This Academy event had two parts, both of which were designed to help understand how ecotourism can boost local communities and livelihoods while also respecting nature. This was done through understanding the effort people in Velas, India, have put into their turtle festival: an event that boosts the local economy without overstepping natural bounds.

We opened this event with a talk from Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra. They briefly told us their story, how they proposed the turtle festival as an alternative revenue source because they wanted to protect the turtles and their nests on the shore from poaching. First and foremost, they cared about getting started and protecting all the species of turtles in the area – even if that meant that a conservation NGO was working without an ecologist, knowing that all else would fall in place. And it did! The Velas turtle festival has been running for a few years now, allowing people to respectfully witness turtlings run to the shore! Ecotourism has sustained the village to such a degree that people are now offering birdwatching and other activities in the area.

The second part of the event was designed to help the attendees understand the thin balance between sustenance and overexploitation through a Serious Game. Elements of the Velas turtle festival (tourist operations representing the hubs run by the locals, beach disturbance and protected enclosures) were given table-top form. Our guests were invited to role-play as either families that needed to “survive” the rounds or the media that was keeping everyone up to date, and together they saw how mindful resource consumption and limitation on tourism can allow the area to prosper!