MEMANTA has been the result of a long journey that started (2008) and ended (2015) in Costa Rica, passing through Malaysia, Cape Verde and other tropical destinations, when a young adult from Germany discovered her passion for sea turtle conservation and decided to make it her career path.
How it all started…
When Daniela met a like-minded individual from Nicaragua, she was ready to turn her long-cherished dream into reality – with the support of her local partner.
Just before, she had realized that it’s not so easy getting into an already-existing sea turtle project. As there seemed to be no fitting job for her, she simply created one by founding her own Nicaraguan company.
Daniela had seen many successful, but also failed projects along her way and participated in different conservation initiatives as a volunteer, intern or coordinator.
Embarking on this new journey called MEMANTA, she challenged herself to put some real conservation tourism in place, which goes beyond the ethics of ecotourism – while ecotourism aims to have a minimal impact on the environment, conservation tourism strives to have a net positive impact!
Over the years, she stopped counting the number of “lessons learned”. Whoah, who said it would be easy to live and work in paradise? As Daniela and her partner had grown apart over the years and couldn’t overcome the challenges together, it was time for a change…
So in 2024, MEMANTA was reborn – stronger than ever and determined to no longer please everyone… now we do things our way!
The MEMANTA TEAM
Hello world!
This is us. Sea turtle lovers. Nature enthusiasts. Dreamers. And yet ordinary people. We’re looking forward to meet each and every one of you. Let’s make this happen!
Daniela
- In charge of: General Management, Volunteers, Hatchery
- Here since the very beginning… founded the company, planned the constructions and set up everything
- What she loves: Sea Turtles, Nature, Love itself
- What she does best: Smiling, Staying busy, Cuddling cats, Getting sandy
- “Empress of MEMANTA”
Yoli
- In charge of: Kitchen
- Works with us since 2023 (became a shareholder in 2024)
- What she loves: Fashion and Cosmetics
- What she does best: Singing, Gossiping, Cycling through Venecia
- “Never leaves us hanging”
Osmar
- In charge of: General Maintenance
- Works with us since 2024 (he was kind of forced into it but enjoys it now)
- What he loves: His machete
- What he does best: Swinging his machete, Working with different tools, Relaxing in the hammock
- “The man for everything”
What do we do?
- We run a sea turtle hatchery to save eggs from poaching
- We take care of our beachfront property including the animals living on it
- We run educational awareness and involvement programs
Also, we try to live as sustainably as possible while staying realistic and at least a little bit comfortable as we find ourselves in a remote village with poor resources, poor education, poor infrastructure and a challenging climate.
All this while trying to prove to the world that conservation tourism can be a profitable alternative for local economies, property owners and conservationists.
We are still experimenting and learning in order to find the magic formula for the development of our future’s beachfront ecosystems. Our goal is to have tourism development and nature conservation coexist peacefully, because humanity won’t be able to live without one or the other.
Do you want to help us with that?
Leave your ideas, your ideologies, your craft, your optimism with us! In return, we’ll give you more than you will even notice in the first place. We’ll give you what we have been given when we started all those years ago just like you.
Still skeptical? We can provide some good reasons why you should come and stay with us! Learn about the things that make MEMANTA special @ 10 Reasons why
NEED SOME FACTS?
- Company name: MEMANTA S.A.
- Number of associates: 3
- Inauguration date: 26.05.2018
- Objectives: (1) Conservation tourism (2) Environmental protection (3) Sea turtle program (4) Outdoor activities
- Location: Poblado de Venecia, de la escuela 1km al este, 200m hacia el mar, Chinandega, Nicaragua
About seeing baby turtles @MEMANTA
We do not hold sea turtles for profit generation! Once the hatchlings emerge from the sand in the hatchery, we release them within a few minutes on the beach – this happens usually at dark. Sometimes, when they are overdue or struggle otherwise, we “help” them emerge from their nest which we do in the afternoons – that’s when the releases take place at sunset and we take lots of nice pictures.
Anyone who knows about the life cycle of sea turtles will understand that it is harmful to keep baby turtles for a few days just to wait for tourists to come by and see them! If you book a sea turtle tour in Nicaragua and they guarantee you to see baby turtles at a specific day and time, that’s probably what’s happening. They are doing business instead of conservation.
Babyturtles are designed for entering the sea right away, with all the energy they consumed from their egg yolk. They don’t eat during the first days and only find food further out in the ocean. So when you keep them and let them waste their energy before entering the waves, they are not fit enough to escape predators in the coastal waters.
‘Headstarting’ is the only acceptable way to keep turtles – in that case they are grown bigger in water tanks for several months or years until they reach a size where they are not longer prone to depredation.
When you headstart turtles, you need to give them space to swim and dive and should not hold them in tiny buckets. Also, we advocate to only do it with a few turtles at a time as the long-term effects of headstarting on the life cycle, survival and reproduction of sea turtles are not yet 100% certain. It’s kind of an experiment.
If you want to see baby turtles, the most ethical way is to spend a few nights at a sea turtle project. Usually they can give you approximate hatching dates and you can plan accordingly.
MEMANTA 