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KUDU LETTER
N°3 September 2000
KUDU
Dear friends,
In this 3rd issue of the Kudu letter, we send you the latest or nearly latest news
from our projects in west Africa. We know that some of you haven’t got our first and
second issue but what can be done when e-mail or fax copies cannot be delivered ?
Some African countries are not very easy to reach by telephone and we’ ll probably
have to try to reach you by post only. We find it encouraging that experts in marine
turtles outside the USA, Europe and the Mediterranean want to be informed about
our activities and to receive the Kudu letter.
The Editorial Committee
The 20th Annual Symposium on the Biology and Conservation
of Marine turtles
February 29 – March 4, 2000
Orlando, Florida (USA)
This year’s symposium has been a success with about 800 participants; Luis
Felipe Lopez Jurado and a few of his students (Canary Islands, Cape Verde),
Thomas Dellinger (Madeira), Josea Dossou-Bodjrenou(Benin),represented with me
our African cooperation.
At the meeting on the conservation and management programmes, Josea made
a much-appreciated oral presentation entitled « An update on the conservation of
marine turtles in Benin, West Africa ». The team of the university of the Canary
Islands presented two posters : Biology of the reproduction of the loggerhead on the
island of Boavista (Cape verde, West africa) : incubation period and hatching
success; movements of the loggerhead around the Canary Islands (N.E. Atlantic).
With Ann Meylan (Florida Marine Research Institute) and Manjula Tiwari
(Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research) I presented an inventory of the
abundance of Eretmochelys imbricata in West Africa, and I also presented with
Manjula a brief survey of the regional coordination along the atlantic coast of West
Africa and the following resolution which was unanimously approved.
Jacques Fretey
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Symposium Resolution 2000-11
approved by the Members on the 3rd March 2000
RÉSOLUTION FOR CONSERVATION OF MARINE TURTLES ALONG THE
ATLANTIC COAST OF WEST AFRICA
AWARE that the populations of marine turtles frequenting the territorial
waters and beaches of the Atlantic coast of Africa, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the
Cape of Good Hope, including Macronesia, are seriously threatened;
ACKNOWLEDGING the responsibility of the States for the conservation and
wise management of marine turtle populations along the Atlantic coast of Africa;
CONCERNED by the harm caused to marine turtle populations along the coast
of West Africa by the destruction of marine habitats, industrial fishing activities,
trade, and other man-induced threats;
The members of the 20 th Annual Symposium on the Biology and Conservation
of Marine Turtles hereby resolve to:
ENCOURAGE the concerned States to continue their efforts to conserve marine
turtles along the Atlantic coast of West Africa and to quickly sign the Memorandum
of Abidjan proposed by the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species in May, 1999 in
Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
*******
During the French symposium organised last June 29th by the French
committee of the IUCN, the French members adopted a resolution which was sent
to the International headquarters of the IUCN in order to be presented and
approved by the 2nd World symposium on the conservation to be held Oct-4-11,
2000 in Amman, Jordan. The French committee of the IUCN thus hopes to continue
promoting on the international scene the memorandum of Abidjan and the
conservation of marine turtles in west Africa.
