International experts on the sea turtle met on the West African archipelago of São Tome on Monday for a two-day conference on saving the creatures from extinction.
Organised by the non-government group Marapa with the support of the French embassy in São Tome, west of Gabon in the Gulf of Guinea, the conference aims to encourage the local authorities and population to protect the turtles, which lay their eggs on the islands’ beaches from September to April.
”The sea turtles are threatened with disappearance throughout the world. But here in São Tome, where all five species present in the Atlantic are found, almost nothing is done to protect them,” said Bastien Loloum, a French member of Marapa.
The turtles — some species of which can grow to more than 2m long — are threatened in this poor African country by the trade in their meat, eggs and objects made from their shells. Among other threats are crabs and dogs raiding the turtles’ egg nests.
Members of Marapa remove eggs laid under the sand by turtles and put them in secure incubators to hatch. They are then released into the ocean from where they migrate to Brazil to grow up before returning about three decades to lay.
A European Union conservation programme, entitled Kudu, is under way to protect sea turtles in the Gulf of Guinea. It involves tagging turtles and compiling a database on them as well as training local guards and organising patrols in the areas where they lay their eggs.
São Tome has signed but not ratified the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. — Sapa-AFP