Covid19 restricts turtle conservation as Matura struggles to stay afloat

During turtle nesting season in any given year, conservation group Nature Seekers can generate at least $380,000 from turtle watching tours alone as visitors flock to Matura’s beaches to witness the nesting of leatherback turtles.

But for the second year in a row, this won’t be the case, due to covid19.

This means the group will be counting its financial losses for yet another year.

But this revenue loss doesn’t only jeopardise the group’s sea-turtle conservation work in Matura.

For starters, it continues to affect over 60 Matura residents who were once dependent on the group for employment.

And in other cases, it has resulted in the group having to make the difficult decision to stop some of its other environmental conservation work in the community.

Business Day recently spoke to Suzan Lakhan-Baptiste, who has been the group’s managing director for the past five years.

Responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the group, including staff management, Lakhan-Baptiste shared more about the dire financial situation the group is in due to covid19, and how this has affected the Matura community.

“Covid has been a rude awakening and has actually put a lot of nails in our coffin. Right now, there’s been a focus on the means to survive.

“If we continue like this, we’ll be just like Asa Wright Nature Centre,” said Lakhan-Baptiste, referring to the recent closure of the centre owing to its financial hardship.

While Nature Seekers is widely known for its sea-turtle conservation work, Lakhan-Baptiste said it also does other activities, including reforestation in Matura, tours to different attractions in the area and making craft items to sell to visitors.

But the financial constraints cause by covid19 have changed all this and reshaped the group’s dynamics.

Annually, the different services needed to maintain the group’s conservation work and operations are estimated to cost just over $1,000,000.

Before covid19, in addition to income generated from turtle watching tours, funds came from a paid volunteer programme the group offered to both local and foreign students.

The group also raised money from its tours and selling craft items to visitors who came for turtle-watching.

“We would normally raise about $380,000 in an entire turtle season.

"That money would usually help to run our office as well as pay our office staff, patrols, and guides. It would also pay our electricity bill, our internet and our vehicles would run on that money…everything.”

It’s no surprise that these streams of revenue are now unprofitable due to covid19.

“It has been very difficult for us, as Nature Seekers, to have our tour guides and reforestation workers drafted into any employment opportunities at present.

“Our craft workers are at home, and all our artisans... All of that is totally lost, because of the inability to have any turtle-watching activities.”

So the reforestation programme in Matura and craft making have stopped.

Not unexpectedly, covid19 hasn’t only reshaped the group’s financial dynamics but also Matura’s.

Since March 2020, the employment of 65 residents has been terminated because of the group’s financial situation. The residents left unemployed worked in reforestation efforts (31 residents), craft (seven), turtle-watching tours (22) and office administration work (five).

Lakhan-Baptiste has also been affected. Since last March, she has not received a salary.

“Our salaries (at Nature Seekers) are paid based on our activities and our ability to raise income.”

Additionally, she owns a guesthouse. But with no visitors, it hasn't brought in any income either. Her financial situation, like that of others in the community, is dire.

Since last year, she has struggled to make ends meet and to make payments on the loan she took to upgrade her guesthouse before covid19.

In spite of the economic adversity, those formerly employed with the group have been resourceful and have tried to diversify their revenue streams.

“A lot of them went into the agricultural sector, planting short-term crops, and some would have been employed by people who farm on a large scale, because of the skills they have acquired under the reforestation programme.

“We even have a group in Matura that cleans the land of private property-owners. Up to Sunday, they would cut and clean.

“Two of the workers actually opened this little food place, while there are a lot of vegetable stalls. I remember counting (the number of stalls). I have never seen so many little huts by the road in Matura.”

Lakhan-Baptiste said those unable to find alternative and sustainable ways of earning an income have now been left dependent on the State, given they’ve had to source social assistance like food cards.

The shutdown of turtle-watching "has really hit the community hard. It has brought back the community a couple decades to where we were in terms of the unemployment levels.”

Despite the inability to have tours and the resulting hardship, Lakhan-Baptiste is grateful the authorities have deemed daily turtle patrols an essential activity, which is crucial for the protection of the sea turtles nesting on the beaches in the area.

The group has been seeking support from different government agencies, but Lakhan-Baptiste said, “Every funding agency that we write to, that (covid19) is first priority, because health takes priority. But we understand that.”

Still, the group recently secured a small cash injection from the National Entrepreneurship Development Company Ltd (Nedco). The amount, she said, was little, more like a stipend, but she was still grateful.

And there’s a glimmer of hope; the group is expected to receive a donation of funds from Atlantic LNG.

The cash injections will be used to increase the number of beach patrols.

For now, Lakhan-Baptiste said it’s not a priority to get new equipment for the patrols, and the group will continue using the same equipment.

The tags the group uses to track the migratory movements of sea turtles are paid for by the Canadian Wildlife Services, as some aspects of the sea-turtle conservation work are supported by the Canadian government.

Lakhan-Baptiste is also thankful for the on-the-job (OJT) trainees who have helped with the group’s operations for several years.

Now, more than ever, she said their presence has provided a sense of relief when it comes to the administrative burdens the group has been experienced now that it no longer has staff of their own.

The OJTs help with things like entering data collected on turtle patrols, and administrative work in the office.

To no avail, Lakhan-Baptiste said, the group has been seeking grant funding from the Green Fund, which she noted could be helpful.

“More than five years ago, we had written a Green Fund proposal, because conservation, science and research are highly expensive. We did submit a proposal to be able to do this conservation work. But that has had its own trials and ups and downs because of the change of government and change of ministers.

“Every time we thought we had our foot in the door, a new system came.”

In the face of financial adversity, Lakhan-Baptiste said the group will continue to contribute to protecting natural resources in Matura.

While its short-term profitability has been diminished due to covid19, she knows that work, especially protecting the nesting turtles and nesting beaches, will be vital to economic growth in the community in the long term, especially after covid19.

“We place satellite tracking devices on turtles to learn about their migratory routes and patterns.The data is very important so we can make statements and add to the IUCN’s (International Union for Conservation of Nature) status on sea turtles.

“And without that data, it will be a terrible disadvantage for Trinidad, being the second-largest nesting population in the world for leatherback turtles.”

For now, the group members continue their sacrifice. But that doesn’t mean those sacrifices are sustainable in the long run.

While Nature Seekers maintain their crucial sea turtle conservation work, the ending of their reforestation programme in Matura is a sign of what may come for other aspects of the conservation work if they don’t find a sustainable solution to their current economic situation and aren’t adequately supported.

“We’re barely covering the length of the Matura beaches (for patrols). We are working diligently; we are out there working long hours to ensure what we started more than 30 years ago continues.

“Our presence on the beaches of Matura is very critical to the survival of the turtle species.

“We, as an organisation, did not wait to have a full salary or anything," explained Lakhan-Baptiste. "But what we started all these many years ago, based on volunteerism, we do not want it to be reversed. We don’t want that we cannot make significant contributions to the status of these endangered species.

“We want to be able to do what we do best to work along with the State in this trying time of covid19.”

If you are interested in supporting the conservation work of Nature Seekers, in any way, you can contact them via the group’s Facebook page (Nature Seekers), call 223-5713 or visit their website at www.natureseekers.org