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Twenty-three speakers from 17 countries shared information on current research, habitat surveys, conservation efforts and management initiatives; record-keeping and database security; updates on national legislation, treaties and international issues; innovative environmental education and public outreach efforts; investigations of sea turtle mortality; and genetic and computer tools for population management. The Meeting discussed and adopted in principal [the exact wording was finalized and approved after the Meeting] three Resolutions. Two of these Resolutions focused on internal situations in Trinidad and Nicaragua, while the third encouraged Governments to participate in two important regional treaties – UNEP’s Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (in force since 2000) and the Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles (in force since 2001).

Current Projects and Activities: Major projects undertaken by the network in 2001 were reported on, including the opening of a Caribbean Regional Tagging Centre at the University of the West Indies (Barbados); the development and beta-testing of database management software; a regional tagging and database management training workshop held in Barbados (October 2001, in collaboration with the University of the West Indies); regional sea turtle training courses held in Venezuela (June 2001, under the leadership of CICTMAR) and Bermuda (July-August 2001, under the leadership of the Bermuda Aquarium); publication of proceedings from a regional meeting held in the Dominican Republic in November 1999 (“Marine Turtle Conservation in the Wider Caribbean Region: A Dialogue for Effective Management”); the first “Assessment of Sea Turtle Product Use and Trade in Central America”; and completion (in partnership with WWF-Guianas) of a “Regional Sea Turtle Conservation Program and Action Plan for the Guianas”; as well as progress made on the development of standard guidelines for sea turtle eco-tourism (“Meeting Ecological and Economic Goals: Best Practices for Sea Turtle Eco-tourism”), national “Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plans” for Jamaica, Anguilla (British West Indies), Panamá, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, a cultural heritage book in Grenada, and the design of www.widecast.org.

The Meeting also reported that the network sponsored the development and distribution of a variety of new and multilingual public outreach materials in 2001, including two different certificates now available to vendors that confirm for consumers that the vendor does not sell sea turtle products; revision and reprinting of WIDECAST’s popular species diagnostic leaflets in English, Spanish, and French; and a brochure (“Visualizing the Future”) promoting public participation in sea turtle conservation. In partnership with the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL), bilingual “Turtle Watching” leaflets were designed to provide divers and other enthusiasts with guidelines on behavior when encountering sea turtles on land or at sea. WIDECAST’s Conservation Materials Distribution Centre in St. Croix (US Virgin Islands) distributes, at no charge, thousands of copies of technical books and manuals, educational brochures and leaflets, and related reference material to stakeholders, including scientists, educators and policy-makers, throughout the region every year.

Members of the WIDECAST network participated as invited experts in several regional and global meetings in 2001 and early 2002, including “First CITES Wider Caribbean Region Hawksbill Turtle Dialogue Meeting” in Mexico City (May 2001); “V Regional Marine Turtle Symposium for the Guianas: Fisheries and Marine Turtle Conservation - Keeping the Balance” in Paramaribo, Suriname (September 2001); “World Heritage Marine Biodiversity Workshop: Filling Critical Gaps and Promoting Multi-Site Approaches to New Nominations of Tropical Coastal, Marine and Small Island Ecosystems” in Hanoi, Vietnam (February 2002); “Second Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) in the Wider Caribbean Region” in Montego Bay, Jamaica (May 2002); and the ”Second CITES Wider Caribbean Region Hawksbill Turtle Dialogue Meeting” in the Cayman Islands (May 2002), among many others.

The Meeting adopted a Work Plan for 2002 that emphasized completing regional projects currently in-process, including the sea turtle bycatch assessment, sea turtle eco-tourism manual, www.widecast.org website, database management software unveiled at the training workshop in Barbados in October 2001, procedures and protocols for the regional tagging centre at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, and a trilingual slide show on Caribbean sea turtles, and national “Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plans” for Panama, Anguilla, Jamaica, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. In addition, the network will involve itself in the issues to be raised at the 12th Conference of Parties to CITES (Santiago, November 2002) and at the various national and regional meetings that will lead up to COP12, as well as continue to support UNEP’s regional SPAW Programme and the new Inter-American Convention, which convenes its First Conference of Parties in Costa Rica in August 2002. The network is also actively seeking support to open sub-regional offices in Latin America and the insular Eastern Caribbean.
Background: WIDECAST was founded in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1981 to work on behalf of six species of sea turtle encountered in the Wider Caribbean Region. The network embraces 39 States and territories in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and includes Bermuda and Brazil. There are WIDECAST Country Coordinators resident in 32 of these states and territories. Country Coordinators are drawn from governmental and non-governmental sectors and must have sea turtle research and/or management experience. To achieve WIDECAST objectives, Country Coordinators work in partnership with a national coalition of stakeholders, including scientists, conservationists, resource managers, resource users, policy-makers, landowners, educators and others.

WIDECAST’s primary objective is to bring the best available science to bear on sea turtle management, conservation and policy. WIDECAST is structured as an international, volunteer scientific network comprised of Country Coordinators and local partner organizations throughout the Wider Caribbean Region. Working closely with coastal communities, NGOs and governmental resource managers, the network focuses on the development of standard management guidelines and recommendations that emphasize sustainability, helping to ensure that current utilization practices, whether consumptive or non-consumptive, do not undermine sea turtle survival over the long term. The network serves as a unique model for collaboration on regional management of migratory sea turtles, and works in close partnership with UNEP as a Partner Organization of the Caribbean Environment Programme (based in Kingston, Jamaica) and an active participant in the CEP’s Regional Programme for Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife.

As a result of WIDECAST’s cooperative structure and apolitical advocacy, a number of important advancements have been realized in the Caribbean region, including improvements in region-wide harmonization of national legislation, implementation of sea turtle habitat surveys and/ or population monitoring initiatives in nearly all countries, a reduction in sea turtle product sales, standardized national management plans, rising numbers of trained (Caribbean-based) sea turtle researchers, high rates of community-level involvement in management and conservation projects, increased protection of critical habitat, enhanced public awareness, increased funding for sea turtle protection, and an inclusive and ongoing regional dialogue on important issues. WIDECAST has raised and allocated more than US$ 1 million to Caribbean sea turtle conservation projects in the last five years.

Concluding Remarks: Sea turtles will not survive in the Caribbean Sea without unflinching regional cooperation and coordination of conservation and management programs. WIDECAST provides an effective, inclusive mechanism for such collaboration. If sea turtles are going to survive, we have to find new ways of getting people – at all levels – to participate in decision-making that promotes and encourages the sustainable use and management of all biological resources, including sea turtles. Networking, information-sharing, and genuine capacity building is the first and perhaps the most important step in this process.