Conservation of marine turtles along the atlantic coast of Africa
MENTIONING that the six species of marine turtles frequenting the Atlantic
coast of Africa, from the strait of Gibraltar to the Cape of good hope, including
Macronesia, are all on the list of threatened animal species ;
MENTIONING TOO that marine turtles are listed in Annex 1 of the Convention
on the International Trade of Endangered wild Species of fauna and flora (CITES),
as well as in annexes 1 and 2 of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory
wild animal Species (CMS);
DEEPLY CONCERNED by the numerous threats to marine turtles all along
their life cycle, such as the destruction and pollution of marine and coastal
habitats, the urbanisation of the littoral, industrial fishing activities, irrational
exploitation and international trade;
ACKNOWLEDGING the shared responsibility of the states for the conservation
of marine turtle populations along the Atlantic coast of Africa ;
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AWARE that concerted and coordinated measures have to be immediately
taken to cope with the threats to existing populations of marine turtles ;
GREETING WITH SATISFACTION the agreement memorandum proposed by
the CMS on the Conservation of marine turtles along the Atlantic coast of Africa,
signed by 17 states at the Abidjan (Ivory Coast) international conference of may 2529,1999, jointly organised by the Ivory and French governments and the French
committee of the IUCN ;
CONGRATULATING the governments of Benin, Congo, The Republican
Democracy of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Nigeria and
Togo on signing this Agreement Memorandum ;
NOTING the 2000-11 resolution approved at the 20th Annual Symposium on
the biology and conservation of marine turtles of Feb.29 – March 3, 2000 in
Orlando, Florida, USA ;
The French symposium on conservation held in Paris on June 29th, 2000,
proposes the following resolution to the Second world Convention of the
IUCN :
INVITES the states along the Atlantic coast of Africa to continue their efforts to
protect marine turtles and encourages the governments of Angola, ,Cameroon, Cape
Verde, Ivory Coast, Spain (Canary Islands), Liberia, Morocco, Namibia, Portugal
(Azores and Madeira), The United kingdom (St Helens), Sao Tome and Principe,
Senegal, Sierra Leone and South Africa to quickly sign the Agreement memorandum
proposed by the CMS ;
INVITES the other states to join in and support this international effort,
particularly by limiting and modifying their activities in the concerned areas to help
to conserve marine turtles and their natural habitats ;
INVITES too all the member states of the CITES to enforce and strictly
supervise the complete banning of international trade of marine turtles due to their
being listed in Annex 1 of the aforementioned convention.
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MACRONESIA
KUDU
MADEIRA
Madeira is a self-governing Portuguese island, situated in the Atlantic ocean,
531 miles off the West coast of Portugal and 400 miles off the Moroccan coast,
approximately at the same latitude as Casablanca, Morocco.
The university of Madeira (UMA) is new(1988). The department of marine
biology was created in 1992 and since 1999 its permanent premises have been
established in the new marine biological station of Funchal, a laboratory built to
study the marine environment. The study of marine turtles in this area started
in1994. Most of the turtles met in this archipelago are loggerheads (Caretta
caretta)but the Green turtle (Chelonia mydas), the Hawksbill (Eretmochelys
imbricata), the Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), and the Olive Ridley
(Lepidochelys olivacea) are sometimes though more rarely met. In the following part
the word turtle will refer to C.caretta.
From 1994 to 1997, all the work done on marine turtles consisted in catching,
measuring, and tagging them ,using stainless steel Monel rings, on each forelimb.
Thanks to this work, we could learn that these animals do not get nearer than 3
nautical miles from the coast. A complete series of biometric data enables us to
know the abundance of the different sizes of the individuals met in this area.We
also know the various barnacles met and we get on the GPS the exact position of
the place where each turtle is caught.
There is actually no nesting in Madeira and we can only study the pelagic
phase of juvenile C.caretta.
At the end of 1996, the European commission approved of a LIFE project
(contract n°B4-3200/96/541) to last till June 2000 and related to marine turtles.
Its aim was to identify the favourite places frequented by the turtles, covering an
area of 200 nautical miles and corresponding to Madeira Exclusive Economic Zone.
The idea was to offer protected areas to this species at its pelagic stage .The
methods used mainly consisted in satellite telemetry, aerial counting from a small
aeroplane, together with catching and tagging by boat. At the same time we counted
the accidental catches of marine turtles by trawl-fishing in this area. The LIFE
project gave birth to our web site ( http://www.uma.pt/tartarugas ) whose design
will soon be reviewed and whose address will be : http://www.madeiraturtles.org .
