The TCP was founded in 1994 by current Project Leader Thushan Kapurusinghe with MCS's Peter Richardson and Sue Ranger. Since then the TCP has developed a wide range of community-based conservation, research and education projects that protect marine turtles and their nesting beaches, as well mangrove forests and other coastal ecosystems at several sites around Sri Lanka. After the December 2004 tsunami, the TCP widened its remit even further by distributing aid and establishing recovery projects at their Kosgoda and Rekawa project sites.
Through funds raised by Adopt-a-Turtle, MCS has supported the TCP with two small grants, while MCS turtle adopters and members responded generously to a special MCS tsunami appeal by raising a staggering £10,000 for the TCP's tsunami recovery work.
To find out more about the TCP's work in Sri Lanka, or to volunteer in one of their projects, click here.
Meanwhile, the images below illustrate some of the TCP's current work.
TCP research officers measure a female olive ridley nesting on Rekawa beach.
TCP Leader Thushan Kapurusinghe hands out posters to pupils at a Montessori School supported by the TCP at Kandakuliya, a fishing village in North West Sri Lanka and one of the TCP's key sites.
Mangrove stands planted by Kandakuliya community members as part of the TCP's mangrove rehabilitation project.
A boat supplied by the TCP to a Kandakuliya villager in return for help with the TCP mangrove rehabilitation programme.
Tourists are carefully shown a green turtle on Kosgoda beach after she had nested. The eggs from this nest were relocated to the back of the beach because this turtle nested too close to the water line.
A TCP research officer and nest protector measure a female green turtle nesting at the TCP project site at Kosgoda.
