Résumé
In the year 2000, countries bordering on the West Indian Ocean requested assistance in the management of the living resources and associated habitats of their shared marine ecosystems. In response, the World Bank initiated, under the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the development of a multi-national fisheries management and development programme called the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Project (SWIOFP). This project involves 9 different countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Mozambique, Seychelles, Madagascar, South Africa, Mauritius and La Reunion (France) and should begin in 2006. One of its components is related to interaction between biodiversity and fisheries and includes the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) as it exists in the WIO. Even if locally, the green turtle behaviour is well known during the feeding and the reproduction periods, the lack of global overview of the movement between the successive habitats does not permit appropriate conservation measures to be taken at a regional level. Indeed, even though the green turtle is present in different countries of the area, the spatial dynamics of this migratory species, which periodically moves hundreds of kilometres between the feeding grounds and the nesting sites, is still poorly known. This duality in nesting and feeding areas and the great distances of migration involved necessitated regional cooperation between the different countries concerned. To this end, the SWIOFP project will develop actions related to the study of the movement of green turtles between nesting sites and foraging areas in the WIO. More than 100 satellite transmitters will be attached to green turtles, in several phases, at different habitats and sites.