Protecting Sea Turtles on Littoral Islands in the Veneto
In the frame of its support to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) initiatives to defend the environment and biodiversity, UNESCO Venice Office will host on 16 June 2011, during the Sea Turtle Week (14-19 June, organized by WWF), “The Protection of Sea Turtles on Littoral Islands in the Veneto and Biodiversity in the Upper Adriatic”. This awareness-raising event aims at familiarizing people with the protocol for the protection of sea turtles on littoral islands in the Veneto signed on past 18 April at Palazzo Zorzi.
Signatories of the Protocol are: WWF Italy, the Natural History Museum in Venice, the Natural History Museum in Jesolo, Veneto Regional Agriculture agency and the Department of Clinical Veterinary Science at the University of Padua.
The first five sea turtles were released into the sea on 8 June after having been rescued and nursed back to health. This event took place at the WWF oasis Dune degli Alberoni, on Venice’s Lido Island, and involved local authorities and over 200 school children. Of the 7 species of sea turtles that live in the sea worldwide, 3 inhabit the Mediterranean (Caretta caretta, the green turtle Chelonia mydas, and the lute turtle Dermochelys coriacea). Today their chances of survival are increasingly at risk, especially due to the impact of human activity. Growing urbanization along coastlines and uncontrolled tourism endanger nesting grounds and newborn turtles when they make their way to the sea. The number of turtles caught accidentally by fishing boats – often losing their lives – is on the increase.
Biodiversity plays a vital role in human well-being and in maintaining the life support system on Earth. UNESCO, through its support for the natural, social and human sciences, culture and its diversity and, education and communication, contributes in a multidisciplinary way to tackling the root causes of biodiversity erosion and loss that can be attributed to unsustainable development. UNESCO and its MAB Programme support biodiversity research through in situ and remote observations using space technologies to monitor biosphere reserves. Integrated approaches to biodiversity monitoring are used; these consider not only ecological parameters, but also social, economic and cultural factors. The main body of biodiversity research and monitoring is done by the MAB Ecosystem Networks.