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Distribution, abundance and threats to marine turtles and their habitats in Viet Nam
In 2002 and 2003 surveys were conducted in most of the coastal provinces in Viet Nam to collect data on the distribution, abundance and threats to marine turtles and their habitats. Briefly, five species of marine turtle are found in Viet Nam’s waters and four species are found nesting. Nesting numbers of hawksbill, leatherback and olive ridley turtles have substantially declined over the last four decades and are currently extremely low. In contrast, there is a still a moderately sized green turtle rookery on the island of Con Dao in southern Viet Nam. This rookery receives an average of 250 females per year and has been monitored by the Con Dao National Park staff and WWF (Indochina) since 1995. In addition, in 2001 WWF (Indochina) began support of a marine turtle nesting program on the mainland beaches of the Nui Chua Nature Reserve. Over the last three years between 3 and 23 green turtle nests have been recorded. Nesting turtle populations have suffered from decades of direct and indirect mortality, such as collection of nesting turtles and eggs for food and incidental capture in coastal fisheries. A more detailed account of the distribution, abundance and threats to marine turtles in Viet Nam is currently in review for publication in another international journal.

In 2002 TRAFFIC (Southeast Asia/Indochina) conducted a detailed assessment of the trade in marine turtle products. Their survey found that a substantial domestic trade in marine turtle products, primarily from hawksbill turtles, existed in several coastal provinces and major cities. The survey found a total of ~28,000 products for sale throughout the country. However, it is likely that some of these products have been stockpiled over time. Indeed, from speaking with fishers in most coastal provinces during TRAFFIC and IUCN/MoFI surveys, it is clear that the numbers of hawksbill turtles being caught by fishers have dropped considerably in the last three decades. Consequently, we could find few fishers that specifically sought out turtles, and most hawksbills are now taken opportunistically while fishers are diving around coral/rocky reef areas for other commercially important species such as crustaceans and molluscs. Interestingly, unlike previous surveys of the Vietnamese turtle trade, TRAFFIC’s 2002 survey revealed a large and organised international trade of hawksbill turtle products whereby the transfer of turtles occurs at sea, and then products are shipped in bulk overseas or are sold to domestic/international tourists as gifts. Indeed, turtle products are still on sale in Hanoi’s international airport. Thankfully, recent efforts by the Ministry of Fisheries and the Ministry of Trade together with TRAFFIC have
begun the difficult process of raising awareness and the development of a strategy to remove turtle products from sale. More details on TRAFFIC’s findings can be found in their report (available at http://www.traffic.org/publications/pubs_tsea.html or http://www.ioseaturtles.org/resources2.html#reports).

Legislative and international outcomes
In June 2001 the Vietnamese Government became a member state of the Indian Ocean South-East Asian (IOSEA) Marine Turtle MoU. In April 2002, the Vietnamese Government introduced legislation making the trade or use of all marine turtle products in Viet Nam illegal (Decree 48/2002/ND-CP of April 22, 2002). Viet Nam is also a signatory state of CITES. In 2003, TRAFFIC-Southeast Asia/Indochina produced, printed and distributed 20,000 copies of a pamphlet aimed toward raising awareness of this new legislation and its associated penalties.

Conservation action plan
In 2002 the Vietnamese Ministry of Fisheries established a Project Steering Committee consisting of representatives of all relevant Government agencies, industry groups, community groups and international/national NGOs to develop a strategic approach to marine turtle conservation in Viet Nam. On July 16th, 2004 the Ministry of Fisheries formally launched the Marine Turtle Conservation Action Plan for Viet Nam to 2010 (Decision number 175/QD-BTS dated 8 March 2004). This plan sets out priority areas, lists specific actions to be undertaken to protect and restore marine turtle populations and assigns organisational responsibility for carrying out the actions. It is the second “nature conservation” based action plan to be developed by the Government of Viet Nam and the first that specifically deals with marine biodiversity. Copies of the plan can be obtained from IUCN - Viet Nam Office (E-mail:marine@iucn.org.vn).

Raising awareness
Raising awareness of the conservation needs for both marine turtles and their habitat was seen as an extremely important aspect of the overall project. Aside from the learning process that underpinned the development of the Conservation Action Plan and project surveys, training workshops for relevant stakeholders were held in several provinces, and provincial MoFI staff were taught about Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 107, 2005 - Page 6 the recognition of sea turtles and protection of nests and eggs. As a result of these workshops, Government agencies and research groups in several provinces are developing strategies for the improved protection of marine turtles and their habitats. For example, Kien Giang Province in southern Viet Nam (bordering Cambodia) introduced a local legislation (Instruction No 20/2002/CT-UB dated 13 November 2002) for the protection of marine turtles and dugongs in 2002.

