Wildlife Conservation Indonesia Project #53173

Save the Gili Turtles & Help to Build a Hatchery

by Yayasan Ekosistem Gili Indah (Gili Eco Trust)

Save the Gili Turtles & Help to Build a Hatchery

Project Report | Aug 11, 2025
We've rescued over 5,000 baby turtles with your help!

By Sian Williams | Project Leader

The Gili T Ranger Team

The 2025 turtle nesting season has been the busiest on record for Proyek Penyu — and the most challenging. For the first time, nearly all nesting turtles have been olive ridleys, a protected but less commonly sighted species on Gili Trawangan.

While our conservation and outreach activities are expanding and gaining traction fast, the increasing pressures from coastal development, erosion, and habitat degradation have pushed our team and resources to the limit.

Key Conservation Activities & Outreach Nest Monitoring & Protection

Daily sunrise beach surveys (28- 30 per month) are carried out by a team of trained island volunteers who live on Gili Trawangan.
Significant increase in nest relocations due to erosion, building sites, tree removal and late-night parties and beach activities
Only 1 nest was relocated last season (2024) for training purposes — this year we’ve had to relocate many nests, highlighting the rapid degradation of natural nesting areas
Frequent nest flooding occurred even in relocated sites due to rising tides and compacted sand
Several unrecorded hatching events indicate successful nesting but highlight a gap in monitoring coverage

Community Impact & Education

4 workshops with local businesses in June to promote turtle-friendly practices
1 community workshop in Gili Air, expanding our protocols to other parts of Gili Matra to collaborate.
Encouragingly, 2 beach bars rescued turtle hatchlings from the road when they got lost with too many floodlights, in sandboxes instead of water!! after learning about ethical turtle handling. Small but mighty win!!
A growing network of turtle-aware businesses is emerging, but continued education is vital. Repeating workshops with businesses from last year, and encouraging more this year.
We can start modifying the workshops to be more engaging for children's workshops. We will invite the local schools on Gili Trawangan to partake in the workshops, and then can welcome international group trips and kids groups that visit the island too.

Team Capacity & Equipment

New ranger uniforms and field gear were purchased in June to support our frontline turtle guardians. This gave them more authority and confidence to guide turtle releases with many tourists.
Ongoing training and capacity building for our all-female conservation team. Their presentational skills, organisational and data collection skills have all increased dramatically as we are learning and teaching on the job!

Urgent Needs

Designated nesting space on the beach to safely relocate and monitor nests
Flood-resistant relocation areas (e.g., raised sand plots or hatcheries)
Increased funding for nest protection equipment (fencing, cages, monitoring signs along with ranger tools, equipment and salaries for call-outs)
Sustainable support for expanding the ranger team to cover hatching events and nighttime patrols

Conclusion & Call to Action

While this season has proven that turtles still want to nest on Gili Trawangan, the lack of undisturbed beach space and growing pressures from unregulated coastal development are putting these efforts — and the turtles — at risk.

We are proud of what we’ve achieved with so little, but we need more space, more support, and more awareness to continue protecting Gili’s turtles into the future. Thank you for helping us to reach this far!

We welcome partnerships, donations, and collaborations from those who care about ethical tourism, endangered species protection, and grassroots conservation to help us further our progress to protect baby turtles and educate the local community!

Turtle Tourism! Guests can move from box to beach

Donations have paid for new ranger uniforms

Just June alone!

Positive moments with local community learning

We need a suitable incubation area ASAP

Links:

Proyek Penyu turtle instagram page

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Mar 18, 2025
An early start for nesting Gili turtles!

By Sian Williams | Project Leader

Nest verification training

Dear Supporters, Turtle nesting season has arrived earlier than expected, and our team has been working tirelessly to protect these endangered species.

Thanks to your support, we’ve made significant progress:

Our Turtle Rangers have already relocated two at-risk nests to safer locations while we await approval for an official hatchery site. There is less beach available for turtles to nest thanks to unsustainable beach development, abandoned boats on the beach and beach clubs leaving sunbeds out all night.

