Photo credits: The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation
São Tomé and Príncipe, a small island country in Central Africa, is home to exceptional biodiversity and ecologically sensitive marine habitats. Its waters serve as breeding and feeding grounds for five threatened sea turtle species — hawksbill, olive ridley, green, leatherback and loggerhead — all of which are included on the IUCN Red List.
For generations, coastal communities on the island of São Tomé exploited turtles for consumption and trade in meat, eggs and shell-based handicrafts. Additional threats now include accidental bycatch in small-scale fishing, marine pollution, coastal urbanisation, erosion, illegal sand extraction and rapid, unplanned tourism development.
Programa Tatô was created in 1998 by ECOFAC, the European Union–funded Program for the Biodiversity and Ecosystems Conservation of Central Africa, with the purpose of protecting sea turtles. In 2002, its coordination was transferred to MARAPA, a newly established local NGO. For years, MARAPA coordinated the program with the support of national and international partners.
By 2018, the program had evolved into a permanent institution. With the encouragement of its technical and financial partners, the coordination team established the Association Programa Tatô, an international NGO, ensuring both autonomy and long-term sustainability while keeping the name already recognized by local communities, authorities and international networks.
Today, Programa Tatô employs more than 60 people, most from coastal communities, working in ecological monitoring, site protection, applied research, environmental education, sustainable ecotourism and marine biodiversity advocacy.
The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation supports these efforts to consolidate community-based conservation in São Tomé. The initiative aims not only to protect nesting and feeding grounds but also to improve living conditions for former poachers and traders and to foster a societal shift toward marine conservation.