Well done TCP, in fact very well done!

NIMASHI Amaleeta

CONSERVATION: As far as 'being convinced' of something is concerned, I have come to realize, that quantifiable information carries a greater merit over qualitative information in convincing the subject.

Once while interviewing Tushan Kapurusingha, the project leader and the committee chairman of the Turtle Conservation Project, Sri Lanka (TCP), I was quite intrigued to hear him straighten out facts in the following fashion.

"Well", he said, "you are asking me whether the TCP is self-sustainable currently. Actually, I am unable to give you a clear cut 'yes' or 'no' answer, but however, I can put it this way."

"Now, coming to think of it, about 800 turtles visit the Rekawa beach annually. And, each turtle lays about 120 eggs in a single visit. Then again, generally, each of these turtles visits the beach 5 to 6 every fortnight to lay eggs.

Right? Now interestingly, if not for the TCP, in all likelihood all those turtles would have been killed for their meat, and every single egg would have been poached. To be truthful, that was the common practice in Rekawa prior to the project.

All were killed and all the eggs were poached!" "I admit that the TCP isn't entirely self-sustainable as yet today. We are still unable to run the project on our own and we have to depend on funds of the donor agents. Still, taking into consideration the above facts, I contend the TCP is strategic, powerful and meritorious."

I agreed. The TCP - funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Global Environment Facility (GEF), as a small grants programme - which also happens to be a Community Based Conservation (CBC) project, is one of the most strategic and meritorious conservation schemes operating in Sri Lanka.

In 1993, prompted by a request from the British Charity "Care for the Wild", the TCP was established as an NGO in Sri Lanka. Its pioneers included Tushan Kapurusingha, Rohan Coorey, plus a few experts from Germany, America, England and South Africa.

Sri Lanka is a major breeding ground for marine turtles, while the South-Western coast is of particular importance in that sense. Five of the known species - which are all endangered and one of them being critically endangered - frequently visit the shores of Sri Lanka.

Also it is a known fact that in Sri Lanka, killing turtles for meat and poaching their eggs has long been a common practice. Upon its commencement in 1993, the TCP patrolled the beaches of the island and identified potent turtle breeding sites.

Initially, four such sites, viz., Yala, Bundala, Kosgoda and Rekawa were recognized.Commenting on their status, Kapurusingha said, "out of the four, Yala and Bundala, although not completely safe were more or less alright, for they were located within National Parks.

In Kosgoda, there were hatcheries, which in turn alluded at the fact that not all turtles over there were doomed to die." (Lest the lay person is interested- all turtle hatcheries in Sri Lanka are illicit! Although operated under the label of 'conservation', the unintended damage they cause is very much greater than the intended conservation.) "But in Rekawa you know," he continued "the magnitude of destruction was simply bewildering! Rekawa - a site in the Southern coast - was the most frequently visited breeding site by the turtles, and on the other hand, virtually every single egg laid on that beach was poached! Besides, turtles were killed on a large scale for meat, and yet another respectable proportion of live ones were transported to Jaffna in lorries, where they were killed for meat!"

In the 70's, the old resident folk claim to have counted as many as 40 turtles in a single night on the Rekawa beach, but now, Kapurusingha told, the highest number he counted in a single night was 13, and that was also in the early 90's.

Rekawa is a typical fishing village, with a majority of it being destitute and uneducated. Given that situation, the abundance of turtles in the Rekawa beach may have served as quick and easy means of providing food and livelihood for the particular community. Hence, in such a vein, habituating the practices of killing turtles and poaching their eggs, is only too probable.

However on the one hand, conservation of marine turtles is imperative, since all of them are listed as endangered. On the other hand, ruling out the threats and detriments posed by the community to the turtles is imperative to attain sustainable conservation. Of course ruling out the unbecoming practices entrenched within the community was easily said than done.

For instance, if a typical move of prosecuting the wrongdoers, then fining or imprisoning them was adopted, it would have resulted in the shattering of so many livelihoods and the collapse of the social structure of many a families. That in turn would have created unrest in the community.

Therefore, neatly pondering the prevailing circumstances, the TCP voluntary group approached this particular group in Rekawa from a different facet. Theoretically, this 'different' yet comprehensive approach to conservation is referred to as Community Based Conservation (CBC).

