A review analysis of the poaching and illegal trade of tortoises and freshwater turtles (TFTs) in Pakistan

  • Authors

    • Amtyaz safi sir syed govt. girls college, karachi
    • Muhammad Usman Ali Hashmi
    • Sultan ud Din Yousufzai
    • Hans-Volker Karl
    2024-03-06

  • Despite legal protection, illegal trade in turtles and freshwater turtles continues in Pakistan, with many trade species destined for foreign markets. Pakistan's tortoises and hard-shelled turtles are mainly used in the pet trade, while its soft-shelled turtles are used in the meat trade. Given different economic conditions, the economic conditions of different groups of turtles and freshwater turtles will be different and therefore require different interventions. However, a systematic review of the illegal trade in turtles and freshwater turtles that considers the differences between these markets is not currently available. This study uses media seizure data to examine tortoises/hard-shell turtles (in demand in the pet trade) and softshell turtle (meat trade) supply chains. The tortoise/hard-shell turtle network has a larger geographic area and more global trade connections than the soft-shell turtle network. Our current clinical research provides insight into the similarities and differences in illegal activity for different groups of turtles and freshwater turtles, addressing the needs of different markets and demonstrating the need for effective strategies to tackle illegal trade in each group.

  • References

    1. Auliya, M., Altherr, S., Ariano-Sanchez, D., Baard, E.H., Brown, C., Brown, R.M. et al. (2016) Trade in live reptiles, its impact on wild populations, and the role of the European market. Biological Conservation, 204, 103–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.05.017.
    2. Badola, S., Choudhary, A.N. and Chhabra, D.B. (2019). Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles in illegal trade in India (2019). TRAFFIC Study.
    3. Badola, S., Choudhary, AN. and Chhabra, D.B. (2021). Troubled Turtles of India; An urgent call to address wildlife trafficking of pro-tected species (2021). TRAFFIC Study.
    4. Baig, K. J. (2006). Environmental Baseline Survey and Monitoring of Taunsa Barrage Emergency Rehabilitation and Modernisation Project: A report submitted to Zoological Science Department, Pakistan Museum of Natural sHistory. Pp. 22.
    5. Balcázar A., Ferrara, C., Martínez, JL., Acevedo LD., Leite R., Vento, R. (2022). Analysis of the dynamics of legal and illegal trade in Matamata turtles (Chelus fimbriata and Chelus orinocensis) in Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. Counter Wildlife Trafficking in Andes-Amazon-Orinoco region (AAO).
    6. Braden, K., 2014. Illegal recreational hunting in Russia: the role of social norms and elite violators. Eurasia Geogr. Econ. 55, 457–490. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2015.1020320.
    7. Bush, E.R., Baker, S.E. & Macdonald, D.W. (2014). Global trade in exotic pets 2006–2012. Conservation Biology, 28, 663–676. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12240.
    8. Charity, S., & Ferreira, J.M. (2020). Wildlife Trafficking in Brazil.
    9. Chaves, W. A., Valle, D., Tavares, A. S., Morcatty, T. Q., & Wilcove, D. S. (2020). Impacts of rural to urban migration, urbanisation, and generational change on consumption of wild animals in the Amazon. Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13663.
    10. Cheng, W., Xing, S. & Bonebrake, T.C. (2017) Recent pangolin seizures in China reveal priority areas for intervention. Conservation Letters, 10, 757–764. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12339.
    11. Cheung, S.M. & Dudgeon, D. (2006) Quantifying the Asian turtle crisis: market surveys in southern China, 2000–2003. Aquatic Con-servation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 16, 751–7870. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.803.
    12. Clifton, K.L. & Rastogi, A. (2016) Curbing Illegal Wildlife Trade: The Role of Social Network Analysis. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
    13. Congdon, J.D., Dunham, A.E. & Sels, R.C.V.L. (1994) Demographics of common snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina): implications for conservation and management of long-lived organisms. American Zoologist, 34, 397–408. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/34.3.397.
