Here are some suggestions of events and activities that you might like to organise.  They are based on the five core themes of the Year of the Turtle campaign.  Feel free to propose other initiatives not mentioned.  They might even involve an extension of existing and ongoing marine turtle conservation work. Share your ideas on the 'Turtle Talk' Discussion Forum.

• Organise and host a special ‘Day of the Turtle’ – this could involve a public festival or street parade with a focus on celebrating marine turtles. It could be timed to coincide with the YoT launch (1 March 2006). Invite local dignitaries and the media to take part!

• Invite a celebrity who is interested in marine turtles to be a YoT Ambassador. Use their status to increase public awareness of marine turtles and get them involved with high-profile campaign events, such as tagging or tracking turtles.

• Develop a range of YoT merchandise such as T-shirts, caps, or drink holders. Ask if your postal service could produce a YoT stamp. Use this merchandise as giveaways or as rewards for participation in conservation activities.

• Produce leaflets, brochures, pamphlets and posters in your native language to educate the public about the value of marine turtles and their habitats.

• Encourage local journalists to write features about issues important to marine turtles in the media.

• Organise a turtle art competition (or photo competition) that encourages participation of local school students and the general public. 

• Promote the YoT by downloading a YoT electronic button to link to IOSEA YoT web site

• Find a marine turtle conservation group and share in their work with  local communities to help conserve turtles. If your country has not already signed on to the IOSEA MoU, lobby your Government to become a member.

• Initiate a community 'Turtle-Cop' beach programme that uses volunteers to help monitor and self-enforce regulations aimed at reducing egg poaching and unsustainable harvest of meat and shell.

• Encourage the next generation to care for marine turtles - organise educational visits to local schools and introduce turtle biology and conservation into the school curriculum.

• Identify and nominate sites that are important for turtles in your country, and lobby for their protection and inclusion in the IOSEA Site Network.

• Organise a community clean-up day on an important nesting beach for marine turtles. Invite local schools to participate.

• Develop a code of practice for sustainable tourism – build relationships with coastal resort developers and tourism authorities and encourage them to ensure that their resorts are ‘turtle friendly’ (for example by altering beach-front lighting). Offer training for resort staff and develop educational material on turtles for tourists

• Organise workshops to educate and inform local fishermen about measures they can take to reduce marine turtle by-catch in their fishing operations.

• Organise a 'Fishing Awareness' month in partnership with local fishing groups and relevant government agencies, to emphasise and reward best fishing practices that minimise turtle by-catch.

• Encourage local fishing groups and government agencies to work together and develop a strategy to address the issue of marine turtle by-catch.

• Compile a list of the research that has been completed on marine turtles in your country. Review information gaps and identify key questions that remain to be answered through additional, targeted research.

• Develop proposals, apply for funding grants and seek financial support to complete new and ongoing research.

• Organise and conduct a national census of nesting turtle populations; survey foraging areas that may not have been investigated systematically in the past.

• Study how local communities interact with and use turtles.

• Consider whether or not there is value in setting up a coordinated national tagging programme (assess first the long-term feasibility of such a programme and whether it would address a particular research need).