Providing information and education about the environment are the strong points of
this project whose best point ( with the publication of several articles and the
organisation of conferences) is the recent publication of the book “Tartarugas
marinhas na Madeira”. At the end of 1998 we launched a new research project (
project Praxis/P/BIA/11310/1998 financed by the Department of science and
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technology) aiming at defining as precisely as possible the distribution of the turtle
population in our waters. Then, we analysed the distribution of this population by
age groups using the technique of skeletochronology which consists in counting the
growth rings of the bones. The second important population variable is that of sex
which unfortunately cannot be morphologically identified in juveniles. However, we
were able to determine it thanks to hormonal blood tests. We also analysed such
variables as heavy metals in turtles’ bodies and the composition in stable isotopes
which will permit to draw conclusions about the trophic level of their diet. This data
will be a posteriori compared to the results of stomach washes on living turtles and
the intestinal contents of accidentally caught dead turtles. These comparisons will
enable us to give a rigorous description of their diet .
We have other goals too. In the near future, we would like to focus more
particularly on these animals’ behaviour when diving, our ultimate goal being in
fact to understand how marine turtles can survive out at sea and to contribute in a
certain way to increasing the population of sea turtles in the world.
Thomas Dellinger
CAPE VERDE
We’ll tell you later about this very good programme launched by Felipe LopezJurado (university of Canary islands) on an important nesting colony of C.caretta
within the larger context of Cabo Verde Natura 2000.
WEST AFRICA
SÉNÉGAL
The IUCN mission in Senegal has recently asked Tomas DIAGNE (Rural Funds for
Development / Soptom) to prospect all along the oceanic shoreline of theBiosphere reserve of
the Saloum delta where we think many nesting beaches can be found and maybe a feeding
zone. Tomas handed over a report in November 99 giving the results of the information
gathered from fishermen.
In June 2000,Tomas went back with Bernard DEVAUX to the Saloum delta where a
hundred stranded turtles had been reported. They counted with certainty 35 turtles among
which some had external tumors .Then Tomas went back a third time in the middle of June
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2000 with Jean-Christophe VIE (IUCN Guinea-Bissau). Three more stranded turtles of the
same species were reported. According to Jean-Christophe Vié these wrecks were very likely
due to net catching offshore. Not all the turtles examined had tumors and these tumors may
not be fibropapillomas.
We do hope indeed that it isn’t since the presence of such a disease in the area would be
very harmful to the juvenile population living around the archipelago of the Cape Verde and
on the underwater seagrasses of the National park of Banc d’Arguin ( Mauritania). Which
shouldn’t minimize the role played by trawl-nets and will incite us in the future to seek
solutions to this problem.
GUINEA BISSAU
A new start for the marine turtle project
Four species regularly nest on the beaches of Guinea Bissau, mainly in the
archipelago of the Bijagos. Eventhough a few Leatherbacks, Hawksbills and a few
more Olive Ridleys lay eggs there, the predominant species is undoubtedly the
Green turtle. The main nesting site ( several thousand nests a year) is Poilao, a
small islet at the southernmost part of the archipelago of the Bijagos and part of the
future marine park of Joao Vieira - Poilao which should be officially created this
year. The national park of Orango (hundreds of nests) is also an important nesting
site. A monitoring and tagging programme was run between 1993 and 1995 by the
INEP (Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas) with the contribution of the IUCN.
It was interrupted for logistic reasons and because of the military conflict. A new
conflict made it difficult to start the programme again.
A new project is currently starting thanks to financing from the International
Foundation for the Banc d’Arguin. It will be run by the coastal planification cabinet
(GPC) with the support of the national bureau of the IUCN. A working party has
been set up with Castro BARBOSA (GPC), Bucar INDJAI (INEP), Amadeu ALMEIDA
(CIPA – Centro de Investigaçao de Pesca Aplicada), Paulo CATRY and JeanChristophe VIE (IUCN). This new project will draw benefit from the experience of
former participants to the Guyanese and Bissau-Guinean programmes. It should
start in May and should focus on Poilao. where Green turtles are tagged (Monel type
tags) with a view to knowing the number of clutchs per year, the internesting
interval and maybe recaptures in other countries of the sub-area as it occurred
before in Mauritania. The setting-up of a network of African turtle wardens should
make recaptures more likely.
