With an evolutionary history of more than 200 million years, turtles and tortoises have outlived dinosaurs and persisted on the planet despite mass extinction events. But around the turn of the 21st century, chelonian numbers in Southeast Asia dropped so dramatically that it sparked what biologists called the “Asian turtle crisis.” With a growing middle class in China, turtle meat was no longer a delicacy savored on special occasions; it became a staple meal, and turtle numbers plummeted. Coupled with disappearing and polluted habitats, the demand for these aquatic reptiles threatens to wipe out more than half of the world’s tortoise and turtle species. Yet, harvest and trade continue in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is a prominent exporter, with four of its 39 species targeted for meat. The vulnerable Asiatic softshell turtle (Amyda cartilaginea), the endangered Southeast Asian box turtle (Cuora amboinensis), the Asian leaf turtle (Cyclemys dentata) and the Malayan softshell turtle (Dogania subplana) fill the country’s yearly harvest quota of nearly 50,000 turtles. This legal trade purportedly provides sustainable, reliable income for those who capture and sell them. However, wildlife trade researcher Vincent Nijman and his colleagues refute this claim in a study published in the journal Discover Animals. They compared turtle collectors’ estimated income from the legal meat trade with minimum wage work across different Indonesian provinces to see if it really provided adequate income — and to determine whether traders needed to illegally trade turtles to make it a profitable business. “We were looking for some support…This article was originally published on Mongabay

From Conservation news via This RSS Feed.