The City Council of Dénia and the Costa Rica National Parks Foundation have today signed the ‘Alianza Tortuga’, an institutional cooperation agreement promoted by The NeverRest Project for the protection of sea turtles that are reaching our coasts due to climate change.
Dénia, March 10, 2026.- The environmental and technological engineering company The NeverRest Project has promoted the creation of the first institutional corridor between Spain and Costa Rica for the protection of sea turtles through the exchange of data and applied technology.
The mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, and the executive director of the Costa Rica National Parks Foundation, Madeleine Vargas, today signed ‘Alianza Tortuga’, an institutional cooperation agreement to protect sea turtles that reach our shores as a consequence of climate change. “A partnership between two places and two seas -the Mediterranean and the Caribbean- that share the same responsibility: protecting life,” emphasized the Councillor for Ecological Transition, Sandra Gertrúdix.
The NeverRest Project contributes methodology, data and innovation to the initiative, including the launch of Everdata/Site, a free and open digital monitoring window for environmental conservation projects. The CEO and founder of The NeverRest Project, Frédéric Kauffmann, highlighted that: “Sustainable tourism must evolve into regenerative tourism: measuring the visitor’s impact in real time, generating awareness and environmental education about their footprint, and allowing them to actively participate in its compensation, thus creating a new circular economy capable of developing and implementing conservation projects such as the protection of sea turtles.”
About ‘Alianza Tortuga’
Since the summer of 2023, specimens of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) have been arriving in Dénia to nest on its beaches, making it one of the Spanish municipalities with the highest number of recorded nestings.
Tortuguero National Park, in Costa Rica, is considered a sanctuary for turtle nesting, with around 430,000 specimens counted annually, mostly green turtles. ‘Alianza Tortuga’ connects Dénia with this global reference point, as noted by Gertrúdix.
From now on, Dénia and Tortuguero join forces around shared goals of environmental conservation, sustainable management of natural spaces and the promotion of responsible and regenerative tourism. More specifically, the partners aim to promote the systematic exchange of knowledge, experiences and best practices in the management of natural areas with high ecological value, collaborate in designing and implementing tourism models that minimize environmental impact in these ecosystems, and explore the application of technology to obtain rigorous scientific data on which decision-making can be based.
The expectations that Dénia has placed on ‘Alianza Tortuga’ are high, the mayor said, expressing hope that this collaboration “will mark a before and after in the management of turtle nesting on the beaches of Dénia”, and trusting that it will also “help involve the entire community in caring for and respecting such a rich natural ecosystem.”
Following the signing of the documents, a symbolic “fusion of sands” ceremony took place, bringing together sand from Punta del Raset beach in Dénia and Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica, followed by the release of two loggerhead turtles from the ARCA del Mar facility of the Oceanogràfic of Valencia at Punta Raset beach.
Thermal drones to monitor marine wildlife
The first action of ‘Turtle Alliance’ began yesterday Monday with the presentation of an R&D technological project based on thermal drones for cetacean monitoring and marine preservation, developed by The NeverRest Project together with the drone technology integrator Aerofor, and which could be operational by the end of the summer.
Since Sunday, the Aerofor team has carried out cetacean monitoring tests in the area using drones equipped with thermal cameras, as well as tests to locate illegal fishing activities in protected areas, and today they conducted monitoring of sea turtles.
The system is called EverData SeaGuard, a platform of continuous observation, artificial intelligence and drones designed to monitor biodiversity, detect and document illegal activities and prevent collisions between marine traffic and cetaceans and turtles.
All of this operates from an autonomous solar-powered vessel, equipped with an aerial drone and an underwater drone, radars, sonars, and the capacity to analyze, for example, seabed sand movement, monitor temperatures to study their changes, or map posidonia seagrass meadows.
These features make the system a useful and reliable tool for monitoring marine wildlife (movement of cetaceans and sea turtles), protecting posidonia meadows and controlling illegal fishing.
The mayor of Dénia Vicent Grimalt, the Director General of Fisheries Miguel Castell, the Councillor for Ecological Transition Sandra Gertrúdix, the Costa Rican delegation, the CEO and founder of The NeverRest Project, Frédéric Kauffmann, representatives of Marina el Portet and other guests attended the flight demonstration of the thermal drones: autonomous robotic units (they do not need to be manually operated by a pilot and recharge themselves by returning to their base station), equipped with powerful zoom and data intelligence capabilities.
About The NeverRest Project
The NeverRest Project is an environmental innovation technology corporation working to find balance between tourism, the environment, and local communities, scaling its experience from Everest into solutions for implementing regenerative tourism in other parts of the world, such as Costa Rica and Ghana.
One of The NeverRest Project’s pioneering solutions is EverData, a platform that for the first time compiles, analyzes, and visualizes essential data on environmental impact, waste management, and tourism activity, in addition to performing five-year forecasts of tourism and environmental evolution in specific areas. So far, EverData is already available for Nepal, Costa Rica’s national parks, Ghana, and from today Dénia as well.
Previously, The NeverRest Project also developed the first Sustainable Base Camp proposal for Everest, among other initiatives and campaigns from the summit of Everest to raise awareness about the need for a more balanced form of tourism that benefits travelers, local communities and their ecosystems.
With the support and collaboration of Ferrino, Garmin, Eurecat and Elisava School of Design and Engineering of Barcelona.
Also participating and collaborating in ‘Alianza Tortuga’ are Eucrante, Pòsit de Dénia, Marina el Portet, Baleària, Fundación Oceanogràfic and MR Hotels.