Résumé
Marine turtle study and conservation rely on essential data accumulated over many years owing to their life cycle characteristics. To obtain accurate results of these data and work at a regional level by sharing them, they need to be managed properly and efficiently into appropriate databases. We developed a database combined to a GIS database to centralise and standardise data collected in 8 sites of the southwest Indian Ocean (the French Territories, Moheli (Comoros) and Nosy Iranja (Madagascar)), which apply the same monitoring programs in cooperation. These systems were built according to national and international standards for key data and formats, with a structure that optimises data entry and detection of errors. The database is accessed online, facilitating data sharing and interoperability with other systems, insuring contributor's ownership over their data and credit for their work. The GIS database allowed capturing localised information on turtles and managing habitats information. An important work was done to standardise more than 100 000 data on tagging, crawl counts, nesting and to define all the habitats of the islands monitored for more than 30 years. All these data allowed comparing each area and producing a synthesis of nesting activity, migration behaviour, genetics, and general biology of marine turtles in the sites studied. This synthesis will bring concrete elements for recommendations of priority axes in the framework of the development of a national conservation plan for marine turtles in the French territories and EEZ of the southwest Indian Ocean. This will also contribute to the regional strategy of conservation of marine turtles defined by the IOSEA-MoU.