AGRICULTURAL NEWS - In the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve in southern Mozambique, the local community are included in conservation efforts: they closely monitor turtles and fish catches, and ensure that poaching is kept to a minimum.
Over the past few years, turtle poaching in Mozambique’s Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve (PPMR) has effectively disappeared.
The last poaching incident involved a visitor to the area; monitors reported him immediately and he was arrested.
This gives an idea of how passionate the community living around the reserve is about turtle conservation.
Vicente Matsimbe, a law enforcement officer for the PPMR, has been monitoring leatherback and loggerhead turtles on the beach between Ponta do Ouro and Santa Maria since 2009.