The national park of Orango has started again a survey of the beaches and a
counting of the nests. It would be necessary too to develop the survey of the nesting
sites mainly on the continent near the Senegal border where tourist activities are
numerous. This will soon be discussed with the National ONG.
Jean-Christophe Vié
(IUCN)
GUINEA
On Friday night June 23rd, at about 3 am, a Leatherback got entangled in the nets of a
fisherman from the jetty of Téminétaye. It was brought back alive thanks to the authorities
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who informed the National Center of Sciences petaining to fishing of Boussoura (CNSHB)
The people in charge were on the spot at 10 and photos, films and measures could be taken.
The carapace was 1.83m long and 0.97 m wide.. Then the turtle was put back to sea from the
boat of the fisherman who had caught it.
Camara M’Mah Soumah
(CNSHB)
LIBERIA
Congratulations to the Liberia Sea Turtle Project (Save My Future Foundation)
for obtaining two grants for their sea turtle research and conservation work from
The Whitley Award and from Fauna and Flora International. They are currently
planning their next field season which will include a pilot project in Bokor Pooint , a
site of significant nesting activity, as well as continuation of the survey of the
Liberian coastline in order to assess presence and abundance of the various
species. To date five species have been confirmed to occur in Liberia (leatherback,
hawksbill, olive ridley, green and loggerhead), with the leatherback, olive ridley and
probably green and hawksbill nesting on its shores. Juvenile developmental habitat
of hawksbills and greens can be found in certain shallow protected bays. A
Master’s student from the United States will be working with them this summer.
Other ecovolunteers are sought to help with data collection in the future.
Angela Formia
(School of Biosciences, Cardiff University)
CÔTE D’IVOIRE
In November 1999 one of our correspondants mentioned coastal villagers had
captured a great number of female turtles among which a leatherback which had
come to nest on the sandy beach of Azagny.
Unfortunately the project planned with the Ivorian ministry of the environment
is currently at a standstill. The WWF of West Africa has been contacted for funds.
GHANA
Leatherbacks, green turtles and olive ridleys have been confirmed to occur in
Ghana. The Ghana Wildlife Society has been active in sea turtle research and
conservation activities for several seasons. They are running a nationwide coastal
monitoring project to assess species abundance, distribution and threats, and to
raise conservation awareness among coastal villagers. Due to a lack of funds, most
efforts are at the moment concentrated at a study site east of Accra, where an
excellent pilot project is implementing several conservation strategies, including
environmental education; employing locals as turtle wardens for daily monitoring of
nesting activity, strandings and poaching; predator control and studies on nest
screening against the pigs that roam on the beach; economic incentives in the form
of a credits and loan scheme benefitting those involved in the protection
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programme. Funds are currently being sought to expand this work to other coastal
areas which show significant sea turtle activity.
Angela Formia
(School of Biosciences, Cardiff University)
TOGO
Leatherback, olive ridley, green and hawksbill have been confirmed to occur in
Togo. During a recent survey Angela Formia observed numerous carapaces of these
four species, in fishing villages, marketplaces and souvenir shops. Unfortunately
much of the coastline is highly degraded, due to strong erosion, as well as pollution
and high population density. Occasional nesting by the olive ridley and leatherback
however has been reported and numerous individuals are caught offshore by
fishermen.
The zoology professor Joseph Esso Bowessidjao of the national
university in Lome has been working with his students to survey the coastal villages
for carapaces and to gather information on species abundance and distribution. He
is particularly interested in conservation activities to attempt to protect the marine
habitat where turtles can still be found in significant numbers. Funds are currently
being sought for a full-scale project.
