Agus Santoso devotes his time to turtles

Agus Santoso devotes his time to turtles

By Bambang M.

BANTUL, Central Java (JP): Care for one's environment starts
at home. This is also true for Bantul resident Agus Santoso and
his family in Yogyakarta.

On certain afternoons, Agus, his wife and their daughter
travel from their home in the hamlet of Sambeng in Srandakan to
Pandansimo beach by motorcycle, taking three containers and
another one filled with five tukik (young turtles).

When they arrive, each family member puts a young turtle in
the sand, and watches while it tastes its new-found freedom.

"Bye bye, see you later," they call when the turtles finally
reach the sea.

At home, Agus has three small aquariums filled with dozens of
tukik. Every two days he goes to the beach to collect seawater
for his aquariums.

The man not only shows concern for his turtles at home, but he
is also trying to save more of the slow-moving creatures from
poachers.

Turtles lay their eggs between May and September. When
breeding season arrives, Agus goes to the beach regularly, and
stays there from 5 p.m. until midnight.

Whenever he spots turtles' eggs, he moves them to a safe haven
that he has built in the sand, and the eggs are buried as deep as
70 centimeters. After 50 days, the eggs hatch and it is then that
Agus moves the young turtles to his aquariums at home. He keeps
them for two months before releasing them back into the wild.

"Ideally, we release young turtles only after seven months,
but we do not have sufficient room for them," said Agus, adding
that he takes new young turtles every day, either directly from
the beach or from fishermen.

There are at least three kinds of turtles arriving on the
south beach to lay eggs: the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), penyu
belimbing (Dermochelys coreacea) and penyu sisik (Eretmochelys
imbricata). As endangered species, the turtles are protected by
Law No.5/1999 and Decree No.7/1999 on the protection and
conservation of natural resources. CITES also prohibits any trade
of the turtles.

However, despite the regulations, the turtles are widely
traded and their eggs collected for profit.

"In Yogyakarta, the turtles are caught after they are spotted
by fishermen," said Bambang Purnomo, a member of Yogyakarta's
Nature Conservation environmental group.

The idea to help save the turtles came to Agus about three
years ago, when the contracting company he worked with in Jakarta
went bankrupt.

He then went home and established a new business. At the same
time, he also started to save turtles.

In his conservation efforts, he set up a foundation, Karya
Pandansimo Lestari, which later changed to Tunas Pandansimo
Lestari. Apart from working to conserve turtles, the foundation
also tries to keep the south beach clean.

He has worked with Kulonprogo, Bantul and Gunung Kidul
regencies to launch campaigns targeting fishermen. The campaigns
urge fishermen to stop hunting the endangered turtles. As part of
the campaign, Agus buys every captured turtle or its eggs. An
adult turtle costs him Rp 100,000 while its eggs are sold for Rp
500 to Rp 750 each.

The campaign has also helped to reduce poaching. The number of
vendors selling turtle meat is also declining.

But the same strategy has not worked on tourists or fishermen
coming from other cities.

"If they see the turtles, they catch them and take the
endangered animal home with them," Agus said.

There are two groups of fishermen in Pandansimo beach who help
Agus to save the turtle population. They join in helping to hatch
the eggs, or sell captured young turtles to Agus for Rp 3,000
each. In a way, the conservation effort has helped the fishermen
earn some money.

Saving turtles is not an easy job. The recent sinking of the
Kalla ship, which was carrying asphalt, in Congot Kulon Progo
polluted most parts of the south beach, making the turtles
reluctant to lay their eggs there. During the normal breeding
season, Agus and his team might have collected thousands of
turtles' eggs, but now they have only been able to collect
several hundred.

As he patrols 150 kilometers of beach, Agus is helped by eight
men. Three of them are coordinators and are paid Rp 550,000 a
month, while others are paid Rp 400,000 each. All of them are
equipped with a motorcycle, a camera and a walkie-talkie.

When breeding season arrives, Agus has to spend more of his
money which he earned from his business.

"We have spent about Rp 4 million a week to buy all of the
turtles caught by the fishermen," said Ratnawati, his wife.

Agus, however, hopes that an organization will help him build
a small house at the beach to act as a hatchery and house the
young turtles for seven months. The seven-month-old turtles would
have a better chance at survival after they are released.

For Agus, there is no such thing as giving up. "I will
continue to help conserve the turtles until I'm old."