Marine turtle conference in Guyana

Guyana Chronical 18/06/00

PLANS are being finalised at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)'s regional office in Suriname for the fourth annual marine turtle conference here next month end.

The meeting is a follow-up to one around the same time last year in Mana, French Guiana, and is being coordinated by the WWF under its Guiana Forests & Environmental Conservation Project (GFECP).

According to head of the WWF local office, Dr Patrick Williams, who is a party to the talks in Suriname, their objective is to bring together regional stakeholders in marine turtle conservation primarily to discuss the many problems they have in common.

By regional is meant stakeholders originating in the three Guianas - Guyana, Suriname and Guyane (French Guiana).

Additionally, they will be looking at ways of developing strategies for dealing with some of the problematic issues long-term and working out a regional marine turtle conservation programme.

Secretary of the Guyana Marine Turtle Conservation Society (GMTCS), Ms Annette Arjoon, said issues discussed at last year's caucus included the use of DNA testing in establishing relationship between species common to the Guianas, including Trinidad and Venezuela.

She said all the grouping had to rely on initially was VHF satellite tracking which was only able to clock the distance turtles travel during their migratory period.

The meeting had also looked at ways of collaborating on common issues, sharing information, and getting proper legislation in place.

The GFECP is a conservation initiative launched by the WWF in 1998 which primarily targets the forest and fresh-water ecosystems of the three Guianas.

GMTCS recently received substantial funding under this programme to get its `Kamwatta Beach' project off the ground.

Kamwatta is part of the nearly 100-mile long `Shell Beach' nature reserve in the North West District which has been earmarked for preservation under the National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP).

Meanwhile, GMTCS has been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be the lead agency in the development of `Shell Beach'.

Other agencies involved in the management of the project are Conservation International (CI), the Santa Rosa Conservation Club, the Tourism Department of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry, Shell Beach Adventures, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) arm of the Local Government Ministry, the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC).

Among activities for which the group will be held responsible are public awareness, data gathering, identifying research gaps, training and capacity building and establishing linkages with local and foreign institutions.

It is also to look at establishing a management authority and sourcing funding for the project's many activities.