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STOP PRESS! On 11 September Mexico deposited its instrument of ratification, becoming the 5th country to ratify the IAC, and the treaty office in Caracas has been notified that Ecuador will soon be depositing their instrument.

Various notes on the Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles (IAC) have appeared in this Newsletter over the past few years (Donnelly 1995; 1996; Somma 1996; Frazier 1997; Anon. 1998). As of the last update (Frazier 1999) the period for signing the IAC had closed (on 31 December 1998), and a total of twelve nations had subscribed to the treaty: Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Of these, only Venezuela had ratified the Convention: on 20 August 1998. The IAC will come into force 90 days after the eighth instrument of ratification has been deposited with the Depositary, Venezuela. Once the treaty comes into force, additional “States of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean Sea, as well as other States that have continental or insular territories in this region” may become members by acceding to it, but until that time no further countries can join.

Over the past year there have been numerous advances. Three more countries have deposited their instruments of ratification: Peru on 18 November 1999; Brazil on 22 November 1999; and Costa Rica on 17 April 2000. This brings the total number of ratifications to four, and other signatories are also progressing toward ratification.

On 29 April 1999 the Senate of Mexico approved the IAC, and the following year, on 10 July 2000, the Diario Oficial published a decree to that effect, dated 3 July 2000, and signed by the President, Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, and the Secretary of Government, Sr. Diódoro Carrasco. Once the paperwork clears the President’s office, the instrument of ratification should be deposited in Caracas shortly thereafter.

The National Congress of Honduras passed Decree 101-99 on 13 July 1999, published in La Gaceta (No. 28,931) on 31 July 1999, approving the ratification of the treaty. On 9 August 2000 Resolution No. 031-2000, which was passed on 14 July 2000 by the Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG), Dirección General de Pesca y Acuicultura (DIGEPESCA), was published in La Tribuna (Año XXIV, No 7482, pg 48). This resolution stated that fisheries inspectors would board and inspect shrimp trawlers to confirm if they are using turtle excluder devices (TEDs), and it also provided for sanctions. The resolution invokes the IAC, indicating that the actions proscribed in the resolution flow from being a Signatory to the treaty.

In Ecuador the National Congress passed Resolution No. 21-046 on 30 May 2000, approving the ratification of the IAC. Despite several pressing national problems in Quito, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs resolved a number of internal issues regarding the treaty, and on 14 August sent a recommendation for ratification to the President, Dr. Gustavo Noboa Bejarano. On 29 August the President signed Executive Decree No. 719, ratifying the IAC and instructing the Minister of Foreign Relations to deposit the instrument of ratification with the Depositary. By mid September Ecuador should become the fifth country to ratify.

On 20 July 2000 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the USA held a hearing on four treaties, including the IAC; and on 26 July the Committee decided to support the Inter-American Convention and present it to the Senate for ratification. It is hoped that the US Senate will consider, and approve, the ratification of the IAC in September or by the end of the legislative session.

Internal legislation has been revised in Belize, strengthening national management plans and facilitating ratification of the treaty. The Government of Belize authorizes a controlled legal take of green (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtles, during a regulated open season, and they plan to invoke Article IV, paragraph 3 (a) and (b) of the IAC to be able to comply with the terms of the Convention, but also to have a legal harvest of turtles for traditional communities.

The Kingdom of Netherlands consists of Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, so two levels of legislative work are involved in the ratification of this treaty. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hague, Netherlands, is advancing in the legal process of ratification. In the mean time, the legislature in Netherlands Antilles is working hard to adapt national legislation to comply with the obligations of the IAC. An amendment of a recent law for nature management and conservation has been prepared by government and in the process of being sent to Parliament for adoption. It is intended that both the adaptation of national legislation and ratification will be completed by the end of the year.

On 12 October 1999 the IAC was submitted to Parliament in Uruguay. However, presidential and legislative elections at the end of 1999, and the subsequent development of the five-year budget had to take priority over many other issues. Nonetheless, the treaty has had continual support from various sectors in Uruguay, and it is hoped that it will be ratified by the end of the year. It is not known what the situation is in Nicaragua in regards to the ratification of the IAC.

