Environment
West African marine turtles difficult to protect

afrol News, 21 May - According to a new university study, no less than four West African countries need to collaborate if an endangered species of marine turtle is to be protected. The green turtles are more migratory than earlier believed, rendering necessary conservation cooperation by Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.

According to scientists at the University of Wales Swansea yesterday announced the early results of a project to track the migratory habits of the green turtle - or Chelonia mydas - via a technique known as satellite telemetry. Their findings show that the species has a far more complicated life cycle than previously thought.

These turtles range over wide temporal and spatial scales and a turtle tagged in Guinea-Bissau can later turn up in The Gambia or far-away Mauritania. "Up until now their migration routes have been largely unknown," explained Swansea scientist Brendan Godley. "Filling in the gaps in our knowledge has meant gluing transmitters to the carapaces of selected nesting turtles and tracking where they go next."

A further conservation issue is that the species is subject to heavy direct exploitation and also suffers from incidental capture in fisheries. Understanding where they go, and when, gives scientists the best chance of making recommendations for their protection, the scientists defend their study's methods.

- When you look at the tracking information and discover that one particular turtle moved through the waters of Guinea Bissau, into Senegal and then onto The Gambia and Mauritania, you realise what hazards would have been met along the way and how much needs to be done to protect them, concluded Godley. 

Conservation of marine turtle species indeed is taken seriously by West African governments. In Mauritania, for example, turtles are protected by national legislation. Mauritania's large national park Banc d'Arguin is one of the green turtles' principal nesting areas in West Africa. The park's extensive marine zone includes an exceptional reserve of sea grasses, making it the most important West African feeding ground for this species. Four species of marine turtles are known in Mauritania, according to an earlier study by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). 

Senegal also actively protects marine turtles and a key network of protected coastal areas, including three national parks, guarantees the habitat of the at least five species present. The government sponsors the monitoring of several nesting sites and a public information campaign to raise awareness. Also the very short Gambian coast includes four areas classified as protected. 

Impoverished Guinea-Bissau is one of the riches areas in the whole region regarding marine turtles. An important network of protected areas exists, especially comprising of big parts of the Boloma-Bijagos archipelago, the CMS study documents. 

An issue seldom raised by conservation scientists is however the unilateral burden given local government and local populations. While marine turtles use to dominate all coasts, they are now close to exterminated in the rich world, using coastal zones intensively. Conservationists now pressure poor nations to take the burden of setting aside their costs to conserve the world's last turtles.

Local populations should be prevented from their traditional turtle exploitation, most reports hold. The Imraguen fishermen - the guardians of the Mauritanian Banc d'Arguin park - are an example. Having exploited the marine turtle resource in a sustainable way for thousands of years - contrary to the West - they are now criminalized when hunting occasional turtles. 

Sources: Based on Swansea University, CMS and afrol archives

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