    14. Das, I. and Singh, S. (2009) Chitra indica (Gray 1830) – narrow-headed soft-shell turtle. Chelonian Research Monographs, 5, 027.1–27. https://doi.org/10.3854/crm.5.027.indica.v1.2009.
    15. Dawn News (2017) 350 Afghan tortoises seized, trafficker held. https://www.dawn.com/news/1330031/
    16. Dawn News (2018) 151 rare turtles, tortoises seized in Liaquatabad. https://www.dawn.com/news/1330031/
    17. Essen, E. von, 2016. In the Gap between Legality and Legitimacy. Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala.
    18. Express Tribune, 2022. 103 held for illegal hunting in 2021. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2340644/103-held-for-illegal-hunting-in-2021,
    19. Eisemberg, C. C., Rose, M., Yaru, B., & Georges, A. (2015). Spatial and temporal patterns of harvesting of the Vulnerable pig-nosed turtle Carettochelys insculpta in the Kikori region, Papua New Guinea. Oryx, 49(4), 659-668. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605313001646.
    20. Fauzi, M. A., Hamidy, A., Mumpuni, M., & Kurniawan, N. (2020). The Threat of Appendix CITES-Listed Turtles Harvesting in Cen-tral Borneo and South Sumatra. Journal of Tropical Life Science, 10(3), 215-222. https://doi.org/10.11594/jtls.10.03.05.
    21. Fraccastoro, S., Gabrielsson, M., Pullins, E.B., 2021. The integrated use of social media, digital, and traditional communication tools in the B2B sales process of international SMEs. Int. Bus. Rev. 30, 101776 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2020.101776.
    22. Fukushima, C.S., Tricorache, P., Toomes, A., Stringham, O.C., Rivera-Téllez, E., Ripple, W.J., Peters, G., Orenstein, R.I., Morcatty, T.Q., Longhorn, S.J., Lee, C., Kumschick, S., de Freitas, M.A., Duffy, R.V., Davies, A., Cheung, H., Cheyne, S.M., Bouhuys, J., Bar-reiros, J.P., Amponsah-Mensah, K. & Cardoso, P. (2021) Challenges and perspectives on tackling illegal or unsustainable wildlife trade.- Biological Conservation, vol. 263, 109342 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109342.
    23. Greatorex, Z.F., Olson, S.H., Singhalath, S., Silithammavong, S., Khammavong, K., Fine, A.E. et al. (2016) Wildlife trade and human health in Lao PDR: an assessment of the zoonotic disease risk in markets. PLOS One, 30, e0150666. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150666.
    24. Haas, T.C. and Ferreira, S.M. (2015) Federated databases and actionable intelligence: using social network analysis to disrupt transna-tional wildlife trafficking criminal networks. Security Informatics, 4, 2–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13388-015-0018-8.
    25. Huang, W., Wang, H. and Wel, Y. (2020) Mapping the illegal international ivory trading network to identify key hubs and smuggling routes. EcoHealth, 17, 523–539. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-020-01511-x.
    26. Haq R., Abdulabad A, Asghar S, Judit K. and Szabo C (2023). Clicks and comments: Representation of wildlife crime in Pakistan in social media posts. Global Ecology and Conservation 43 (2023) e02473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2023.e02473.
    27. Indraswari, K., Friedman, R.S., Noske, R., Shepherd, C.R., Biggs, D., Sulsilawati, C. and Wilson, C. (2020) It’s in the news: character-ising Indonesia’s wild bird trade network from media-reported seizure incidents. Biological Conservation, 243, 108431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108431.
