The Fundación Salvemos al Manatí de Costa Rica has produced two documents aimed to educate and inspire people living in manatee areas about the species’ unique character and the need to conserve it. First, Foundation members designed and published a comic book entitled Conociendo al manatí. This document is primary aimed to children older than eight years living in rural communities close to manatees, though it has also been well received by adults. The comic book deals with manatee biology, its main threats in the region and the need to conserve the species. It also talks about other singular or charismatic species (i.e. jaguar, tapir, harpy eagle, crocodile, white-lipped peccary, etc.), which share their habitat with manatees, and it also describes the most important ecosystems found within the species’ range. We are presently working on the comic translation to the Miskito language, to use it as a tool for outreach and educational in the Miskito region (Southeastern Honduras and Northeastern Nicaragua).

Comic book cover

Book cover

We have also produced an educational book entitled Los manatíes del río San Juan y los Canales de Tortuguero: ecología y conservación. This books reviews existing information about the ecology and conservation of manatees in the frontier region between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The first part should be of special interest for Spanish speaking readers because it includes what it is arguably the most complete review about manatee biology, ecology and folklore written in that language. We are presently working on the edition of a similar book that reviews the ecology and conservation status of the species in all Central America.

Another of our products has been a puppet theatre play about the natural history and conservation problems of local manatees and their habitat. M.Sc students from Universidad Nacional’s Wildlife Management Program played the first edition of this play at the community of Tortuguero in 1999. In 2002 we have carried out a much more comprehensive educational campaign in association with the staff of the Ministry of Environment’s Tortuguero Conservation Area. This educational campaign included the four main villages that lie adjacent to manatee areas in Northeastern Costa Rica. The campaign included : a new version of the theatre play acted by local youngsters, slide talks to 5th grade or older students, and 700 comic books for all attending children. We used standardized questionnaires in order to measure the real educational impact of such activities.

Besides the above activities carried out in Costa Rica, we have also supported an educational campaign for manatees in Guatemala by sending 350 comic books. During the next months we plan to implement similar education and outreach activities as those described above in coastal communities of Southern and Northern Nicaragua.