The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), in collaboration with WWF South Pacific Programme and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), coordinated a Pacific Islands region marine turtle meeting from 14-15 February 2009, in Australia, prior to the International Sea Turtle Society’s 29th Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation.

The meeting discussed regional experiences on turtle conservation, and stressed the need for more Pacific-wide collaboration and information sharing with research on nesting populations. Attention also focused on the development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for marine turtles under the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), which was approved by the CMS Conference of the Parties in 2005, with little progress achieved to date. While some felt that it might be necessary to conduct an analysis of existing agreements or other form of arrangements to determine whether such an MoU was necessary, it was also recommended that another meeting be held to discuss the matter and encourage further development.
Link to further information
SPREP press release, 12 March 2009