Kapurusingha narrated quite an intriguing rattan - as to how the TCP voluntary group managed to approach the village community in Rekawa, and thereby slowly persuaded them to dispense with the illicit practices and pattern after acceptable alternatives. Initially, the TCP voluntary group appealed to the community by organizing English classes free of charge.

This initiative was applauded by many, for otherwise they would have travelled all the way from Tangalle to Rekawa for English-tuition. "We catered to different target groups in different ways. For instance, we didn't try to teach sophisticated spoken English and grammar to the elderly folk residing on the beach.

We taught them how to identify a turtle and explain its biology and ecology in simple English to visitors, thereby they could interact with visitors, particularly the foreigners, and earn a living. We taught English in different modes to the police force, students, teachers and parents," he explained.

Further, the voluntary group went on to make available the opportunity of viewing popular movies like Jurassic Park, Lake Placid, Hindi movies plus animal documentaries via multimedia projectors. Needless to mention however, this move proved to be quite appealing to the community.

The TCP received its first funding in 1995 from the NORAD. This money was allocated to three tasks. The first was to promote in-situ nest protection and research on turtles. The research programmes were done in collaboration with the Universities of Ruhuna and Peradeniya.

The second task was to train 20 youths in environmental education over a period of six months. Subsequently, these youth were used to promote environmental education within the community and also to amp the rural geography of the village, which in turn was important for designing projects.

A typical map elaborately illustrated sites of a variety of features including the localities of temples, schools, hospitals, adequate and inadequate sewage systems and even the occupational distribution and gender distribution. The third task was to conduct a series of lectures in schools dispersed along the coastal belt to promote awareness.

"However," Kapurusingha said, "it wasn't always easy to interact with the community. So many mishaps occurred due to their attitudes low levels of awareness and other vested interests. In once instance I remember, there was a man who vehemently protested at paying the montessori teacher and insisted that we distribute that money among the beach folk instead.

But the bottom line is that even his kid attended that particular montessori funded by the TCP! That's their nature and attitude."

He showed me a photo of a man, all in smiles, holding a hatchling. "This man," he said, "had being poaching eggs all his life. That was his livelihood. And this was the first time he had held a hatchling, after SEVERAL DECADES! Well, how do you like that?"

Well, that was truly amazing, I had to concede. "Initially we didn't have proper places to even sleep. We slept on the beaches and in cow sheds. Even the foreign experts in our team happily entertained such 'options'.

That statement, I believe explains the genuine effort they pooled in to win over the community. Nevertheless, their painstaking efforts did pay off too. The majority of the people extended their support to conserve the turtles. No longer were they killed ruthlessly or their eggs poached.

The TCP was operating on a sustainable basis, until the Tsunami turned everything topsy-turvy in December 2006. "Now what's the status of the project?" I inquired. And quite logically he responded, "If our starting point was 'A' and the goal of empowering the community to conserve the turtles was 'Z', now we are some where in between. Before the Tsunami we were close to 'Z'. But now we are more distant from 'Z'.

Still however, we are recovering and going on. We are determined to go ahead. Today the community is somewhat struggling to attain self-sustainability. We are still relying on donor funds.

Our aim is to attain self-sustainability, i.e., to make the community function as an independent unit in the society, while at the same time making them device their own strategies to conserve the turtles, who happen to be an integral component of their immediate environment. So it is a Community Based Conservation Project," he concluded.

And it's one of the best CBC projects I had ever heard of. In fact, it is one among the best ten in the world! Therefore, realizing its potential in terms of promoting awareness and education of endangered species, the TCP, Sri Lanka has been selected to be featured as an animal documentary film under 'Animal Ark', which is a major BBC TV wildlife series.

This programme targets an audience of five million in UK alone, and millions more globally. Of course it is explicitly apparent that the Turtle Conservation Project has reached exceptional heights. - Locally and globally. It has many laudable reasons to go ahead. But personally, what struck me most was just two facts Kapurusingha pointed out.

One being that, the TCP's systematical conversion of once egg poachers into nest protectors and tour guides, for it demonstrated the powerful force a CBC project could effectuate in order to change long entrenched attitudes and practices for the well-being of the community.

The other fact is, as he put it, "if not for the TCP we will be loosing so and so...", for that statement clarifies the core-most aspect, as to why the project should be there in the first place. In that sense I concede (or for that matter anybody else too would concede, I believe) that the TCP has done well. In fact it has done very well!

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