A Marine Turtle Conservation Strategy and Action Plan for the Western Indian Ocean (1996)

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IUCN. 1996. A Marine Turtle Conservation Strategy and Action Plan for the Western Indian Ocean.

The Western Indian Ocean Sea Turtle Workshop and Strategic Planning Session, organized by IUCN East African Regional Office (EARO) and the IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group and hosted by the Natal Parks Board in Sodwana Bay, South Africa from 12-18 November 1995, was the first regional meeting on sea turtles to be convened under the umbrella of A Global Strategy for the Conservation of Marine Turtles. The Global Strategy lists actions which need to be taken at local, national, and regional levels to conserve sea turtles but specifically recommends that actions be coordinated at the regional level.

The workshop brought together representatives and scientists from Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar, Mozambique, South Africa, Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles, and France, including La Reunion and other islands, to discuss and address issues of regional concern for the conservation of sea turtles.

The resulting document, A Marine Turtle Conservation Strategy and Action Plan for the Western Indian Ocean, was formulated through a series of national presentations and group discussions designed to determine key issues in sea turtle conservation at national and regional levels. In particular, discussions focused on those topics where national issues and needs require or would benefit from being addressed at a regional level. The regional strategy thus contains actions which can be taken to address common problems and needs, as well as actions which are international or regional in scope.