Sebastian Troëng

Conservation International

Seascapes are large, multiple‐use marine areas, defined scientifically and strategically, in which government authorities, private organizations, and other stakeholders cooperate to conserve the diversity and abundance of marine life and promote human well‐being. This approach has been applied by global nonprofit partnerships in five seascapes acro...

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a major impact on conservation policies and practice at multiple scales, including protected and conserved areas (PCAs). There is a need to understand the implications for PCAs of recent actions, enacted or promoted in the wake of COVID-19. To fill this knowledge gap, we reviewed economic stimulus packages and other...

Ahead of landmark biodiversity and climate conferences in 2021, China's policy innovations in land-use planning and the Ecological Conservation Redline offer lessons for other countries in developing integrated strategies on climate, biodiversity, and desertification. Spatial planning is also critical for greening international supply chains and th...

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a dramatic impact on the global community; on people's lives and health, livelihoods, economies, and behaviours. Most zoonotic disease pandemics, including COVID-19, arise from the unsustainable exploitation of nature. This special editorial provides a snapshot of how protected and conserved areas around the world ar...

A levy on fossil fuels can support and restore ecosystems that help to stem climate change. A levy on fossil fuels can support and restore ecosystems that help to stem climate change. A man rides a horse through rainforest in the Bribri indigenous territory in the Talamanca mountains, Costa Rica

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La separación geográfica entre los hábitats para la alimenta-ción, el refugio y la reproducción de las tortugas marinas ha-ce que éstas realicen migraciones extensas.Para estudiar este fenómeno,se han utilizado análisis genéticos,marcaje y tele-metría,y con ellos se ha demostrado que pueden nadar cien-tos o hasta miles de kilómetros desde las playa...

Many human populations are dependent on marine ecosystems for a range of benefits, but we understand little about where and to what degree people rely on these ecosystem services. We created a new conceptual model to map the degree of human dependence on marine ecosystems based on the magnitude of the benefit, susceptibility of people to a loss of...

Hundreds of millions of people obtain nutrition and livelihoods from small-scale fisheries, many of which are fully exploited or overexploited. However, we lack a comprehensive approach for analyzing which factors affect management performance. We conducted a literature review of approximately 390 studies to assess drivers of success for different...

Maps of natural capital - the species and ecosystems that support economic activity and human well-being - are needed by governments to support sustainable development planning, by development banks seeking to make decisions about project investments, by companies seeking to meet sustainability targets, and by civil society organizations seeking to...

Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries contain fish stocks of critical importance for millions of individuals and thousands of fishing communities. These fish stocks harvested by small-scale fisheries (SSF) come from some of the richest and most diverse ecosystems of the world. This emphasizes the need for ecosystem stewardship that can contr...

In recent decades, many marine populations have experienced major declines in abundance, but we still know little about where management interventions may help protect the highest levels of marine biodiversity. We used modeled spatial distribution data for nearly 12,500 species to quantify global patterns of species richness and two measures of end...

Management of the critically endangered hawksbill turtle in the Wider Caribbean (WC) has been hampered by knowledge gaps regarding stock structure. We carried out a comprehensive stock structure re-assessment of 11 WC hawksbill rookeries using longer mtDNA sequences, larger sample sizes (N = 647), and additional rookeries compared to previous surve...

Categories in which RMUs for each species occurred (including critical data needs RMUs). Categories: HR-HT = High risk-High threats; HR-LT = High risk-Low threats; LR-LT = Low risk-Low threats; LR-HT = Low risk-High threats. (DOCX)

Paired risk and threats scores for RMUs of each marine turtle species. (A) loggerheads (Caretta caretta), (B) green turtles (Chelonia mydas), (C) leatherbacks (Dermochelys coriacea, (D) hawskbills (Eretmochelys imbricata), (E) olive ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea), (F) Kemp's ridleys (Lepidochelys kempii) and flatbacks (Natator depressus). Vertical...

Scoring system for population size criterion in risk matrix. Numbers are average annual nesting females for the most recent survey data available. (DOCX)

List of Regional Management Unit (RMU) codes used in Fig. 1. Species: Caretta caretta, loggerhead; Chelonia mydas, green turtle; Dermochelys coriacea, leatherback; Eretmochelys imbricata, hawksbill; Lepidochelys kempii, Kemp's ridley; Lepidochelys olivacea, olive ridley; Natator depressus, flatback. (DOCX)

Bibliography of literature used to score risk and threats criteria. (PDF)

Areas of Competence for Regional Fishery Bodies (RFB) with a management mandate. RFB acronyms: CCAMLR: Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources; CCBSP: Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea; CCSBT: Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna; GFCM: Genera...

