Supermodel Naomi Campbell has reportedly angered conservationists over plans for a hotel and casino development on a coastal sanctuary for turtles in Kenya.
According to the UK’s Times newspaper, Campbell and her former boyfriend Flavio Briatore are currently backing plans to build a six-star, 40-apartment casino, called the Billionaires Resort, in the resort town of Malindi, which lies on the Indian Ocean.
Protesters, however, have said the scheme will wreck years of work to save endangered marine life.
Three species of turtle - green, hawksbill and the olive ridley - come ashore in Malindi to nest and lay their eggs, while a further two species migrate through Kenyan waters en route from South Africa to the Maldives and Seychelles.
Upon hatching in the sands, baby turtles follow the moonlit sky to reach the ocean. However, they can be easily disorientated by artificial light and noise, and can walk away from the sea and perish.
“This would have a very negative effect on turtle nesting and destroy years of careful project work,” Athman Seif, director of the Malindi Marine Association, told the Times.