    28. IUCN TFTSG and ATTWG (IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group and Asian Turtle Trade Working Group). 2000. Recommended changes to 1996 IUCN Red List Status of Asian turtle species. In: P.P. van Dijk, B.L. Stuart and A.G.J. Rhodin (eds), Asian Turtle Trade: Proceedings of a Workshop on Conservation and Trade of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises in Asia. Chelonian Research Monographs, Number 2, pp. 156-164. Chelonian Research Foundation, Lunenburg, MA, USA.
    29. Karl, H-V., Safi, A. and Paust, E. (2021). Re-examination and illustration of shells of interspecific hybrid tortoises of Testudo hors-fieldii (Gray, 1844) and Testudo h. hermanni (Gmelin, 1789) (Testudines: Testudinidae) from the collection of Walter Kirsche in the Dahme Heideseen nature Park, Prieros, Germany. SPC Journal of Environmental Sciences, 3 (2) (2021) 65-68.
    30. Khan, MZ., Safi, A., Fatima, F., Ghalib, SA., Hashmi, MUA., Khan, IS., Siddiqui, S., Zehra, A. and Hussain, B. (2015). An Evaluation of Distribution, Status and Abundance of Freshwater Turtles in Selected areas of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provinces of Paki-stan. Canadian Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences. 9(1):3201-3219.
    31. Khan MZ., Kanwal R., Ghalib SA., Fatima F., Zehra A., Siddiqui S, Yasmeen G., Safi A., Hashmi MUA., Hussain B., Iqbal MA., Man-zoor U. and Ubaid Ullah. (2016), A review of distribution, threats, conservation and status of freshwater turtles in Sindh. Canadian Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences. 10(3): 3997- 4009.
    32. Khan MZ., Safi A, Ghalib SA and Kanwal R. 2016. Population status, distribution and conservation of freshwater turtles of Peshawar Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Canadian Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences. 10 (1): 3732 – 3750.
    33. Khan, I. S., Safi A, Hashmi, M. U. A and Latif, T. A. 2017. A review of vertebrate biodiversity and environmental pollution on Keen-jhar Lake: A Ramsar site. Canadian Journal of Pure & Applied Sciences. 11(1): 4091-4102.
    34. Khan, M. Z., Kanwal, R., & Ghalib, S. A. (2018). Study of freshwater turtles in selected districts of Sindh-Pakistan: threats, illegal trade and conservation. JAPS, Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 28(3), 915-926.
    35. Luiselli, L., Diagne, T., & Mcgovern, P. (2021). Prioritizing the Next Decade of Freshwater Turtle and Tortoise Conservation in West Africa. Journal for Nature Conservation, 125977. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2021.125977.
    36. Linh, T. T. K., Thong, P. Van, Minh, L. D., McCormack, T., Ha, H. Van, Thang, N. T., & Hanh, N. T. (2016). lllegal Turtle Trade in Bae Kan, Quang Ninh, Tuyen Quang Provinces and Online Illegal Turtle Trade. VNU Journal of Science: Earth and Environmental Sci-ences; Vol 32 No 1S. https://js.vnu.edu.vn/EES/article/view /2768
    37. Lovich, J.E., Ennen, J.R., Agha, M. & Gibbons, J.W. (2018) Where have all the turtles gone, and why does it matter? BioScience, 68, 771–781. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biy095.
    38. Manjoazy, T., Razafimanahaka, J. H., Ronto, W., Randrianavelona, R., Ganzhorn, J. U., & Jenkins, R. K. B. (2017). The supply of ille-gal tortoise meat to Toliara City, south-western Madagascar. Oryx, 51(3), 437-440. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316000314.
    39. Mendis, A., Nikita, V., Ramya Roopa, S., Sultan, N., Shukla, S., Lewis, R., Deshpande, K., Balaji, K., Karve, A., Mendiratta, U., 2022. Media-reported Wildlife Poaching and Illegal Trade in India: 2020. Wildlife Conservation Society, Karnataka, India. https://doi.org/10.19121/2021.Report.40773.
