The turtles used to come from China, at least they did in the 1970s. But a dramatic increase in turtle imports suggests that China has run out of its own turtles and therefore is importing turtles from all over South and Southeast Asia. Some even come from the United States. One estimate says imports have increased more than tenfold since 1977.
According to Pro Wildlife, a group based in Germany, one report said that in 1977 Hong Kong imported 139,200 kg of food turtles. In 1991, the imports increased to 680,582 kg and in the first 10 months of 1994 1,800,024 kg were imported. By 1996 this had increased to 3.5 million kg. It takes an awful lot of turtles to produce that much weight. In Vietnam, Pro Wildlife says, only 10 percent of the turtles are sold for local consumption; the go to Hong Kong. One investigation reported that about 1.84 to 18.4 tons of turtles and tortoises exported from Vietnam per day.
Pro Wildlife says that all of South and Southeast Asian species of turtles, which represent a quarter of the world's turtle species, have been declining rapidly over the past decade because of this Chinese appetite. Some species are believed to already be extinct because they have't been seen in the markets for years. Others appear to be well on their way to extinction because they are more and more rare. Populations of some others are a mystery because they are only from the food markets and no one knows anything about their populations in the wild. One Indian population is reported to have decreased by 90 percent in the last decade, another by 80 percent. One species is down to only nine known specimens. The demand for one highly desirable species has pushed its value to $1,000 each. Pro Wildlife, other nongovernment organizations and several countries are submitting this information and recommendations for turtle protection to CITES for discussion at an international convention in Nairobi in April 2000. Recommendations include working with states and local conservationists to win protection for the turtles, conduct studies, help establish conservation projects, to appeal to export countries to enforce national and international laws, to encourage and support states to run education programs to reduce demand in medical products from endangered species, and to discuss China's infractions of CITES agreements.
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