(CN - HKG) Easy meat for poachers

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post http://www.scmp.com

Tuesday, May 8, 2001

by KEVIN SINCLAIR

 

In the headwaters of a stream deep in the Pat Sin Leng Country Park,

Simon Chan Kin-fung probes into muddy earth between the roots of a banyan

tree. Brushing off rotting leaves, he uncovers a trap made of chicken wire.

''That makes 303 we've found in the past three months,'' he says.

 

Chan, Wetland and Conservation Officer of the Agriculture, Fisheries

and Conservation (AFC) Department, heads a determined campaign against

organised poaching gangs which threaten the continuing existence of the rare

three-banded box turtle. The turtle, which has been virtually wiped out in

southern China and Vietnam, is a native of Hong Kong. The world's only

significant population survives in the New Territories. Now that is under

severe threat.

 

Dubious claims that jelly made from three-banded box turtles can cure

cancer have seen herbal medicine dealers pay up to $10,000 for the animals.

The big money offered by quacks and collectors has sparked a rash of

poaching.

 

The three-banded box turtle is on the United Nations Convention on

International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) list. Under the Wild

Animals Protection Ordinance, dealing in wild-trapped turtles is punishable

by a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison. In practice, there have been

few prosecutions.

 

Because of the upsurge in poaching of turtles and other wildlife in

country parks, the AFC has declared open season on criminals who catch

protected species. Wardens trained by experts at the Kadoorie Farm and

Botanic Garden patrol waterways throughout the New Territories looking for

traps and poachers.

 

Farm biologists have discovered hundreds of traps. Despite that,

results have not been spectacular, Chan admits.

 

One problem is that traps are simple and are often made on the spot

from sheets of chicken wire similar to that used in barbecues. Unless caught

red-handed laying traps, or with turtles in their possession, it is

impossible to lay charges against suspected poachers.

 

Biologists from the department and Kadoorie Farm have carried out a

survey of animal populations, trying to assess numbers of the three-banded

box turtle and other species such as the big-headed terrapin. But as the

animals are shy and nocturnal it's difficult to know how many exist. What is

certain, Chan says, is that Hong Kong is the last sizeable habitat for the

threatened three-banded species. The promise of big money, spurred mostly by

demand in Hong Kong, has seen them almost exterminated in Guangdong, Guangxi

and Vietnam.

 

Although an endangered species, the animals are openly on sale in pet

shops. And although qualified Chinese herbal medicine experts insist turtles

have no cancers-healing properties, use of them in some potions is widely

advertised.

 

Demand for turtle meat and shell is so strong in Hong Kong and the

mainland, that we are not only decimating rare local species, but also

leading to destruction of species elsewhere. In 1991, Hong Kong imported

110,574 kg of salt and freshwater turtles for food. In 1998, imports were

13.5 million kg. By 2000, that figure had dropped to 10.3 million kg, but as

much as 90 per cent of this was re-exported to the mainland. With the

average turtle weighing about 1.2 kg, this means at least eight million

turtles.

 

''It's tragic,'' says Chan. ''Turtles are being hunted to extinction

through ignorance and superstition promoted by people who sell useless

medicines.'' It's easy meat for the poachers. They set traps along creek

banks and drains, baiting them with fish. Turtles have a keen sense of smell

which lures them into the simple traps. Once inside, there is no escape.

 

''The three-banded box turtle was once common in the New

Territories,'' Chan says, as we splash up a stream. ''Now they are rare.''

There has been an explosion of turtle trapping in recent years, says

Conservation Officer Paul Crow of Kadoorie Farm.''There has been a huge

increase, fuelled by the presence of the highly valued three-banded box

turtle.'' Crow, who grew up in Hong Kong and remembers seeing traps for

boar, civet cats and other mammals when he was a boy, says the turtle

species - gum cheen gwai (Cuora trifasciata) - is ''critically endangered''.

 

''Amazingly, Hong Kong is the last stronghold for this species,'' he

says.

 

''But traders who can sell each animal for up to $10,000 will drive

them to extinction in the wild if illegal collection continues.''

 

In December 1999, the Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wide Fund

for Nature and other ecological organisations held a conference in Cambodia

attended by 40 turtle experts from 16 Asian countries to examine the trade

in tortoises and freshwater turtles.

 

Although some turtles were sold as pets, the mass exploitation of

wild-caught turtles for food was the most worrying spectre for scientists,

the meeting found.

 

''Turtles are a luxury item, not a source of protein for the poor,''

noted a report issued after the meeting.

 

Environmentalists look back a decade to the advent of a widely

advertised and promoted turtle-based cancer remedy as a major cause for the

relentless hunt for turtles. But turtles have been a gourmet item on the

Chinese menu for generations. As China has prospered, the demand for turtles

of all species has exploded. With the slow-breeding animals becoming rare on

the mainland, they are being imported in increasing numbers from all over

Asia; the turtle populations have been devastated in Cambodia, Laos and

Vietnam because of this demand.

 

Paul Crow points out the three-banded box turtle is particularly

unfortunate because it is renowned as a ''lucky'' species because of the

golden colour of its head.

 

The species is easily available locally in shops and even department

stores, he says. Some are farmed on the mainland.