At the 25th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention) in Strasbourg, France, the issue of the critically endangered Mediterranean green turtles nesting at Akamas Peninsula in Cyprus, was again discussed. This was first brought to the Convention’s attention by MEDASSET in 1996 and has been discussed each year since then.

The Cypriot Government’s delegate informed the Standing Committee that Cyprus’s Council of Ministers had agreed to put a proposal to Parliament regarding a Sustainable Management Plan for Akamas. The representative for the Cyprus Conservation Foundation (Terra Cyprie) pointed out that the Council of Ministers had made similar proposals in 2000 and 2002 that had never been realised. She recommended that the Case File on Akamas remain open thus ensuring that the situation be monitored further, with the Cypriot Government reporting back to the Convention on whether or not the Council of Ministers’ words became actions.

MEDASSET’s delegate also opposed closure of the file, pointing out that in 2004 the Case File on the second most important nesting beach in the Mediterranean for green turtles, Kazanli (Turkey), was “provisionally” closed when the Turkish Delegate assured the Committee that certain of the Convention’s Recommendations had been implemented. As was discovered during an on site assessment in September this year and outlined in MEDASSET’s 2005 Follow-up Report to the Convention, contrary to Turkish Delegate’s claims the situation in Kazanli had seriously deteriorated. With the Case File “provisionally” closed no information from the Turkish Government was presented to the 25th Meeting on this issue; moreover the Turkish Delegation was absent. As a result the Standing Committee was unable to monitor progress in Kazanli during 2005.

A discussion ensued and the Committee decided to keep the Case File on Akamas open.