In the holy month of Ramadan, the Turtle Rangers have been hard at work in the evenings, taking care of reports of nesting turtles, and ensuring that nesting events prioritise the turtles safety rather than tourist interactions.

We’ve conducted two tracker training sessions and trained over 40 volunteers in turtle conservation efforts. This means we can start our tracking surveys much earlier this year and collect more valuable data to protect the beaches.

Nest protection cages have been upgraded with new signage to improve awareness and safeguarding. Hopefully now anyone walking past a new protection cage will want to learn more about the project and do more to help protect turtles when nesting

Data collection and reports are actively being compiled to strengthen our conservation strategies. Working alongside Gili stakeholders, we hope to advance and expand the projects of Proyek Penyu

We've been working hard to create closer collaborations with other local foundations in the Gilis, to share data and updates, and ensure that our projects and missions can complement each other. We are delighted to join forces with Gili Shark Conservation to continue to work on a data base identifying all of the Gili turtles.

We've successfully identified and recorded Gili's second Olive Ridley turtle! Although most of our nests in 2024 were positively identified as olive ridley hatchlings, we rarely get these turtle frequenting our snorkel and dive sites. Luckily, a tech diving crew informed us of this elusive encounter!

Our founder Sian has been honoured with an award from the Women Divers Hall of Fame, which will help us expand our educational outreach into local schools. Your contributions directly impact our ability to safeguard sea turtles and educate future generations.

Thank you for being part of this journey—we couldn’t do it without you!

Make sure to follow our socials to get up to date news about the GIli nesting turtles! And please share this report with your friends and family so more people can learn of our work.

Gili's second positive ID of an Olive Ridley male

New banners for the cages, waterproof and durable

Late night nest relocation after buka puasa

Hand-crochet keychains to raise money locally

Links:

Proyek Penyu turtle instagram page

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Nov 19, 2024
Shell-ebrating Progress & Planning for the Future

By Sian Williams | Project Leader

Turtle trackers lucky to witness the sunrise!

The end of the nesting season!

As we look back on the past quarter, Proyek Penyu has many milestones to shell-ebrate. We successfully concluded the nesting season at the end of September, only to be surprised by an additional turtle nest hatching on October 1st. This surprise extended the season and reminded us of the unpredictable yet incredible nature of conservation work in a changing global climate.

Throughout the season, we conducted 7 workshops with local businesses to raise awareness about turtle conservation. Encouraged by the positive response, we aim to double this number during next year’s nesting season, whilst modifying the training to make it suitable for kids for workshops in the local schools in Trawangan and GilI Air.

We also observed unrecorded nests hatching, revealing both a gap in data collection and a positive takeaway: some areas of the beach remain safe for turtles to nest and incubate their eggs without human interference. These findings highlight the importance of balancing protection efforts with the turtles’ instincts for survival.

Our team has grown in confidence when it comes to nest excavations, which occur 48 hours after initial hatching. This season, they successfully rescued several hatchlings that were too weak to dig themselves out. While rewarding, this delicate task underscores the importance of professional expertise to ensure the safety and success of our flippered friends.

What’s Next for Proyek Penyu

We are committed to enhancing our efforts and extending our impact. Our team of “turtle trainers” is preparing to improve monitoring techniques for the next nesting season, ensuring we are ready to protect every nest.

To reduce administrative costs, we are collaborating with dedicated volunteer developers to build a website. Additionally, we are redesigning our educational materials to make them more accessible to local communities, tourists, and digital audiences alike.

Networking remains a priority as we strengthen ties with international marine and wildlife experts. These relationships will help us create a robust emergency response network for any unforeseen situations.

Finally, we’ve taken a significant step by submitting a research proposal to Mataram University, aiming to deepen our understanding of sea turtle behaviour and conservation strategies.

Thank you!

This quarter has been turtley exhilarating, and we’re grateful for the ongoing support of our partners and community. With your help and generous donations, we’ll continue to make waves in turtle conservation and ensure a brighter future for these incredible creatures.

One of the green turtles safely released in Oct

Nest excvation to check the success of the nest

Volunteers now have a great uniform!

Links:

Helpful Turtle Conservation Flyers

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