Participants:
Henk Reichart (USA/WIDECAST), Laurent Kelle (French Guiana), Jacques Fretey (French Guiana), Peter Pritchard (Guyana), Romeo de Freitas (Guyana), Annett Arjoon (Guyana), Sandra Ferraroli (French Guiana), Johan Chevalier (French Guiana), Jeroen Swinkels (Suriname), Maartje Hilterman (Surinam), Gregory Talvy (French Guiana), Isabelle Nolibos (French Guiana).

Observers: Solomon Aguillera (Trinidad & Tobago), Suzan Lakhan (Trinidad & Tobago), Hedelvy Guada (Venezuela), Matthew Godfrey (Brazil), Adriana Laura Sarti Martinez, Scott Eckert, James Spotila, Charles Tambiah, Jan Voordouw, Hector Barrios Garrido, Richard Cripps, Dana Wachtel, Barbara Raney, Hannah Gillelan, Gary Sundin, Ana Trujillo, Claudia Penaloza, Marco Garcia, Tatiana Leon, Francisco Gomez, Toribio Mata, Greg Siwers, Andrea Donaldson, Pascal Melot.

Opening and welcome by Henk Reichart

History and objectives
The Regional Sea Turtle Conservation Strategic Action Plan is a WWF effort in collaboration with Widecast, in order to develop a comprehensive plan for and with all organisations involved in sea turtle conservation on every subject involved: governments, local communities, NGOís, fisheries and local >institutional organisations such as universities.

Main issues are institutional strengthening, local involvement, fisheries, research and conservation. Consultants have been involved so far on fisheries and institutional strengthening. At the time of this meeting the document is not yet ready for publication, it still has to be reviewed by all persons and organisations involved. After this, a draft version will be published for comments, after which the plan will be finalised. The document can be used for fundraising and standardising conservation efforts on all levels. It is stressed that the document is just a guideline for action, and that the implementation as such is not a task of WWF.

The document includes the regional status and distribution of sea turtles for the three Guyanas, fisheries threats and impact, land-based threats, a summary of the engaged institutions involved in sea turtle conservation, a summary of institutions in the Guyanas, official or semi-official, a summary of institutions of local communities involved, and includes information of the IUCN/SSC/MTSG publication no. 4 on sea turtle conservation.
It is noted that so far Guyana can be considered the weakest spot in the document because not a lot of information is currently available on various subjects.

Standardisation of methods
It is stressed that this means standardisation of methods and not standardisation of actions, because each of the three Guianas may have its own, different objectives and priorities such as conservation, population biology or nest ecology. For example, in Guyana slaughtering of turtles is still a large problem. Therefore research has no priority as long as direct conservation actions are urgently needed, and the research activities may for the same reason also differ from those in the other two Guianas. Communication is essential for developing and defining standardised methods. It is suggested to use documents on standardization of methods such as the one of Laura Sarti.

It is suggested by Scott Eckert that each country lists its objectives, after which standardised methods will be used for shared objectives. This will subsequently be discussed at the Guayana Shield Symposium in Guyana.

Overview of priorities in each country
1) French Guiana (Laurent Kelle): Until present, work was focussed on monitoring the beaches, which has led to the creation of a nature reserve. However, high sea turtle mortality caused by fisheries makes it necessary to focus more and more on the marine environment, which is already reflected in the implementation of a satellite tracking program. There is a strong lobby to make decision-makers in France and French Guiana aware of the critical situation concerning fishery threads. As a result of this, the French ministry of environment has mandated WWF-France for making guidelines on how to deal with the fisheries problem. It is of great importance to manage both land-based and the marine habitat. Another priority is the management of the tourist flow, because of an increase in tourist activities induced problems on the beaches. Jacques Fretey notes that a few years ago advise was already given to the ministry about this subject, but so far this did not lead to action. Further, large numbers of nesting olive ridleys can be found around the cities, and aggregations of green turtles are known to feed around small islands such as Devil Island. This requires new initiatives on monitoring and management on this subject.

2) Suriname (Henk Reichart): Attention is focussed on the shifting beaches, as the sea turtles are moving with them. Monitoring of beach dynamics and nesting activities on the beaches is ongoing. With regards to protection and conservation good legislation and infrastructure are present. The means to implement these are lacking, however. The biggest problem in Suriname is the lack of personnel, shortage of transportation and facilities. One of the mean priorities is to improve the means to implement the already existing infrastructure. It must be mentioned that the official egg collection has stopped, which is a great achievement. Jeroen Swinkels notes that another priority for Suriname is capacity building among local communities and institutions

3) Guyana (Peter Pritchard): Priority is to keep the turtles alive. All nesting turtles are threatened with immediate slaughter - all possible efforts are needed to prevent this from happening. Furthermore, eggs are collected and relocated to a hatchery, because of poaching and beach erosion. Fisheries surveys are needed, because fisheries (mainly gillnets) cause high sea turtle mortality. Recently a space company for launching satellites bought a large area of land. This is likely to have a positive impact on sea turtle conservation, because a large bufferzone is included in which no people are allowed. Other activities are research on a.o. hatching success and migration, conducting aerial surveys, and sharing these data with neighbouring countries. A shared database would be highly appreciated. Educational programs also have high priority, awareness building among local communities, schoolchildren and so on. It is furthermore tried to start up an alternative meat program, to provide local communities with alternative sources of protein instead of turtle meat.

It is suggested to share insight in documents such as the proposal by Guyana for the organisation of the Guayana Shield workshop in Georgetown and the document on the mandate for WWF for designing guidelines for the Marowijne estuary concerning fishery.

Involvement of other countries in the region
The question rises (Matthew Godfrey, Solomon Aguillere and Hedelvy Guada) whether neighbouring countries such as Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela will also be included in the Guayana Shield Program. They share, to some extent, the same populations so that a close collaboration would be highly valuable. In addition, those countries have expertise which they can share with the three Guianas. It would be shortsighted to let them out of the program. Henk Reichart remarks that indeed a close collaboration and information sharing is needed, but the WWF Guayana Shield Program has been developed exclusively to protect the forest in the three Guianas because they form a geological entity. Sea turtles were included in the program in a later stage. Therefore other countries were not included in the program as such, but this does not exclude them from being an equal party in discussions on each subject.

Hedelvy Guada notes that there should be an advisory group to run the regional management and co-ordinate fine-tuning of methods and actions. Workvisits can play an important role in this. Training courses such as the one being given in Venezuela in April could be shared as well as information and expertise, during regular meetings.

Next Guayana Shield Meeting
The next Guayana Shield Meeting will be held in Georgetown, Guyana. A date still has to be set, but the beginning of August may be most suitable to most parties involved. Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil will also be invited. Laurent Kelle and Jeroen Swinkels offered assistance for the organisation of the workshop in Georgetown, Guyana by means of work visits during the season.