Angela Formia
(School of Biosciences, Cardiff University)
BÉNIN
Benin’s coast is almost entirely beach, a large proportion of which is suitable for marine
turtle nesting. The region west of the capital Cotonou is relatively unaffected by coastal
erosion, more prevalent toward the east, beaches are wide, shallow and interrupted only by
occasional coastal lagoons. Presence of the olive ridley, leatherback, green turtle and
hawksbill have been confirmed, with the first two also nesting. Juveniles of greens and
hawksbills are occasionally caught offshore by local fishermen. The high human population
density along the coast and relatively easy access to the beaches, threaten Benin’s turtles with
overexploitation (for meat, eggs and oil). The Musee des Sciences Naturelles, Nature
Tropicale ONG has been working for several years to protect sea turtles and has gained
widespread support. At the moment, they are engaged in a campaign to train the members of
“ecoguard” teams scattered along numerous coastal villages. Training includes: knowledge
of national biodiversity legislation, field techniques such as species identification and
measuring, nest finding and egg transplantation, hatchling release and hatchery maintenance.
Regular night patrols will be set up for the upcoming nesting season, in conjunction with a
tagging programme.
PLEASE NOTE: A leatherback was recently captured in Benin bearing a metal tag on an
anterior flipper with the following inscription: KDC39 and Hauptner Supercrotal R.T.M.
(manufacturer). Because there is no return address, we have been unable to locate the
individual or project that has tagged this turtle. Please contact Jacques Fretey if you have any
information.
Angela Formia
(School of Biosciences, Cardiff University)
8
Nature tropicale ONG leading the marine turtle programme in Benin has
started up a cooperation with BIOTOPIC Foundation and ANAI (Costa Rica) with a
view to improving the quality of this project . BIOTOPIC.Foundation has been
working for a few years on programmes for the conservation of marine turtles in the
caribbean and mainly in Surinam. This cooperation consists of two parts :
1.field trip of the officials in charge of Nature tropicale in Costa Rica in order to visit
several field projects for the conservation of marine turtles (June-July 2000);
2. evaluation of the current project of Nature.Tropicale in Benin (October 2000) by
Biotopic and myself;
3.training workshops with experts for the members of Nature.Tropicale and if
possible for participants from other neighbouring countries (October 2000);
4. Symposium on the cooperation between partner countries ( Netherlands, Benin,
Costa rica, Bhoutan) for the protection of the biodiversity, one of the themes will be
the cooperation for the conservation of marine turtles (Beginning of 2001).
Jacques Fretey
NIGÉRIA
The Akassa Community Development Programme and the Turtle Conservation
Club continue to play an active role in the study and protection of the marine
turtles found in the beaches and waters of the Akassa Kingdom, in the Niger Delta.
Several nests have already been saved from predation, flooding or poaching and
several adults have been released to sea after nesting or after being caught in the
nets of trawlers fishing illegally close to shore. Activities planned for the upcoming
season include a tagging programme (thanks to tags donated by Dalton Supplies)
and the building of a hatchery for safe incubation of threatened nests. Larger-scale
initiatives covering the entire coastal region of Nigeria are recommended,
particularly in areas distant from the Niger delta, where beaches are potentially
more suitable for nesting.
Angela Formia
(School of Biosciences, Cardiff University)
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PRO
TO
MAC
NEWS FROM THE PROTOMAC FRONT
CAMEROUN
MINEF/UTO Campo Ma’an and TROPENBOS asked A.Billes and J.Fretey to
come for an expert evaluation. They went to Kribi and Ebodje from Jan.30 to Feb.9,
2000. The aim of the mission after the project had been interrupted for about one
year was to analyse the data which had been collected since the resumption of field
studies in Dec 99 , to study the feasibility of egg-transplantation from threatened
nests to hatcheries in the nesting zone of Ebodje and to schedule the activities to be
carried out by the Campo Ma’an programme during the transition period before the
setting up of a national plan of action for the conservation of marine turtles in
Cameroon.
