Turtle research and monitoring database: a TREDS of summary Pacific turtle data recorded from 1970 to 2018

Abstract

The Turtle Research and monitoring Database System (TREDS) was developed in 1993, to allow members of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to store, collate, and organise their data for research, monitoring and reporting. This tool is intended to assist members in making informed decisions regarding turtle conservation in the region. The dataset extracted from TREDS is from 1970 to 2018 and has been manipulated for the chapters covered in this report. The difference in dates for the establishment of TREDS in 1993 and the beginning of the date of the dataset of 1970 is simply due to users submitting their existing turtle data from 1970 once the database was launched in 1993, since many users saw the importance of TREDS as a lepository for storing their historical turtle data that was probably stored in paper format or on computers that would be susceptible to corruption or crashes. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the data contained within TREDS since its development up until its upgrade to a web-based online database platform. The last TREDS Annual Report was published in 2009 with subsequent Country reports published until 2015.