he Pacific BioScapes Programme, funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), has launched a series of regional and national training workshops focused on Pacific sea turtle conservation, monitoring, and surveying. Timed to align with turtle nesting and hatching seasons, the field-based capacity-building initiative began this November in the Solomon Islands, led by Ika Bula Consultants.
The six-day training, from 6-11 November, 2025, held in Baniata on Rendova Island (Western Province), an important nesting site for critically endangered leatherback turtles, brought together representatives from government agencies, including the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster and Meteorology, and the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, as well as non-government organisations such as The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the Tetepare Descendants’ Association (TDA). The training also included community representatives: TNC’s women turtle rangers from Isabel Province, turtle rangers from the Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area (ACMCA) in Isabel and Choiseul Provinces, and TDA rangers based in Western Province.