The mission took place in the presence of Hyacinthe Angoni, a student of the
university of Yaoundé writing a thesis on Lepidochelys olivacea and paid this year
by the Campo Ma’an project.
In December 99 and January 2000 the technical team was led by Hyacinthe
and was permanently composed of 5 or 6 persons, each of them having to supervise
a well-specified nesting zone.
During this period of resumption of the project morning and night patrols
gathered information on the abundance of Dermochelys coriacea and Lepidochelys
olivacea on every beach between Bekolobe and Mbendji and made an inventory of
the carapaces found in coastal villages.
Over 9 weeks there has been a total amount of 52 L. olivacea and 20 D.
coriacea coming on the beach to nest. It is too short a period to estimate the
number of turtles for each species. If this zone is not very much frequented by the
leatherback, from what we know about the situation of the Olive ridley in the
Atlantic, its abundance in this zone is not inconsiderable.
Two testing sites have been chosen for the building of hatcheries : one in the
locality of Tala-Ipenyenge and the other in Ebodje. The hatchery of Ebodje, chosen
with the agreement of the « chefferie » will be close to the school, which will make it
easier to undertake a consciousness-raising campaign.
Each hatchery measures 5m by 4. A billboard at the entrance will display the
project logos and a bilingual message (French and Iyassa) telling that it is an eggincubating site for the conservation of marine turtles.
Jacques Fretey et Alexis Billes
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TRANS-BORDER REGION OF THE BAY OF CORISCO
A mapping and an inventory of seagrasses are to be made on the Gabonese
side under the leadership of Protomac and the association « Aventures sans
frontières ».
Alexis Billes
GABON
Pointe-Pongara
The building of the small museum of “Pointe Pongara” is making a good
progress and the association “Aventures sans Frontières” hope that the museum
will soon open.
Nyamu Campaign
The Nyamu campaign of 1999-2000 (financially supported by ECOFAC) on the
south beaches of Gabon, from Mayumba to the border with Congo, ended at the end
of April. The counting of tracks from November 1999 to April 2000 has made a first
estimation of the abundance of nesting leatherbacks on the beach possible. Our
results confirm the international importance of the site since the obtained
estimation is of 29686 nesting tracks, which represents a reproductive population
of 2900 to 5900 individuals for a number of clutches per season and per individual
of respectively 5 and 10 clutches.
This site is also well frequented by Olive ridley since on a 4.4 mile daily
patrolled zone( which represents 1/14th of the 61 mile long beach) 24 tracks of Olive
ridley have been observed between November And April; moreover, the campaign
starting in November we probably missed many Olive ridleys whose nesting season
starts as early as September according to local fishermen.
During the whole campaign, 935 leatherbacks were tagged, 4 olive ridleys and
1 hawksbill.
The study of 49 nests enabled us to make a first estimate of successful
hatching success (67.29 %) and of emergence success (65.41 %) for the natural
nests of leatherbacks (let us note that this estimate does not take into account the
nests which were entirely destroyed by aerial predators). The in situ protection of
nests that we implemented required constant monitoring and didn’t prove
interesting, so we won’ t carry on with it next season. On the other hand the
transplantation of eggs from natural nests to hatcheries proved very interesting
since it provides protection against aerial predators and the rate of hatching
success reached 60.76% for leatherbacks and 75.58% for olive ridleys, so it will be
continued during the next campaign.
In nature, the underground predation of hatching nests affects in average
7.31% of normal eggs and is mainly due to Crabs (Ocypode sp.). A qualitative study
of the aerial predation made by Christophe Lequin, an ecovolunteer, showed the
role played by civets, genets, mongooses and monitor lizards (Varanus niloticus) in
the predation of eggs and the role played by Ocypode, mongooses, genets, civets,
white-necked storks, monitor lizards and palm-nut vultures in the predation of
newly-borns.
