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Marine Turtle Newsletter 101:40, © 2003

Marine Turtle Newsletter-Online

African Reunion, Kuala Lumpur

Manjula Tiwari1 & Angela Formia2
1Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research and Department of Zoology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA (E-mail: mtiwari@zoo.ufl.edu)
2Angela Formia, School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3TL, UK (E-mail: formiaa@cardiff.ac.uk)

The Second Reunion of African Sea Turtle Biologists at the Annual Symposium was held on request of some of the African delegates to formally meet and discuss projects with colleagues working in the region. The meeting was attended by 19 individuals, representing sea turtle work in 12 African countries. Each participant provided a brief summary of their project accomplishments and future plans, and some of the common problems were discussed.

Among the issues raised and discussed were economic incentives for conservation, compensation for the release of incidentally captured turtles or damaged nets, elimination of carapace stockpiles, and implementation of fines for users of turtle products. A common theme from many of the delegates was lack of funding and the need for a coordinated approach to fund-raising, as well as standardized methodologies for tagging and data collection. One of the participants stressed the importance of our power as a unified sea turtle group working in Africa, and our ability to make our voice heard and promote sea turtles on the agenda of large political organizations such as NEPAD (The New Partnership for Africa’s Development). Sources and access to reference material were also discussed and dissemination of publications and technical manuals was deemed a priority.

Michael Coyne offered to set up a listserv for the African group. It was unanimously agreed that a mailing list exclusively for Africa would be extremely valuable for promoting collaborations, discussions, and information exchange in the continent. The detailed minutes of the African Reunion in Kuala Lumpur will be posted on this new listserv. Anyone interested in joining should contact Angela Formia (formiaa@cardiff.ac.uk).