2025 Wildlife Preservation Award

The Eco-Bahia Foundation has been recognized with the Wildlife Preservation Award at the Traveling For Happiness 2025 awards for its Sea Turtle Protection Program, a well-established initiative with more than two decades of experience that contributes directly to the regeneration and conservation of marine ecosystems in tourist destinations in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The project stands out for its ability to reduce human impact on sensitive environments and for its active contribution to the protection of endangered species, fully aligning with the principles of responsible and regenerative tourism.

This recognition highlights a model that integrates environmental conservation, education, and community participation, demonstrating that biodiversity protection can coexist with tourism development when applied from a responsible, scientific, and long-term perspective.

Marine conservation with real impact

The program focuses on protecting endangered species, such as the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) and the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), through a comprehensive approach that combines scientific monitoring, management of at-risk nests, beach protection, controlled release of hatchlings, and female tagging programs in collaboration with scientific institutions, government agencies, and NGOs. Throughout its history, the program has managed more than 18,000 nests and protected more than 1.7 million hatchlings, becoming a benchmark in marine conservation.

During 2024, it consolidated key results such as the birth of 198,705 hatchlings, the protection of hawksbill turtles, and the organization of the First National Workshop on Nesting, demonstrating that tourism development can coexist with biodiversity protection. These actions are carried out under protocols adapted to each beach, minimizing the impact of tourism and contributing to the restoration of coastal ecosystems.

This plan also has a strong educational and social component, promoting awareness and participation among local communities, collaborators, and tourists through training sessions, hatchling releases, and events such as the Sea Turtle Festival in Tulum. In this way, they manage to establish greater involvement along with an emotional and responsible connection to the natural environment.

Thanks to its strategic alliances with AERODOM and the Dominican Republic's Ministry of the Environment, and its replicable and sustainable nature, the program demonstrates that the preservation of fauna and flora can generate a positive environmental, social, and economic impact, ensuring the conservation of marine ecosystems and the well-being of the communities that depend on them.