The awareness raising element of the project also involved the development of the comprehensive “Saving Sea Turtles & Their Habitats” education resource package for use in schools. This resource provides an important tool to help Vietnamese teachers effectively raise children’s awareness of sea turtles and their habitats. As part of the resource development process, a successful teacher-training program was run on Phu Quoc Island, southern Viet Nam, for selected teachers from a range of local schools to introduce Environmental Education (EE) and pilot-test the “Saving Sea Turtles & Their Habitats” package. Participating teachers took the opportunity to contribute to the development of the resource by providing useful comments on the language and content of various lesson plans. Most importantly, the training program sparked the interest of these teachers in sea turtles and EE, and has left them eager for their schools to receive additional resources and training opportunities to help them implement the “Saving Sea Turtles & Their Habitats” program and more general EE aspects into their teaching.

The “Saving Sea Turtles & Their Habitats” education package has been very well received by the Ministry of Education and has been approved for use in Vietnamese schools. Limited hardcopies of the Vietnamese language version are available from IUCN-Viet Nam <marine@iucn.org.vn> or WWF Indochina <khuong@wwfvn.org.vn>, for information regarding the electronic English language version contact Chloe Schauble <chloeschauble@yahoo.com.au>. We extend our thanks to the individuals and organisations around the world that contributed graphics and text resources. The purpose and priorities of each individual component of the package are described briefly below.

Teachers Guides: Each of the four Teachers Guides contains eight individual lesson plans that form a short course on sea turtle biology and conservation. The five key learning goals for the course are
(1) What sea turtles are
(2) What sea turtles need to survive
(3) Why sea turtles are important to me
(4) What threatens sea turtles
(5) What people can do to help sea turtles
Priorities for the lesson plans were that they
• Contained explicit instructions for educators
• Required relatively few and easily obtainable resources
• Used a variety of learning activities and approaches (particularly student-centred ones)
• Promoted active approaches to environmental education
• Would be fun for both students and educators.

Biological booklets: Each of the six Biological Booklets contains
summaries of important and interesting information about a marine conservation topic. For example, the Sea Turtles Biological Booklet provides information on things such as the life cycle of sea turtles, their habitat needs, threats, and what individuals can do to contribute to their survival. The other booklets focus on dugongs, seagrass, coral reefs, marine pollution, and turtle fibropapilloma disease. Priorities for the Biological Booklets were that they
• Provided accurate and detailed biological information
• Were written in an easily accessible (non-technical) style
• Contained images of relevant organisms or scenery
• Were suitable for both educators and students
• Provided essential reference information for use in the lesson plans contained in the Teachers Guides.

Small A4 posters: Five small posters provide a highly visual method of drawing students’ attention to some main messages regarding the biology and conservation of sea turtles and their habitats. The posters matched with five of the Biological Booklets. A poster was not produced for turtle fibropapilloma disease. Priorities for the Small Posters were that they
• Were eye-catching and simple
• Could function as reference materials for very young students who do not yet have the literacy skills to effectively access information provided in the Biological Booklets
• Could be used to decorate classrooms and act as ongoing reminders of information learnt during the “Saving Sea Turtles & Their Habitats” lessons.

Turtle Identification Poster: The large “Vietnam’s Sea Turtles” poster showcases colour photographs of all five sea turtles found in Viet Nam’s waters and gives their common and scientific names. This poster forms an integral part of several lesson plans provided in the Teachers Guides. Priorities for the poster were that it
• Was biologically accurate
• Facilitated simple comparisons of the physical attributes of the five species
• Was suitable for use both as part of the “Saving Sea Turtles & Their Habitats” resource package and as a separate resource for fishers and other adult community members
• Could function as a reference for teachers and students during “Saving Sea Turtles & Their Habitats” lessons
• Could be used to decorate classrooms and act as an ongoing reminder of information learnt during the “Saving Sea Turtles & Their Habitats” lessons.

Children’s storybook: This lovely illustrated story about two young friends and their introduction to sea turtles reveals some remarkable facts about sea turtles, explains some of the threats they face, and demonstrates that coastal community members care about the plight of sea turtles. Priorities for the book were that it
• Contained characters that children could relate to
• Helped children appreciate sea turtles and the threats they face
• Encouraged children to become actively involved in sea turtle conservation through knowledge seeking/information sharing
• Was entertaining.

Conclusions
The conservation of marine turtles and their habitats in Viet Nam is in its infancy. However, considering that prior to 2001 no initiatives had been undertaken to protect marine turtles, the Vietnamese Government has made considerable ground in only a few years. Together, the results of this project and the development of marine protected areas in Ha Long Bay, Hon Mun and Con Dao have generated substantial enthusiasm for the continued protection of the
marine environment and its resources. We hope that the international community will continue to support and encourage Viet Nam in this area.