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Alliance for Tompotika Conservation

The Alliance for Tompotika Conservation Uses Powerful Posters to Save Turtles

The Alliance for Tompotika Conservation (AlTo) is dedicated to conserving the endangered species tropical rainforests and coral reefs surrounding Mt. Tompotika in Sulawesi, Indonesia, as well as promoting the self-sufficiency of local communities.

Its campaign to educate and empower over 3,000 local residents has received a huge boost with the help of printed handouts and posters created with Adobe products the organization received via the Adobe Donation Program on TechSoup. AlTo staff has brought a compelling interactive presentation to over 3,000 children and adults who have never heard how intact rain forests keep the Earth's climate stable and air and water clean, or how sea turtles face extinction due to poaching. Following the presentations, the Adobe-based outreach materials including notebooks, brochures, coloring sheets, and posters (all printed on 100% post-consumer-waste recycled paper) are distributed free of charge. They are highly valued for their beauty and educational value in this impoverished region.

AlTo's Conservation Awareness Campaign is popular with Tompotika villagers, teachers, and students. One day several of those who had participated in the campaign noticed human activity on an offshore island. With their new-found concern for turtle conservation, they took canoes to the island. They confronted a man who had captured 26 green turtles and was preparing to butcher them for market. The villagers protested, informing the man that sea turtles are protected and cited the Indonesian law as printed at the bottom of AlTo's sea turtle poster. The villagers sent a messenger on a motorbike three villages away to find a policeman to enforce the law and apprehend the poacher. The turtles were released, and the villagers returned to their village triumphant in their role as turtle protectors. All of this was due to AlTo's awareness campaign and the Adobe posters.