CURMA’s field specialist Karlo Salazar, 19, checks the tagging of a mother turtle before it goes back to the sea, at Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines, December 21, 2022. Set up in 2009, CURMA or Coastal Underwater Resource Management Actions, is leading the conservations programme around La Union beaches and has turned sea turtle poachers into its allies by offering them incentives and training, allowing it to save thousands of turtles and their eggs. “We talked to the poachers, and it turns out…(poaching) was just another means for them to earn a living,” said Carlos Tamayo, 44, the operations director. “They had no choice.” REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez
