Sabine Schoppe who built a refuge for Palawan’s forest turtles has died

Sabine Schoppe, a German-born biologist who spent three decades in the Philippines, died Sept. 13 at 63, weeks after receiving the Behler Turtle Conservation Award, the field's top honor.

She organized the emergency response after officials confiscated more than 3,800 endangered Palawan forest turtles from a warehouse in 2015, building shelters and emergency ponds with students and visiting vets. More than 300 of the animals died in the following weeks despite the effort.

Schoppe co-founded the Katala Foundation, started its freshwater turtle and pangolin programs, and helped establish the first protected area for the species and one of Asia's few large-scale post-release monitoring programs.

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