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Funded

Protect Brava Island’s Last Stronghold of Biodiversity

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Project Overview

Extraction and development threaten marine and terrestrial species in Cabo Verde’s biodiversity hotspot.

  • Species at Risk

    Whale Shark (EN), Green Turtle (EN), Dragon Tree (EN), Loggerhead Turtle (VU), Cape Verde Petrel (NT), Cape Verde Shearwater (NT)

  • Carbon stored

    126,788 mT CO2e*

    *(metric tons of CO2 equivalents)
  • Partner

    Associação Projecto Vitó

  • 1,388,604 Proposed Acres Conserved by

    Designation

  • Project Cost: $269,256
Cabo Verde
Proposed Acres

1,388,604

Project Overview

Extraction and development threaten marine and terrestrial species in Cabo Verde’s biodiversity hotspot.

  • Species at Risk

    Whale Shark (EN), Green Turtle (EN), Dragon Tree (EN), Loggerhead Turtle (VU), Cape Verde Petrel (NT), Cape Verde Shearwater (NT)

  • Carbon stored

    126,788 mT CO2e*

    *(metric tons of CO2 equivalents)
  • Partner

    Associação Projecto Vitó

  • 1,388,604 Proposed Acres Conserved by

    Designation

  • Project Cost: £213,695
Cabo Verde
Proposed Acres

1,388,604

Highlights

  • Brava Island in Cabo Verde is home to remarkable biodiversity on land and in the ocean, but it is unprotected and vulnerable to numerous threats, including development, agriculture, and fire.
  • Rainforest Trust will support Associação Projecto Vitó in their work with the Cabo Verde government to establish Brava Island’s first network of protected areas, covering nearly 1.4 million acres in total.
  • Immediate and permanent legal protections will prohibit extractive and destructive activities and safeguard habitats for vulnerable sea turtles, seabirds, sharks, and more.

Cabo Verde is a global biodiversity hotspot, composed of 10 volcanic islands off the coast of West Africa. On Brava Island, the smallest and most remote island in the country, rocky slopes descend to a rugged ocean basin with massive seamounts and a vast array of marine life. Seabirds, sharks, rays, and five types of sea turtles rely on Brava Island’s habitats, along with hundreds of other species and many that exist nowhere else.

Brava Island is the only one of Cabo Verde’s islands that lacks legal protection, and its habitats and species face numerous threats. On land, these include urbanization, agricultural expansion, wood collection, and fires. Marine habitats and their species fall victim to additional dangers, like by-catch, plastic pollution, and offshore infrastructure development.

Header video: Endangered Whale Shark © BlackBoxGuild

Did you know?

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seabird species on Brava Island live nowhere else on Earth.

Explore Brava Island

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Endangered Whale Shark, by Jan Finsterbusch

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Cape Verde Petrel, by Jacob J Everitt

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Project landscape, by Associação Projecto Vitó

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Green Turtle, by Tory Kallman

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Cape Verde Shearwater, by neil bowman

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Project landscape, by Associação Projecto Vitó

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Vulnerable Loggerhead Turtle, by Maximillian cabinet

Permanent Protection for Land and Sea

Our project in Cabo Verde will support Associação Projecto Vitó in their work with the Cabo Verde government to establish Brava Island’s first network of protected areas. Together, four new designations will cover nearly 1.4 million acres of coastal and marine habitats.

  • Brava, Fogo, Rombo, and Cadamostro Marine Natural Park: 1,384,469 acres
  • Brava Natural Park: 3,465 acres
  • Bafador-Baca Natural Reserve: 404 acres
  • Tantum-Piram Natural Reserve: 266 acres

The Natural Reserves will provide the country’s highest and strictest level of permanent protection, prohibiting almost all extractive activities. The Natural Parks will create immediate, permanent legal protections that restrict or prohibit industrial fishing, destructive gear, mining, dredging, and habitat destruction.

A Sanctuary for Vulnerable Species

Five regionally important seabird species reside on Brava Island, including three that live nowhere else on Earth. The shorelines host nurseries for threatened sea turtles, and our partner has reported sightings of around 20 Loggerhead Turtle nests each year. Protection will also cover the Cadamostro Seamount, which rises from 4,600 feet below sea level and creates habitat for a complex web of marine life, from schools of fish that support local communities to migratory megafauna like Endangered Whale Sharks.

We Value Transparency

Conservation Action Fund
Conservation work is critical, challenging, and can be costly. We work hard to ensure we raise only the funds needed for each project. In the rare case we raise more money than needed or a project comes in under budget, excess monies will be transferred to the Conservation Action Fund. This fund supports our important conservation work throughout the tropics.

Project Modifications
Rainforest Trust conducts extensive research and due diligence on each of the projects that we support, so that once a project is offered for public support we believe it will succeed. We work closely with our project implementers, offer support, and regularly monitor their progress. Given the nature of the work, projects may not progress exactly as intended and may be unable to meet all objectives. To respond dynamically to the needs of our project implementers and the realities of the landscapes in which they operate, Rainforest Trust expressly reserves the right to modify a project as it deems necessary, provided that donor intent is honored by ensuring that that the original project objectives are diligently pursued and that project funds continue to benefit the landscape and species identified in the project overview. Project modifications that we may need to make in certain circumstances include the specific project implementer, the size of the landscape to be protected, the type of protection to be afforded to the landscape, and the development of sustainability mechanisms.