Conservation of Pacific Sea Turtles

Appendix: Action Plan Developed by the Nesting Beach Working Group as Part of the Bellagio Sea Turtle Conservation Initiative Workshop Held in Terengganu, Malaysia (July 2007)

427 Appendix Action Plan Developed by the Nesting Beach Working Group as Part of the Bellagio Sea Turtle Conservation Initiative Workshop Held in Terengganu, Malaysia (July 2007) Recent studies show that the western Pacific leatherbacks consist of a metapopulation composed of scattered small aggregations nesting on the islands and areas throughout the region, with a dense focal point on the northwestern coast of Papua Barat, Indonesia (Dutton et al. 2007). Populations in the Pacific have collapsed, and although there are still relatively large numbers of leatherbacks nesting on the Bird’s Head Peninsula of Papua, there is great concern that without immediate action to ensure effective nesting beach conservation, this population will also disappear. There are opportunities to immediately enact conservation measures through community-based initiatives on the nesting beaches to dramatically increase hatchling production before these populations collapse. This is a priority that has been highlighted in a recent regional action plan for leatherbacks in the Pacific (Bellagio Conference on Sea Turtles Steering Committee 2004), as well as in other regional forums such as the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation and Management of Marine Turtles and Their Habitats of the Indian Ocean and South-East (IOSEA MoU), and the Bismarck Solomon Seas Ecoregion (BSSE) Tri-National Agreement between Indonesia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Solomon Islands to coordinate conservation of leatherbacks. Other threats, such as traditional take of adults and juveniles in foraging areas in the Kai Islands (Suarez and Starbird 1996) and incidental capture in high-seas and coastal fisheries, are also of concern 428 | Appendix and need to be addressed as part of a broad suite of measures to achieve population recovery in the long run (Dutton and Squires 2008). This action plan represents a cohesive regional effort to address the immediate and long-term conservation activities focused on nesting beaches. The plan is designed and implemented by a network of government agencies, international and local nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, and village communities. This plan describes nesting beach activities and management needs in Papua Barat, Indonesia; Papua New Guinea; Solomon Islands; Vanuatu; Malaysia; and Vietnam. For each country the following information is provided : background and current situation, list of issues to be addressed, followed by description of each issue, current actions, future actions required, and performance metrics. Indonesia 1. Papua Barat: Jamursba-Medi and Wermon 2. Alas Purwo–East Java and Bali Background and Current Situation Papua Barat Despite the dramatic decline in Pacific leatherback populations in the past few decades (Spotila et al. 2000), and the loss in nesting numbers on beaches in the eastern Pacific and in Malaysia (Chan and Liew 1996; Sarti Mart ínez et al. 2007), the Jamursba-Medi and Wermon beaches in Papua Barat, Indonesia, remain one of the last major and promising nesting beaches for leatherbacks in the Pacific (Hitipeuw and Maturbongs 2002; Suganuma 2006; Dutton et al. 2007; Hitipeuw et al. 2007). Jamursba-Medi Beach spans 18 km of coastline and includes three beaches—Warmamedi, Batu Rumah, and Wembrak—where peak nesting takes place between March and September . At 6 km long Wermon Beach, which lies approximately 30 km east of Jamursba-Medi, peak nesting occurs between October and March. In the 1980s, Bhaskar (1987) estimated 13,000 nests in a season in JamursbaMedi ; by 2007, between 1,865 and 3,601 nests were recorded each season at Jamursba-Medi and 1,788–2,881 nests at Wermon (Hitipeuw et al. 2007). Suganuma (unpublished data) recorded 1,360 nests at Jamursba-Medi and 1,014 nests at Wermon in 2006. The authorities responsible for the management of the nesting beach include the local district government, the Nature Conservation Agency, and Appendix | 429 the Department of Forestry (BKSDA II), but the beach monitoring is carried out by the nongovernmental organizations WWF-Indonesia, Yayasan Alam Lestari (YAL), and the University of Papua (UNIPA) through the employment of villagers from the communities on the beach. Monitoring work in Papua Barat has focused essentially on the size of the nesting population , protection of females and nests, and conservation efforts with local communities (Hitipeuw and Maturbongs 2002; Suganuma 2006; Hitipeuw et al. 2007). However, discussions with the local communities and recent research have suggested chronically low hatchling production, especially on Jamursba-Medi. Tapilatu and Tiwari (2007) found that mean hatching success in nests undisturbed by pig predation was 9.3% at Wembrak, 44.7% at Batu Rumah, and 31.4% at Warmamedi...