Remote Ecologist personnel are working across multiple organizations and sectors to deliver measurable conservation outcomes. Our rangers and restorers program is focused, for now, on supporting teams to help protect and replant/restore critically endangered species and ecosystems including tropical coral reefs, mangroves, coastal tropical forests, Kemp's ridley sea turtles, and Eastern Pacific leatherback sea turtles. The collaborative groups include the Laúd OPO leatherback network, Colombia-wide coral restoration programs, the Oceanic Society's SWOT grants program, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' SAFE programs, the binational Kemp's ridley sea turtle conservation program, and various universities and government natural resource agencies.

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Rangers and Restorers Are Critical to Protecting both Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems

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Ranger and restorer tasks vary from dismantling animal snares and destroying poacher camps to setting camera traps, patrolling sea turtle nesting beaches, transplanting corals, and recording animal tracks. To protect some of the planet’s most imperiled species, Remote Ecologist is collaborating with several partners to support patrols and restoration efforts. We help support activities such as ranger monitoring of sea turtle nesting beaches in Mexico, preservation of some of the planet's most biodiverse forests and coral reefs in Colombia, and protection of habitats writ large in Latin America.

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For sea turtle nesting sites, ranger patrols are critical to protecting egg-laying adults and nests from poaching. In northern Mexico, these programs were critical for protecting Kemp's ridley sea turtles and their nesting sites over the past 50 years, resulting in significant recovery of the species (it only lives in the Americas!). In supporting these efforts and networks, more adults and juveniles survive to contribute to species and population recovery.

If numbers of trained ranger teams were boosted and patrolling were more consistent, we would start to see ecosystem recovery, with predator populations rebounding and prey species fulfilling ecological niches. We would have sea turtles repopulating historical nesting beaches, and vibrant coral reef systems. And in rainforests, we’d have snare detection rates dropping to almost nil.

On average, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recommends a minimum of 1 ranger/25 km². The unfortunately reality is that the personnel in our study sites are generally far from these global guidelines.  For protecting some of our sites there is usually only a handful of rotating staff with the necessary resources and training to protect these ecosystems. 

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