Grant: 18-032E
Project Title: Turtle Translations: Conservation Awareness in a Diverse Community
Project Manager: Teal Kawana
Organization: The Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade (Florida Government)
Grant Amount: $4,116.66
Completion Date: 2019-12-04
Summary: The Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade, Inc. (PFMD) in partnership with the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department (MDPROS) and its Miami-Dade County Sea Turtle Conservation Program (MDSTCP) will conduct the project to translate sea turtle conservation messaging into Spanish, Creole, French, Portuguese and Russian. The project objective is to broaden the outreach of sea turtle conservation awareness in the Miami-Dade community by translating educational materials and creating cautionary messaging for sea turtle nests to communicate with non-English speakers. Cautionary signage with the five translations of common languages found in Miami-Dade County will be created and posted on all sea turtle nests on beaches managed by MDSTCP staff. MDSTCP staff will additionally have a supply of translated brochures with them during nesting surveys, outreach events, and educational presentations. The project is expected to decrease the amount of nesting stake vandalisms and enhance access of sea turtle educational materials to people of diverse backgrounds.
Results: Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade (PFMD) worked with Haas Graphics to print the translated
cautionary signage graphic on polyethylene material. The cautionary signage graphic was printed and placed on every Miami-Dade County sea turtle nest throughout the entirety of the 2019 sea turtle nesting season (the first Leatherback nest was laid in April 2019), totaling to 566 nests with translated signage. The Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces (PROS) Communications Manager collaborated with the Miami-Dade County Central Communications Office (CC) to incorporate additional edits provided by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) for the English brochure into the translated brochures. All five translated brochures were reviewed by native speakers of each language. Additional collaboration was required with speakers to develop the most accurate messaging of conservation and scientific/technical concepts for each language, to avoid translation gaps. On June 14th, 2019 all printed translated brochures were received by the MDSTCP to utilize and collect data throughout the remainder of the 2019 sea turtle nesting season (October 30th). MDSTCP staff maintained a supply of all brochures while conducting nesting surveys and at all public educational presentations including hatchling releases. Although the pilot season of this project did not result in a decrease of nest stake vandalisms, as hypothesized, we believe continuous utilization of the signs will make residents and visitors more conscientious of nests. Regardless of the numbers, the MDSTCP staff found the brochures and nest signs extremely helpful this season, playing a significant role in spreading awareness and better communication with an audience they typically have not been able to provide outreach to.