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The meeting began with a brief description of the Kudu program (the regional network for sea turtle research and conservation along the Atlantic coast of Africa), followed by a lengthy discussion on the official legal status of Kudu, including its identity as an organisation and where it should be legally based. Jacques Fretey then reported a meeting in Paris in October 2003 between himself, Marco Barbieri (the liason between CMS and the Kudu Program), Arnulf Müller-Helmbrecht (Executive Secretay of the CMS) and Sébastien Moncorps (IUCN-France) to discuss issues relevant to the future of the Kudu network. The CMS asked Jacques to provide an overall program assessment and budget outline for Kudu and the national projects it comprises, as well as a proposal to set up the regional office in Senegal. Therefore, it was decided that questionnaires will be sent to the heads of all projects in order to survey accomplishments and needs for sea turtle activities at the local level.

Douglas Hykle (Co-ordinator / Senior CMS Advisor of the IOSEA Marine Turtle MoU Secretariat) informed the group that funding was available for a second conference of the Signatory States to the Abidjan Memorandum of Understanding for Atlantic Africa. It was agreed that the emphasis of the meeting should be placed on fishery bycatch issues in the region. He also described a mapping tool for the Indian Ocean, developed by theWorld Conservation Monitoring Center in Cambridge (UNEP-WCMC) in collaboration with the CMS. A similar tool is envisaged for Atlantic Africa.

Jack Frazier raised the issue of first world nations which have not yet signed the Abidjan MoU, but possess either territories in the region, or strong economic/political interests. The support of countries such as France, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom would strengthen the conservation impact and effectiveness of the MoU and its conservation plan in the region.

Several members of the group emphasised the importance of long-term funding, which is unfortunately still not available. Funding is needed at several different levels: stable support for a regional Kudu office and staff; support for research and conservation at sites with significant sea turtle habitats or populations (e.g. Cape Verde, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, etc.); support for projects working on other locally significant and important areas.

Earl Possardt briefly described the Marine Turtle Conservation Act 2003 of the US government. If approved, it will represent a potential source of funds for sea turtle projects worldwide, which will hopefully be available from October 2005. This fund would be administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) international office and will focus primarily on nesting beaches, monitoring of nesting populations, development of management plans and national legislation, training, community outreach and education. Within these criteria, conservation projects in Africa are expected to be of high priority and the USFWS will soon be soliciting proposals.

Michael Coyne described some important features of the SEATURTLE.ORG web site. In addition, he hopes to establish a small grants program for Africa, following a fundraising drive on SEATURTLE.ORG to support projects in the region. He appealed for background material, supporting information and other suggestions on how to present a strong case to the layperson on the need to fund African sea turtle conservation. A Kudu website linked to SEATURTLE.ORG is also under construction, and its objectives, audience and structure were discussed. The website will primarily be a way to publicise African sea turtle work to the rest of the world, as outreach and education on African sea turtle issues, and to aid in the search for funds.

The next item on the agenda was the need for an effective newsletter linking the sea turtle projects around the continent. The newsletter Kachhapa from India was mentioned as an example of a successful medium and the editor, Karthik Shanker, provided a brief description of the development of the Kachappa newsletter. The problems of dissemination and communication in Africa were discussed and suggested solutions included placing pdf files on the web, running an email subscription list, emailing through the Africa listserv, mailing hard copies based on an expanding database of addresses. The latter approach was deemed important to reach those who would not normally read sea turtle informational material such as government officials, or who do not have internet access.

Overall, important issues related to the future and growth of the Kudu program were discussed at the meeting. Detailed meeting minutes will soon be posted on the AFRICA listserv. For additional information please contact Jacques Fretey (jfretey@imatech.fr), Manjula Tiwari (mtiwari@zoo.ufl.edu), Angela Formia (aformia@seaturtle.org), or Alexis Billes (protomac@assala.net).