It is expected that the governments of at least Belize, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands, and the USA will deposit their respective instruments of ratification in Caracas before the year-end festivities begin in December. Thus, it is likely that the treaty will come into force in early 2001, and shortly after that a number of fundamental aspects regarding its operation will be decided at the first conference of the parties. Basic issues that will be taken up at that time include: the Secretariat, the composition and rules for the Consultative Committee and the Scientific Committee, and funding aspects.

The text of the IAC has served as a model in the development of other international instruments with similar objectives. These include the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on ASEAN Sea Turtle Conservation and Protection, as well as the MOU on the Conservation and Management of Marine Turtles and their Habitats of the Indian Ocean and South East Asia (IOSEA). The ASEAN MOU is open for signing, and it is planned that the Conservation and Management Plan (CMP) for the IOSEA will be negotiated early next year. Once the CMP is approved, the IOSEA will then be open for signing. Several concepts, if not terms and expressions, from the IAC have been incorporated into these other sea turtle agreements. To date, the Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles is the only legally-binding international instrument that focuses specifically on the conservation of sea turtles and their habitats. In addition to earlier articles published in the MTN, various analyses of the IAC have also been published and/or presented in other fora (Naro-Maciel 1998; Bache in press a; in press b; in press c; Frazier in press; Frazier & Bache in press; Gibbons-Fly in press; McNee in press).

Acknowledgements: Several people have generously supplied information on the development of this treaty: Joanna Alfaro (Peru); Alfonso Alviles (Belize); Juan Carlos Cantú (Mexico); Hernán Calisto (Ecuador); Alejandro Fallabrino (Uruguay); Carlos Molinero (Honduras); Milagros López (Uruguay); Patrick Opay (Costa Rica); Jeff Sybesma (Netherlands Antilles); Santos Valero (Venezuela, treaty office); and Melania Yañez (Ecuador).

ANON. 1998. Website for The Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles. Marine Turtle Newsletter 82:19.

BACHE, S. J. in press a. International bycatch policy - Options for sea turtle conservation. International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law.

BACHE, S. J. in press b. International bycatch policy: Impacts and lesson for the South-east Asian region. In: N. Pilcher and G. Ismail (eds.) Turtles of the Indo-Pacific: Research, Conservation and Management. ASEAN Press, Kuala Lumpur.

BACHE, S. J. in press c. A view of the IAC from Downunder. In: A. Mosier and M. Coyne (compilers). Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. U.S. Department of Commerce; National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration; National Marine Fisheries Service; Southeast Fisheries Center, Miami, Florida. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFRC-.

DONNELLY, M. 1995. Western Hemisphere sea turtle treaty negotiations. Marine Turtle Newsletter 70: 7-9.

DONNELLY, M. 1996. The evolution of the Western Hemisphere sea turtle treaty. Marine Turtle Newsletter 73: 18-20.

FRAZIER, J. 1997. Guest Editorial: Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles. Marine Turtle Newsletter 78:7-13.

FRAZIER, J. 1999. Guest Editorial: Update on the Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles. Marine Turtle Newsletter 84: 1-3.

FRAZIER, J. in press. Building support for regional sea turtle conservation in ASEAN and the Asian region: Learning from the Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles. In: N. Pilcher and G. Ismail (Eds.) Turtles of the Indo-Pacific: Research, Conservation and Management. ASEAN Press, Kuala Lumpur.

FRAZIER, J.& S. J. BACHE. in press. Sea Turtle Conservation and The “Big Stick”: The Effects of Unilateral US Embargoes on International Fishing Activities. In: A. Mosier and M. Coyne (compilers). Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. U.S. Department of Commerce; National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration; National Marine Fisheries Service; Southeast Fisheries Center, Miami, Florida. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFRC-.

GIBBONS-FLY, W. in press. The Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles. In: N. Pilcher and G. Ismail (eds.) Turtles of the Indo-Pacific: Research, Conservation and Management. ASEAN Press, Kuala Lumpur.

McNEE, A. in press. Regional applications to the conservation of marine turtles: Why, what and how? In: N. Pilcher and G. Ismail (eds.) Turtles of the Indo-Pacific: Research, Conservation and Management. ASEAN Press, Kuala Lumpur.

NARO-MACIEL, E. 1998. The Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles: An historical overview. Journal of International Wildlife & Policy 1(1): 169-178.

SOMMA, A. 1996. Report on the sea turtle negotiations. Marine Turtle Newsletter 75: 16-17.