Tourism is the largest industry in Mombasa’s northern coastal region of Watamu and the southern coastal region of Diani. But new hotels on the beach and their influx of tourists has negatively impacted the environment, with debris from fires and increased plastic waste left on the beach, noise and light pollution and through general disrespect for rules in place for marine protected areas.

Local Ocean Conservation (LOC) has been engaged in turtle protection on both beaches for a number of years, educating tourists and the local community in turtle protection awareness and mitigating poaching and human-wildlife conflict. This work has also widened out to include key stakeholders in the tourist industry to enable conservation-friendly tourism and improve the safety of the beach environment for nesting turtles.

TUI Turtle Aid Kenya helps to protect the turtle population on the north and south coast of Kenya by working closely with the local community through monitoring, relocation, education and community engagement. It also mitigates existing threats, such as the use of destructive fishing methods, poaching, plastic pollution and the risks associated with large-scale tourism to both destinations.