Jasmine Volunteers with Project Biodiversity in Cape Verde

Thanks to the support of the Spirit of Trevithick Award, Jasmine recently traveled to Sal, Cape Verde, to volunteer with Project Biodiversity, an organisation running multiple conservation initiatives across the island, including work with birds, sharks, and turtles.

Jasmine tells us about her experience:

With the help of the grant, I recently got the opportunity to travel to Sal, Cape Verde islands to volunteer with Project Biodiversity. The organisation has multiple conservation projects across the island, including work with birds, sharks, and turtles. I was lucky enough to volunteer with the turtle project.

My work consisted of nightly patrols where I was walking around 15km up and down the beaches each night, stopping only to ensure female loggerhead turtles were able to safely nest and return to the ocean. My duties consisted of recording the location and number of eggs in each nest, relocating these to a safer place if needed, as well as identifying and logging different turtle tracks each night, sometimes reaching over 100 confusing tracks, I also assisted with the tagging and naming of the mother turtles.

My final week at the project took me to the hatchery, where during the day I worked face to face raising awareness of the project to visitors staying at the hotels, and of a night monitoring the relocated nests for hatching activity.

This experience was incredibly hard; sleeping on the sand with just a sheet in the open, scaring off stray dogs hunting turtles, and living with no shower or flushing toilet, but it was extremely rewarding and gave me valuable skills for working in conservation.

Applications for the next round of funding close on 1 March 2026, find out more and apply.