Project Summary
Kalpitiya peninsular - Sri Lanka is rich in biodiversity with sea turtles, dolphins, whales, coral reefs, sea grasses & sea birds. Kalpitiya coral reef is home to 156 species of corals and 283 species of fish. The lagoon located other side of sea has largest mangrove coverage in Sri Lanka which about 327 km2 water surface and 25 small islands. Due to the fisheries activities turtle by-catch and several destructive things happening in the area. The project aims to conduct awareness programmes and field activities to minimize the destructions caused by community to the turtles & other coastal biodiversity in the target area.

Activities
1. Awareness
Awareness programmes will be conducted for fishermen & school children on sea turtle & coastal biodiversity conservation.
2.Field conservation activities
Field activities will keep the people actively involving conservation. So much of plastic wastes in Kalpitiya peninsular. Plastic bags, abandoned fishing nests & floating ghost nests are a big threat for marine ecosystem. So it is planning to conduct cleaning activities. Further we were experienced that the community members actively involving tree plantation activities. So tree planting activities such as mangrove re-plantation in the lagoon which indirectly benefitted for sea turtles as well as marine biodiversity.
3.Distribution of cloth bags -. So re-using of cloth bags will replace hundreds of plastic bags.
The plastic bags are (non-degradable shopping bags) big problem in Kalpitiya area & these bags washed to sea during the monsoon. So it is a major threat for many sea creatures including leatherback turtles. L turtles misidentifying floating shopping bags & swallow it as a jellyfish. According to the Science magazine (2015) Sri Lanka ranked in the fifth place among top countries which release “Plastic waste input from the land to the ocean”. China 8.82 million metric tons per year while Sri Lanka 1.59 mmt/year.