<p>In the 1990s and early 2000s, if a leatherback turtle crawled onto a beach on Buru Island in eastern Indonesia and buried a clutch of eggs in the sand, those eggs had a 94% chance of being dug up and sold before they could hatch. The turtles themselves were sometimes killed for meat. The population of Pacific leatherbacks — already one of the most endangered sea turtle populations on Earth — was in freefall.</p>
<p>Today, that number is zero. On Buru Island, leatherback egg poaching has effectively stopped.</p>
<h2>The World's Largest Leatherbacks, Nearly Gone</h2>
<p>Leatherback sea turtles are the largest turtles alive. They can reach 2 metres in length and weigh up to 900 kilograms. They cross entire oceans. They have been on Earth for more than 100 million years. The Indo-Pacific population — which nests primarily in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea — has declined by more than 80% since the 1980s due to egg harvesting, incidental capture in fishing gear, and the loss of nesting beaches.</p>
<p>Buru Island hosts Indonesia's second-largest leatherback nesting beach. At its worst, it was also one of the most heavily poached.</p>
<h2>How It Turned Around</h2>
<p>The change didn't come from enforcement. It came from the community itself.</p>
<p>Starting in the mid-2010s, conservation organisations working with WWF Indonesia, NOAA, and local partners began engaging directly with the coastal villagers whose livelihoods had long included harvesting turtle eggs. The work was slow — building relationships, understanding economic pressures, finding alternatives, and helping villages develop their own conservation governance.</p>
<p>Village leaders enacted local laws protecting turtle nests and nesting females. Community-based monitoring groups (Pokmaswas) were formed, conducting nightly patrols during nesting season. Villagers who had been egg collectors became nest monitors and turtle protectors — a shift in identity, not just behaviour.</p>
<p>The results were dramatic. On Buru and neighbouring Kei Islands, egg poaching fell to less than 1%. The direct killing of adult leatherbacks declined by 84% since 2017. And on Buru specifically, what had been a 94% poaching rate collapsed to zero.</p>
<h2>Official Protection</h2>
<p>In November 2025, the Indonesian government recognised what the community had built. The Buru Island Waters were officially designated as a Conservation Area — more than 57,000 hectares of marine habitat formally protected to secure the leatherback turtle's nesting grounds and feeding areas.</p>
<p>In 2024, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries had already established 5.5 million hectares of sea turtle habitat as conservation areas nationwide, reflecting a broader policy shift toward recognising that community-based conservation is not just a supplement to formal protection, but often its most effective foundation.</p>
<h2>What This Means for Pacific Leatherbacks</h2>
<p>The Pacific leatherback is still critically endangered. The population is a fraction of what it was forty years ago, and recovery is measured in decades, not years. But Buru Island demonstrates something important: that even in places where poaching was near-total, where turtles were being eaten and sold openly, the trajectory can reverse completely — when communities are supported, respected, and given real ownership over the outcome.</p>
<p>The eggs that were once destined to become someone's breakfast are now hatching. The tiny leatherbacks are making their way to the ocean. And the people on Buru Island are watching over them.</p>
<p><em>Sources: NOAA Fisheries (Indo-Pacific Leatherback Recovery Program); WWF Indonesia; EOCA Conservation (Saving Leatherbacks project); Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries; Buru Island Conservation Area designation, November 2025; Whitley Award citation (leatherback programme); WWF Conservation Highlights 2025</em></p>
