Through the efforts of tour guide services to visitors on Matura Beach, tagging of turtles, and patrolling the group has been able to reduce the percentage of poaching from 30 percent to zero.
Prior to the foundation of Nature Seekers, the killing of female leatherback turtles by poachers had become such a serious problem that in 1990 Matura Beach was declared a Prohibited Area under the Forest Act.
In order to find a long-term solution to this problem, the Wildlife Section of the Forestry Division worked together with the Matura community to establish a tour guide training program.
Although initially Nature Seekers operated purely on a volunteer basis, and had great difficulty in obtaining funds, they were later commissioned by the government to patrol the beach and to provide a mandatory tour guide service to visitors.
In addition to providing volunteers and funding for Nature Seekers, this project also helps create more global awareness of the endangered status of the leatherback turtles.
The organization manages one of 55 projects in Trinidad as part of this program, which involves reforestation and the development of ecotourism activities that have a low impact on the environment.
Nature Seekers manager Dennis Sammy also received the President's Hummingbird Award for conservation, which is a great honor in Trinidad and Tobago.