Turtle Conservation Project, Rekawa, Sri Lanka - Early in 2009 I traveled to Sri Lanka to work with the Turtle Conservation Project (TCP), who established a women's textiles co-operative at Rekawa.  I traveled out from the UK with the Marine Conservation Society who are supported through the BBC wildlife fund. Our task was to work with the textile group there and develop a new range of  Turtle Trolleys and Turtle Totes.

Rekawa, a tiny rural village on the Southern coast of  Sri Lanka,  is an important nesting ground for five of the world's seven species of endangered marine turtle. These turtles and their habitats used to provide the villagers with an important part of their income yet the population of turtles is likely to have been destroyed if these practices continued.  Before the TCP arrived at Rekawa in 1993, all of the turtle eggs laid there were collected and sold for food by Rekawa village men. Village women earned additional income by harvesting the local coral reefs to burn for lime, which was then sold to the construction industry.

The TCP now employs former village egg collectors as nest protectors and supports a number of village collectives developing more sustainable sources of income for the project, including a small turtle-watch programme targeting tourists staying in local hotels.  However the effect of the tsunami in 2004 compounded by political disturbance in 2006 and 2007 has led to a crash in the numbers of tourists, so the success of the collective is vital to the income of the project and the villagers involved. The production of Turtle Bags' turtle trolley bags will provide important business for the village textile collective.

Beth

For more information visit the Turtle Conservation Project in Sri Lanka