Mission:
Our mission is to sustainably preserve and conserve Ghana’s sea turtles by utilizing a community-based approach.
Vision:
Our vision is a world where marine wildlife and people in coastal communities are thriving together.
There is no Planet B!
We all have a responsibility to protect our environment, its natural resources and, where possible, to repair damage and reverse trends. Sea turtle conservation is an important part of environmental protection because of the key role they play in maintaining healthy ecosystems on land and in the ocean.
Turtle Up is about conservation, education, and community transformation. Our work is focused on conserving and protecting sea turtles in Ghana. When under-resourced Ghanaian community members do not have enough to eat because there are fewer fish to catch due to pollution, or farmers do not reap what they used to because of global warming, community members are forced to find other ways to survive, e.g., poaching turtles or their eggs.
At the heart of our mission, vision, and daily work are the 3Ps: Planet, people, and profit (in this case excess income because we are a non-profit organization (501©3). We are committed to re-invest our excess income to sea turtle conservation and the local coastal communities. We believe that when people are educated about humankind’s impact on the environment and they are given steady jobs and incomes, they will thrive, thus breaking the cycle of material poverty.
The framework for our work is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). Our signature pedagogy is fair trade learning which includes collaboration at all stages of our work and a community approach to conservation, as well as responsible travel and consumerism. At Turtle Up, we value: 1) transparency, 2) respect for self, others, the environment, and the knowledge of the communities with whom we partner; 3) collaboration; 4) integrity; 5) sustainability; and 6) equity & inclusion.
Turtle Up’s work positively impacts all the SDGs directly or indirectly.
