Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST)

Working to “secure a future where humans and sea turtles can live together in balance,” the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST) is an innovative, proactive and inclusive mechanism for sustainable development on a regional scale.

Since 1981, the WIDECAST network, with Country Coordinators in more than 40 Caribbean nations and territories, has linked scientists, conservationists, resource managers, resource users, policy-makers, industry groups, educators and other stakeholders together in a collective effort to develop a unified management framework.

WIDECAST’s short‑term objectives are to provide Wider Caribbean governments with updated information on the status of sea turtles in the region, to provide specific recommendations for the management and recovery of endangered, threatened, and vulnerable sea turtle stocks, and to assist governments in the discharge of their obligations under national law and international agreements. Longer‑term, the goal is to promote a regional capability to implement scientifically sound sea turtle management and conservation programs, enabling a collective regional response to reversing population declines.

By bringing the best available science to bear on decision-making (at all levels), emphasizing information exchange and training, and encouraging harmonized practices, the network has been instrumental in creating conservation models, encouraging community involvement, and raising public awareness, and in sharing this approach with other regions of the world, to broader benefit.For more information on WIDECAST, and its partnership with the UNEP Caribbean Environment Programme, visit www.widecast.org.