2nd Mediterranean Sea Turtle Conference: “Talking Turtles”!

The 2nd Mediterranean Conference on Sea Turtles, 4-7 May 2005 in Kemer, Turkey, was supported and largely funded by the Barcelona, Bonn and Bern Conventions. The Turkish Ministry of the Environment and Forestry hosted the event. WWF Turkey helped organize the Conference.

Governmental, inter- and non-governmental organizations, biologists, conservationists and all-important volunteers attended. This important meeting brought together 177 participants from 16 Mediterranean countries, including eleven participants from MEDASSET.

The forum allowed a critical exchange of data and made possible vitally needed collaboration and networking in the fight to save the Mediterranean sea turtles. The myriad of difficulties and some successes experienced by local and international initiatives were discussed.

Among the many new and informative presentations and workshops two key topics were of particular interest: Tagging Standardization, organized by RAC/SPA (UNEP/MAP) and the Regional Red Listing Assessment, organized by the IUCN’s MTSG.

MEDASSET presented five co-authored papers: “Environmental Awareness and Education–Keys to Conservation”; “A Review of Sea Turtle Conservation in Turkey”; “Marine Turtle Nesting in El Mansouri, South Lebanon”; “Aspects of Intra-Community Diversity in Sea Turtle Conservation”; and organised a Workshop on “Turtle Education for Tourists–Identifying Best Practice.”

It was announced that the next Mediterranean Conference would be held in Spring 2008, in Tunisia. In the meantime the 26th International Mediterranean Sea Turtle Symposium will be held in Crete, Greece, April 4-8, 2006. The Mediterranean countries will have a pre-symposium regional meeting on April 3-4, 2006, at the same venue.

MEDASSET