The Second International Congress on Chelonian Conservation was held in Saly, Senegal in late June 2003.The meeting was organized by SOPTOM in collaboration with the Government of Senegal. CMS wants to promote the further development and implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding concerning Conservation Measures for Marine Turtles of the Atlantic Coast of Africa (Abidjan MoU). Therefore the event was of particular interest to CMS.

Two resolutions to support the further implementation of the Abidjan MoU were adopted. The first one urges the European Union, France, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom to sign the MoU. These European countries, besides having overseas territories in the area of application of the Memorandum, are directly involved in fishing activities in the waters of several West African countries. By-catch actually constitutes at present a major threat to marine turtles along West African coast. It is estimated that thousands of turtles are accidentally killed each year.

A second resolution related to the impact of fisheries was adopted calling upon the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to support the development and implementation of the Abidjan MoU by co-operating with IUCN France and CMS within the context of its Sustainable Fisheries and Livelihoods Programme (SFLP). In addition, a full day session on marine turtles and two meetings of the Programme for the conservation of marine turtles in West Africa (also known as the Kudu programme) were held during the congress. CMS was represented by Mr. Jacques Fretey, a renowned expert, who has given a decisive input to the development of the Abidjan MoU.

Six Marine turtle species occur in 26 Range States from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Cape of Good Hope. They are all listed in CMS Appendices I and II and assessed as critically endangered or endangered by the IUCN Red Data Book. Jacques Fretey has recently undertaken an in-depth review of the status of these species along West African coast on behalf of CMS in the volume Biogeography and conservation of Marine Turtles of the Atlantic coast of Africa (CMS Technical Series Publication No.6).