Complete dataset used to score all criteria in Risk and Threats matrices, as well as data uncertainty scores. (XLS)

Complete list of SWOT – The State of the World's Sea Turtles data providers. (XLS)

Where conservation resources are limited and conservation targets are diverse, robust yet flexible priority-setting frameworks are vital. Priority-setting is especially important for geographically widespread species with distinct populations subject to multiple threats that operate on different spatial and temporal scales. Marine turtles are widel...

Summary of Regional Management Units (RMUs) for marine turtles worldwide, including number of nesting sites and genetic stocks contained within each RMU. (DOC)

Metadata associated with each layer synthesized to generate Regional Management Units. (XLS)

Complete list of SWOT – The State of the World's Sea Turtles data providers. (XLS)

Background: Resolving threats to widely distributed marine megafauna requires definition of the geographic distributions of both the threats as well as the population unit(s) of interest. In turn, because individual threats can operate on varying spatial scales, their impacts can affect different segments of a population of the same species. There...

Chiriqui Beach, in the Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé on the Caribbean coast of Panama, is the most important nesting beach for leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in Caribbean Central America. Beach surveys during the 2003 and 2004 nesting seasons documented 3077 leatherback nests in one season and a minimum of 234 individual leatherbacks. Monitoring...

Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting activity was monitored, individual movements via flipper tag recoveries and satellite telemetry were determined, and illegal egg collection was quantified at Tortuguero, Costa Rica from 1995 to 2006. Annual nest deposition was estimated at 199–1,623 nests per year; a Bayesian regression model sugges...

Aim To critically review the status of the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) using the best available scientific studies as there is a prevailing view that this species is globally endangered and its marine ecosystem functions compromised. Location Ogasawara (Japan), Hawaii (USA), Great Barrier Reef (Australia), Florida (USA), Tortuguero (Costa Ric...

We analyzed a large dataset to quantify adult annual survival probability and remigration intervals for the Tortuguero, Costa Rica green turtle population. Annual survival probability was estimated at 0.85 (95% CI 0.75–0.92) using a recovery model and at 0.85 (95% CI 0.83–0.87) using an open robust design model. The two most common modes of remigra...

To study the movement patterns of Green Seaturtle (Chelonia mydas) populations in the Caribbean region using Cuban habitats, tag-recapture data from local (Cuban National Tagging Program 1989- 2002) and international programs (1959-2002) were compiled and compared. Of the 742 turtles tagged in Cuba at fishing areas, nesting beaches and head-start f...

Introduction Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica is a popular site for tourism, with green turtles representing the main attraction during the June-October period. The number of visitors has increased since the 1980s, with 31,655 and 36,104 tourists participating in turtle tours in 2004 and 2005. Sea turtle tourism generates considerable income...

During 1955–2003, flipper tags were attached to 46,983 green turtles and ten turtles were fitted with satellite transmitters at Tortuguero, Costa Rica. Eight satellite-tracked turtles stayed within 135km of the beach and probably returned to nest after release. The internesting area is more extensive than previously documented. Post-nesting migrati...

The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nesting population at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, is the largest nesting aggregation in the Atlantic, by at least an order of magnitude. Previous mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) surveys based on limited sampling (n = 41) indicated low genetic diversity and low gene flow with other Caribbean nesting colonies. Furthermore, a s...

The hawksbill turtle Eretmochelys imbricata is a widely distributed and critically endangered species that feeds on sponges and fills an important ecological role in the coral reef ecosystem. At Tortuguero, Costa Rica, trend analyses indicate considerable decline in nesting estimated at 77.2–94.5% between 1956 and 2003, as a result of excessive tur...

Worldwide, green turtle Chelonia mydas populations have declined and the species is classified as globally endangered. Tortuguero, Costa Rica, hosts the largest remaining green turtle rookery in the Atlantic basin. Tortuguero green turtles have been hunted since pre-Columbian times. Monitoring and conservation of the green turtle population began i...

Leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea nesting has declined on Pacific beaches and as a result the species is considered Critically Endangered. Atlantic populations are, however, also important for the species' survival and therefore we undertook a study to quantify the size and nesting trend of the Caribbean Costa Rica and Panama leatherback turt...

Sudies of Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) at Tortuguero were initiated by Dr. Archie Carr in 1954(Carr et al. 1978):Since 1959, the Carebbean Conservation Corporation (CCC) has been implementing an annual green turtle program. The protocol for monitoring was revised by CCC staffand Scientific Advisory Committee in preparation for the 1998 nesting se...

Coral reefs are a resource of immense importance for a large number of people, especially the coastal populations of the developing world. Available information on coral reefs in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia has been used to evaluate the ecological services provided by coral reefs and to assess the long-term economic benefits derived from some of t...

Introduction A group of 18 Atlantic leatherback researchers and conservationists met at St Catherines Island, Georgia, USA, January 15-18, 2005. The objectives of the meeting were to: 1) Assess the level of knowledge about Atlantic leatherback turtles, 2) Identify nesting beaches and in-water conservation and research priorities for Atlantic leathe...