Kuna Yala has the largest known leatherback turtle nesting grounds

nature

Nesting leatherback turtle. Photo by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Large leatherback turtle nesting
area found in Kuna Yala

Ever since the aboriginal inhabitants of an island in the Bahamas discovered Christopher Columbus's men on their beach, the notion of who discovered what has been a bone of contention between Spaniards and the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Now a new chapter is being written in the argument --- most probably a less tragic one.

A team of Spanish researchers documenting the world's leatherback turtle population and its nesting areas found some 6,000 nests on Armila Beach in Kuna Yala, the largest leatherback nesting area now known to scientific literature. But the scientists, from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), also discovered that the nesting area was, unbeknownst to foreigners or to the Panamanian national government, being protected by local Kuna authorities, who enforce strict conservation measures that go back several generations at least.

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