Equipo Tora Carey: A Model for Community-Led Conservation
Stepping onto the boat in El Jobo, I might have been the one with the most formal training in marine biology, but I was not the expert here. The experts were Randal and Pirricho. They had grown up fishing in these waters, swimming in these waters, watching the wildlife, understanding the ebbs and flows of the natural cycles of this place in the way I understood traffic patterns on the streets around my house.
Randal and Pirricho are members of an NGO called Equipo Tora Carey, or ETC, that is composed of the local community in the area, scientists from national universities, and international advisors. ETC is a shining example of community-led conservation done right. They fundamentally control the decision making ways in which the organization interacts with the environment. What I mean is, scientists may approach ETC with the data needed and the protocol aspects that need to be followed for the science to be valid, and then the community retains the power to decide whether this is a project they are comfortable with, and if they are, they oversee and manage the collection of this data.
The result is a balance of power that does not automatically allow external forces to overrule or destroy the local establishment, while at the same time allowing the collective education of ETC to grow and expand with every collaboration.
I was one of these external scientists. I came to Costa Rica with ideas of how I thought my data collection would go: what days I would go out on the water, what time of day, what nights I would patrol the beach, how I would organize my trip. Instead, I explained the data I needed and the samples I needed to collect, and they told me the best way to do that. Needless to say, it was different from the plan I had, due to the unique behavior of turtles in the area. My project would not have worked without the knowledge of the researchers at ETC.
Who is Equipo Tora Carey
Equipo Tora Carey (ETC) began in 2014, when German marine biologist Maike Heidemeyer gave a talk about marine conservation near El Jobo, Costa Rica. After the presentation, a few local residents — including Ricardo Obando and siblings Randall and Kembly Mora — approached her. They were worried about the sea turtles in their area and asked for help to protect them.
They invited Maike to visit and told her about the many turtles they saw throughout the year. Maike taught them how to collect data. The team got to work right away. They patrolled the beaches, recorded turtle sightings, and learned to identify different species. They kept Maike updated with their findings. A few months later, their data showed something surprising: large numbers of turtles were visiting the beaches even outside of the usual nesting season.
Impressed by the data, Maike returned to El Jobo. Together with the locals, she helped create a plan for a community-based conservation project. In 2016, they officially founded Equipo Tora Carey — a team made up of local families, fishers, tourism operators, and scientists. The name combines the Spanish word Equipo (team) with Tora Carey, the local name for the endangered sea turtle they work to protect.
Since then, ETC has grown. They now research other local species like rays and parrots. Children in the village joined the effort through a group called the Environmental Protectors, helping with beach cleanups and monitoring. Tourists and students also come to learn, volunteer, and support the community by staying in local homes. From the beginning, ETC has combined local passion with science to protect nature and support the people of El Jobo.
As a community-based project, ETC believes conservation and local communities go hand in hand. You can’t protect nature without the people who live closest to it — and strong communities thrive when their natural environment is healthy. That’s why ETC works with the community, not without or against it. The goal is to empower local people — our most important resource — to help stop coastal and marine destruction.
What ETC Does
The work is built on three pillars: conservation, research, and education.
Conservation: The team patrols beaches every night to protect nesting turtles and their eggs from poaching. They also organize regular beach cleanups to keep the coast healthy and safe for wildlife.
Research: ETC collects valuable data. This helps the community understand the behavior of turtles and other marine animals so they can protect them more effectively.
Education: ETC teaches the next generation — especially local children — about the importance of ocean conservation. By raising awareness early, they hope to build long-term habits and lasting change.
All of this work is led by locals. They are the heart of Equipo Tora Carey. Together, they are creating a positive movement — one that brings people of all ages and backgrounds together to protect our oceans and their incredible wildlife.
Small non-profits in Costa Rica often face challenges like limited and inconsistent funding, bureaucratic red tape, and a heavy reliance on volunteers and tourism. Many operate with small teams, making it hard to scale or sustain programs, and struggle to communicate their impact to funders. In rural areas, rising costs, competition with tourism, and limited government support add pressure, while language and cultural barriers can make it tough to connect local efforts with global resources. Despite these hurdles, community-based NGOs remain essential to filling conservation gaps on the ground.
What Makes Them Different?
Equipo Tora Carey takes a bottom-up approach to conservation, with local residents leading the efforts rather than having solutions imposed from outside. This ensures that conservation is rooted in community priorities, knowledge, and long-term commitment. While the project benefits from external expertise and scientific support, these resources are used to strengthen—not replace—local leadership and decision-making. By integrating conservation with local livelihoods, such as eco-tourism, guided tours, and volunteer programs, ETC also creates economic incentives that make environmental protection both practical and sustainable for the community.
Unlike most conservation programs that are met with skepticism and resistance from locals, ETC was born out of community desires and interests. While this helps ensure its long-term success within the people who live there, the local basis of the organization means it does not have access to the same levels of private and public funding that USA based, or larger organizations do. Being based in the community, means that ETC may need to put extra effort into bringing in experts to inform on updates in protocols, standard practices, or updates in current scientific knowledge. Being a small local NGO means not having the funding to attend international conferences, and sometimes limited ability to engage with the global scientific community.
This model is important because it, at its core, does not rely on international scientists to be away from home invested in foreign research. ETC has taken the initiative and is able to continue the monitoring of their local wildlife, advocate for their essential natural resources, and better communicate the ecosystem services important to the community. When international collaborations do present themselves, ETC presents an established base on which to build. Further, the transient works done by academic institutions are continued on into the future, as opposed to many cases, where once a project is done, the research site loses its protection and monitoring.
I believe ETC can be an example for other programs going forward, and can be the goal when international researchers travel to work for us to find a way to support, initiate, or work into these bottom-up conservation models world-wide. We must play an active role in empowering the communities we work with, we do not always know what is best, we do not know more just because of our training, we have much to learn from these communities, and it is on us to take these steps.