TropicalCoast 4th new indd

47

Tropical Coasts

protection of marine turtle habitats. 

It addresses research and monitoring, 

community participation, public 

awareness, information exchange and 

education, and capacity building – 

making sure everyone has the skills to do 

what is needed.

But it does all of this in a focused 

manner. RAP sets desired targets. 

For instance, there is great diffi

  culty 

in setting an objective which reads 

“replenish turtle stocks” because there is 

no measureable outcome. When will the 

stocks be considered replenished? When 

numbers double? When they go up by 

10 percent? How will one know that 

the target has been reached? Instead, 

RAP provides desirable targets such as 

“Reduce mortality of eggs and hatchlings 

caused by feral and domestic animals 

by 80 percent within three years.” RAP 

also sets out expected outcomes, with 

timeframes and priority rankings, and 

performance indicators to make sure 

targets are met. The basic premise was to 

provide stakeholders with a document 

which would allow for complementary 

activities, through the provision of a 

suite of activities and goals from which 

to select depending on each nation or 

location’s needs, resources and priorities. 

Conservation is a complex business. By 

its very nature, it demands a wide range 

of approaches and initiatives, from direct 

prohibitions to awareness to provision 

of alternative means of income to 

those impacted by conservation needs. 

It also provides the cornerstone for 

sustainability or the ability of resources 

to keep renewing themselves in light of 

continued pressures. 

The plan draws on previous grey and 

scientifi c literature on the subject, 

discussions held during numerous 

training courses, and a selection of 

varied country projects as the basis 

for determining conservation needs 

and actions which will result in the 

sustainable management of marine 

turtles in the seascape shared by 

the three SSS countries: Indonesia, 

Malaysia and the Philippines. The Plan 

draws its structure and recommended 

courses of action from both the Global 

Strategy for the Conservation of Marine 

Turtles, published by the Marine Turtle 

Specialist Group of the IUCN (The World 

Conservation Union) Species Survival 

Commission, and the Conservation and 

Management Plan which was developed 

as part of the Memorandum of 

Understanding on the Conservation and 

Management of Marine Turtles and their 

Habitats of the Indian Ocean and South-

East Asia (IOSEA), an agreement reached 

under the auspices of the Convention 

on Migratory Species which covers the 

Indian ocean and its associated bodies 

of water, including the Sulu-Sulawesi 

region. The structure of the Plan refl ects 

the combination of the two instruments, 

and where possible, and to avoid 

duplication, attempts to maintain similar 

language for consistency.

Activities to promote the conservation 

of marine turtles and their habitats were 

grouped into eight major categories, 

with actions listed under each of the 

major categories being non-exclusive, 

and often overlapping with actions 

under diff erent components. The main 

components are:

1.  Reducing direct and indirect causes 

of marine turtle mortality;

2.  Protecting, conserving and 

rehabilitating marine turtle habitats;

3.  Research and monitoring;

---

48

July 2008

4. Public awareness, 

information and education;

5. Community participation in 

conservation;

6. Building capacity for conservation, 

research and management;

7. Integrated management for 

marine turtles; and

8. Realizing funding for marine turtle 

conservation.

Timeframes are provided under each 

“expected result and outcome” to 

indicate the number of months that 

will be required to achieve the result 

or outcome, following the formal 

adoption of the RAP. 

Levels of urgency are also provided 

for each action and categorized 

as: Very Urgent, where immediate 

action or intervention is required, 

as for example to protect habitats 

and ecosystems under severe threat; 

Urgent Action, where intervention 

is required to ensure the continued 

viability of species, communities 

or ecosystems of regional or global 

importance; and Priority Action, 

where there is an institutional set up 

or there are ongoing projects and 

opportunities for cooperation with 

existing eff orts. 

The priority designation for each of 

the expected results and outcomes 

was devised using a number of 

criteria, which included the available 

knowledge on the eff ectiveness 

and response times for various 

conservation actions in the past, 

the potential impacts of prescribed 

actions on marine turtle populations, 

the status of marine turtle nesting 

and foraging populations in the 

Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape and beyond, 

and the expected levels of technical 

input and investment of resources 

for the conservation of marine 

turtles and their habitats by the 

various government, research and 

conservation agencies. 

A series of actions/indicators 

complement each section. These are 

based on a SMART programmatic 

approach:

•  Simple  - Is the indicator easily 

interpreted, monitored, and 

appropriate for community use? 

•  Measurable  - Can it be 

statistically verifi ed, reproduced 

and compared? Is it able to be 

aggregated? Is it responsive to 

changes in management? Does it 

show trends over time? 

•  Accessible  - Can it be regularly 

monitored? Is it cost-eff ective? Is it 

consistent with other data sources?

•  Relevant  - Is it related to a valued 

natural resource management 

factor? Is it linked to regional 

natural resource management goals 

and priorities?

•  Timely  - Does it provide an early 

warning of potential problems and 

highlight future needs or issues?

The bottom line is for the conservation 

of turtles at a regional scale to be 

eff ective, and for the Regional Action 

Plan to have a realistic chance of 

succeeding in future years. Thus, 

the Plan proposes that all future 

conservation actions will need to 

be built upon four fundamental 

foundations: 

1.  having a clear logical pathway 

that maps the routes from 

implementation to conservation 

outcomes; 

2.  setting realistic outputs, measurable 

deliverables, and long-term 

objectives; 

Jüergen Freund

---