A preliminary biogeographical study of the site made by Sabrina Gontier, an
ecovolunteer on a training period as part of her studies for a vocational training
certificate in the management and protection of Nature, led to an inventory of the
fauna and flora of the site.More than 40 species of mammals, reptiles and birds
have been counted and 97 samples of plants have been collected, 60 have alrerady
been identified. A first topography of the sandy beach has also been made.
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A conservation awareness campaign has been launched in the coastal
villages close to the site and in the cities of Mayumba and Ndindi. Marine turtle
meat and eggs are mainly consumed by the inhabitants of Mayumba and of the two
nearest villages.During the entire season, 93 dead bodies of sea turtles were found,
most of which having been killed by villagers on the sections of the beach near
Mayumba.
Alexis Billes
CONGO
During this 1999-2000 season no field study could be done on the 18 mile
long Congolese part of the transborder site between Mayumba (Gabon) and
Conkouati (Congo). However Véronique Barazzutti flew over the site 4 times in a
microlight, from the Gabon-Congo border to Chissanga, 25 miles away from “Pointe
Noire”. As many as 90 fresh tracks of leatherbacks and 5 of seaturtles with scutes
were counted on december 26th but unfortunately it is quite worrying that 72 dead
bodies of marine turtles could be counted during the 4 flights !
A partnership should be made soon between WCS and HELP Congo in order to
ensure the follow up of the study of the nesting sites in the entire area of Conkouati
next season and in order to ensure a transborder monitoring of nesting activity
from Mayumba to the river Noumbi.
Alexis Billes
SÃO TOMÉ ET PRÍNCIPE
In São Tomé e Principe the 1999/2000 nesting season ended on an
optimistic note.
After a difficult beginning of the nesting season (because of financial
problems), with some funds provided by ECOFAC, an additional budget of 80 000
Euros ensured the resumption of the activities.
Field activities continues in the same way as the previous season : tagging,
relocation of eggs to protected hatcheries, awareness campaigns and lobbying. We
also developed new activities : inciting tortoise shell craftsmen to switch to new
employments and promoting ecotourism.
We tagged a bit more than 460 turtles (juveniles and adults). On the whole,
the number of relocated nests has risen on the two islands but nesting frequency of
green turtles decreased in the northern nesting site of Principe. In the northern part
of São Tomé the number of relocated nests increased. During this nesting season,
528 nests (62982 eggs) were relocated and 50387 hatchlings were released.
From a legislative point of view, we’ve made progress. A government decree
on sea turtle protection was passed in April. It has not been published in the
« Journal officiel » yet (government publication listing new laws), but it already has
an impact on fishermen. The authorities helped us several times in making seizures
on the market. Next season, a committee dedicated to the monitoring of sea turtle
catches (fight against poaching) will be set up.
Steps were taken to obtain the signing of the Memorandum of Abidjan in
August.
As regards firshermen we are putting at the moment the emphasis on the
government decree on sea turtle protection : we have displayed several posters in
villages and we are going to give out explanatory leaflets and to organize meetings.
Files about alternatives to tortoise shell craft are in preparation. At the
moment the process is adjourned but it should be resumed in October to be
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completed in January 2001. These delays were due to the backers' demands
regarding this project but regrettably too, to pressures and threats coming from the
people concerned.
Promoting ecotourism has undeniably been one objective of the project ever
since it was started. During the nesting season, we successfully organized several
nights of sea turtle watching. At present we are supporting an association of
fishermen to help them build a place to welcome the tourists coming to the
Northern beaches to watch the nesting of sea turtles.
Jean-François Dontaine
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KUDU LETTER
Editorial Committee:
KUDU
Jacques FRETEY
[email protected]
Alexis BILLES
[email protected]
Jean-François DONTAINE [email protected]
fax : (+239) 12 23 284
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