be sectioned into three different strands: conservation and research; community involvement; and education and activism. As a volunteer, it was my responsibility to contribute to all three elements wherever help was needed.

Conservation and research were the principal component: a lot of turtle eggs are taken by poachers and so to prevent this, we would carry out regular morning and night patrols across the beach. This allowed us to simultaneously conduct research such as how many nests had been laid, the number of eggs per nest and where the nests had been created. This is all critical research that enables us to assess the hatching and emergence success rates of the nests, filling in information gaps for numerous scientific studies. Whilst away, I was also fortunate enough to be a part of the patrol that relocated the first nests into Carate beach’s new hatchery! A hatchery allows the most vulnerable nests to be relocated to a safer and more secure space, further protecting the endangered Green turtles and critically-endangered Lora turtles that are most-commonly found on Carate’s beach. In-fact, all seven sea turtle species are threatened, endangered or critically endangered. We also conducted weekly beach clean-ups in which plastic is re-used where possible and otherwise, recycled.

This reusing and recycling of plastic links closely to the education and activism at COPROT. In particular, the aforementioned research is essential to policy makers that determine many factors surrounding beach and poaching or fishing laws, and to the advancement of local and national policy that furthers the Osa Peninsula's dedication to ecological sustainability. I think a core part of this education came in the form of weekly structured debates that the volunteers would conduct for the camp leaders, interns and research assistants.

This education was twofold: on one level this active research, followed by performance, helped us volunteers to embed the statistics, reasoning and arguments into our memory – providing a deeper understanding on various topics. As a research and leadership scholar, this debating helped practise critical leadership skills, such as public speaking, teamwork and communication. Moreover, because debates have both a For and Against side, we were exposed to multiple points of view on topics that have a lot of grey areas – such as ‘Should zoos exist?’ On a second level, by having the volunteers debate (who are usually from more economically developed countries, MEDCs) they can take these learnings back to their home nations and continue to spread this education exponentially. This is particularly important as MEDCs have the financial capability to find solutions to problems such as plastic pollution in our oceans, or the growing rate of microplastics globally.

The final strand, community involvement in COPROT’s work, is key to sustaining this project in the long-term. The end goal for all projects such as this one, should be to ultimately hand the project over completely to the community. Obviously, this takes time, but it was clear to see that COPROT is heading in that direction through providing jobs and steady income to locals. For example, whilst I was volunteering, the camp leaders employed an ex-poacher to guard the hatchery overnight. Thus, providing a steady job to someone in the local community and simultaneously someone that would previously been a significant part of the problem. Many poachers only take turtle eggs as a very last resort, and this understanding - that desperation to provide for their families is a common cause of poaching – highlights how important a transfer of roles to the community is.

Spending multiple weeks in the jungle was a new challenge in itself. Moving to a completely new location with a different culture and way of life can be a challenge, and although not exactly the same as a jungle, having just completed a year abroad in Germany, I had a plethora of skills to draw from to make the transition to an unfamiliar environment as smooth as possible.

On a broader scale, being open-minded and learning about the new country/ culture was essential, paired with not comparing it to home, which would prevent you embracing your new surroundings. A part of this includes socialising and making an active effort to meet new people and learn about their lives on an individual level.

On a more personal level, it is important to be honest both with yourself and the new people around you – take the opportunity to say when something is challenging, or when you are confused about something. More often than not, people only want to help. I find it useful to journal and write about my thoughts, feelings and experiences. I find this an incredibly powerful method for checking-in with yourself, particularly in a new space, and although this is a practise I maintain outside of the LiA, I now have a record in which I have preserved my experiences and discoveries whilst on this LiA adventure!