During the decades of the 1970’s and 1980’s, the high slaughter rates of egg-bearing females created sufficient national concern to designate the nesting beach a Prohibited Area under the Forest Act (chap 66:01) in 1990 from 1st March to 31st August. As a result, the Wildlife Section of the Forestry Division engaged the Matura community in consultation to find a solution to this national problem.

This integrated approach taken by the Wildlife Section of the Forestry Division and the community prompted a tour guide-training course which created awareness among community participants of the natural environment and the need to use it wisely for the benefit of the community. It is from this training course the participants decided to stay together to form a nature-based group. This group was called Nature Seekers.

Initially the majority of the community rejected this conservation strategy as some villagers believed that the prohibition of the beach would curb all their activities with the use of the beach. The Forestry Division later made the beach accessible to villagers with the acquisition of a free permit.

Nature Seekers was now trusted with the responsibility to provide regular patrols on the beach to protect the turtles and to ensure they nest successfully. When this project began in 1990 there was no monetary gain and members of Nature Seekers functioned on a voluntary basis. In the early years, it was difficult for the organization to obtain any kind of funding for the project as many people saw Nature Seekers as a project that would never succeed. It took almost three (3) years for visitors to adapt to the change and get use to our tour guide services. This was the time when Nature Seekers fundraising effort started developing. The government was so motivated by the efforts by the community, they commissioned the group members to perform beach patrols and to provide a tour guide service to visitors who purchased permits to visit Matura Beach during the nesting season.

During the first four (4) year of the project members of Nature Seekers walked the Orosco road (3km) every night to get to the beach from the community before proceeding to patrol the 8km long beach. Some nights we were lucky to get a ride out with the visitors. Other nights, visitors were so angry with us as they were not able to ride the turtle or even use the lights when they wanted too. At the end of the forth year Nature Seekers raised enough funds to purchase a vehicle to get to and from the beach.

Over the years this project demanded a tremendous commitment from Nature Seekers team and it needed an all night, every night attention for six (6) months every year for the last 20+ years. During this time the activities of Nature Seekers attracted and transformed eight (8) poachers and children of poachers into conservationist and to our surprise they became the strongest conservation advocates of the team. They are willing to go out on patrols and conduct tours any time they are called upon.

Today Nature Seekers is proud that the management of this project is so unique that it supports and encourages the community in the decision making process. It allows the community based organization to decide what should happen in the community regarding the protection of the natural resources with the technical advice & guidance from the Forestry Division and other stakeholders. This involvement developed the initiatives of Nature Seekers to work towards the protection and conservation of the leatherback turtles and at the same time reduced the slaughtering of turtles from 30% to zero. When all other attempts failed Nature Seekers braved the opportunity that seemed pointless in the eyes of so many and developed strategies as they learned.

This could not have happened without the countless number of voluntary hours combined with the commitment and dedication of the members.