August 2011: Two hundred of the world's rarest tortoises have been seized in Madagascar, as during an attempt to smuggle them out of the country to Indonsia. Two men have been arrested.
Frontier Police found 26 ploughshare tortoises, 169 radiated tortoises and a spider tortoise in a box and three large bags that were transported directly to the tarmac, circumventing security scanners, according to local media reports.
very rare ploughshare tortoises
Upon scanning the bags, authorities discovered the tortoises hidden inside and proceeded to arrest two men, one of whom had already boarded the flight. The two arrested were a Malagasy and an Indian national.
Just a few hundred left in the wild
All three tortoise species only occur naturally in Madagascar - and there are thought to be only a few hundred ploughshare tortoises left in the wild. All three tortoises are classified by the IUCN as Critically Endangered.
Their international commercial trade is banned under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), yet these species frequently turn up in seizures and are seen for sale in markets of South-East Asia.
Earlier this year, TRAFFIC released the results of its investigations in Thailand, which found more than 100 radiated tortoises, dozens of spider tortoises, and three ploughshare tortoises for sale in markets and online. And in February, authorities in Bangkok arrested an Indonesian national with seven radiated and one ploughshare tortoise in his bags at Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
100 tortoises leave Madagscar each week
A WWF survey published last year showed that ten or more zebu carts filled with about 100 tortoises each are leaving the Mahafaly Plateau in south Madagascar every week, and pointed to ongoing political instability as the driver for the large jump in illegal collection of spider tortoises and radiated tortoises.
‘Those involved in apprehending these criminals in Ivato are to be congratulated,' says Chris Shepherd, deputy regional director of TRAFFIC South East Asia.
‘Responsibility does not lie with Madagascar alone, but also with importing countries. The authorities in Indonesia and other parts of South East Asia should take firm and immediate action against those trading in these species and put an end to this illicit trade.'
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/tortoise-smuggling.html#cr
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!