R_ISTS41 at a Glance

Name of Organiser(s): Bryan Wallace

Description: The Eastern Pacific Leatherback Network (Red Laúd OPO in Spanish) unites more than 100 members from 12 countries in the Americas working collaboratively for the conservation of the critically endangered leatherback turtle. This workshop will allow members to share experiences and news from their conservation activities, learn from other members, explore collaborations, and plan future activities to be undertaken by the Network. We will also be unveiling the new regional action plan for the Network, which will stimulate much discussion and new ideas about how to turn the plan into action. As with everyone, it will have been more than three years since we were able to meet in-person, and the ISTS is in Latin America, so will be a fantastic forum to come together as a network, and  strengthen our collaborative conservation activities in the region.

Download Workshop Proposal

Name of Organiser(s): Roderic Mast, Rachel Smith, Brian Hutchinson, and Ashleigh Bandimere

Description: Team BEACH (BE A CHangemaker) is an initiative started by the State of the World’s Sea Turtles (SWOT) Program at Oceanic Society and Disney Conservation with the support of AZA-SAFE that aims to encourage human behavior change campaigns and education programs that will result in successful conservation of sea turtles and their habitats. Since its creation in 2018, Team Beach has built a network of projects from around the world that have worked together, shared ideas and resources, and hosted several educational webinars. While many sea turtle conservation organizations implement outreach programs in their communities, not all of them are designed with tangible behavior change goals and evaluation plans. The goal of Team BEACH is to create a network of sea turtle conservationists and behavior change experts who can share case studies, best practices, instructional materials, and stories so that outreach efforts drive behavior change for sea turtle conservation. Prior to ISTS, we will request that members of the Team BEACH network submit real-world conservation issues in their communities that they feel could be addressed through a targeted behavior change campaign. After an
introductory presentation in which we discuss how to create a successful outreach campaign and associated evaluation, we will ask workshop participants to form small groups and brainstorm effective behavior change programs for each of the case studies. We will then ask them to present these solutions back to the larger group and facilitate open discussions about each solution with the group. By the end of the workshop, participants will have learned about tools from behavior change specialists and will have applied those tools to real-life scenarios that sea turtle conservation professionals are facing. They may even create strategies that could be developed and implemented by Team BEACH members.

Download Workshop Proposal

Name of Organiser(s): Michel Anthony Nalovic

Description: Injurious interactions between fishing activities and marine turtles is a theme that concerns conservation (and fisher) communities around the world. As such, ISTS continues to promote the idea that fostering change amongst fishers regarding bycatch and its causal factors is a critical component in achieving sustainable development. Special sessions that address the challenges and best practices of developing working relationships with fishers to address bycatch where held during ISTS New Orleans, USA (2014) and ISTS Lima, Peru (2016). During these sessions, specific attention was given to bycatch issues of immediate importance to the host region (TEDs in US shrimp fisheries; bycatch reduction in Peruvian artisan gillnet fisheries).

Seeing that this year’s ISTS annual meeting is in Caragena, we want to seize the opportunity to host a bycatch session that will bring together fishers and scientists working on bycatch with Caribbean conservationists seeking a deeper understanding of how to reduce bycatch in their local communities. We will encourage all participants, and especially those working in Colombia, to invite fishers who are open to sharing their experience with bycatch and working with scientists/conservationists. During the session we will identify the challenges faced by stakeholders and update participants on recent developments in bycatch knowledge and technologies, both developed in the Wider Caribbean and elsewhere in the world. Case studies with very practical results will be featured; e.g., how bycatch issues were identified/quantified/prioritized, how responses were developed/implemented/evaluated, and what tools can be shared in order to replicate success elsewhere. We will explore bycatch mitigation techniques (gear and human dimensions) that are most likely to be successful in the Wider Caribbean region. Finally, the highlight of this session will be a panel composed of fishers who will present their ideas as to how scientists/conservationists could better approach fishers to get things moving in the right direction.

The overarching goal of the workshop is to give participants a deeper understanding on how we can better foster voluntary behavior changes by fishers in favor of saving turtles, and how conservationists can most effectively support the process.

Download Workshop Proposal