    40. Mendiratta, U., Sheel, V. & Singh, S. (2017) Enforcement seizures reveal large-scale illegal trade in India’s tortoises and freshwater turtles. Biological Conservation, 207, 100–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.01.023.
    41. Musing, L., Norwisz, M., Kloda, J., & Keese-Nagy, K. (2018). Wildlife Trade in Belgium: An analysis of CITES trade and seizure data.
    42. Morcatty, T. Q., & Valsecchi. J. (2015). Social, biological, and environmental drivers of the hunting and trade of the endangered yel-low-footed tortoise in the Amazon. Ecology and Society 20(3), 3. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-07701-200303.
    43. Nijman, V., & Shepherd, C. (2014). Analysis of a decade of trade of tortoises and freshwater turtles in Bangkok, Thailand. Biodiversi-ty and Conservation, 24.
    44. Noureen, U., Khan, A. and Arshad, M. 2012. Exploring illegal trade in freshwater turtles of Pakistan. Rec. Zool. Surv. Pakistan 21:19-24.
    45. Patel, N.G., Rorres, C., Joly, D.O., Brownstein, J.S., Boston, R., Levy, M.Z. & Smit (2015) Evaluating the reliability of media reports for gathering information about illegal wildlife trade seizures. Peer J, 12,79248–7953.
    46. Platt, S. G., Lwin, T., Win, N., Aung, H. L., Platt, K., & Rainwater, T. R. (2017). An interview-based survey to determine the conserva-tion status of softshell turtles (Reptilia: Trionychidae) in the Irrawaddy Dolphin Protected Area, Myanmar. Journal of Threatened Tax:a, 9(12), 10998-11008. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3632.9.12.10998-11008.
    47. Rahman, Md. Saidur, Alam, M.A., Salekin, S., Belal, M.A.H., Rahman, Md. Saifur, 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic: a threat to forest and wildlife conservation in Bangladesh? Trees for People 5, 100119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tfp.2021.100119.
    48. Regueira, R. F. S., & Bernard, E. (2012). Wildlife sinks: Quantifying the impact of illegal bird trade in street markets in Brazil. Biologi-cal Conservation, 149(1), 16-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.02.009.
    49. Rhodin, A. G. J., Iverson, J. B., Bour, R., Fritz, U., Georges, A., Shaffer, H. B., Van Dijk, P. P. [TTWG – Turtle Taxonomy Working Group] (2021). Turtles of the World: Annotated checklist and atlas of taxonomy, synonymy, distribution, and conservation status (9th Ed.). Chelonian Research Monographs, 8:1-472. https://doi.org/10.3854/crm.8.checklist.atlas.v9.2021.
    50. Rosen, G.E. and Smith, K.F. (2010) Summarizing the evidence on the international trade in illegal wildlife. EcoHealth, 7, 24–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-010-0317-y.
    51. Safi, A. and Khan, MZ. 2014. Distribution and current population of freshwater turtles of District Charsadda of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The Journal of Zoology Studies. 1(4):31-38.
    52. Safi, A., Hashmi, MAU., and Smith, JP. (2020). A review of distribution, threats and conservation of freshwater turtles of Ontario, Canada. SPC Journal of Environmental Sciences, 2 (1) (2020) 36-41.
    53. Safi, A., Khan, M.Z., Hashmi, MAU., Kanwal R and Karl H.V. 2020. Some aspects of Morphometry, Systematics and Bio-geography of the Freshwater Turtles, Pangshura (Testudines: Geoemydidae) of Pakistan. Journal of Environmental sciences. 2(1) (2020): 26-35.
    54. Safi, A., Khan, MZ., Kanwal, Roohi. and Karl, H-V. (2021). Population Status, Threats and Conservation of the Spotted Pond Turtle; Geoclemys hamiltonii (Gray, 1830) (Geoemydidae) of Pakistan. Journal of Zoological Research | Volume 03 | Issue 01 | January 2021. https://doi.org/10.30564/jzr.v3i1.2880.
    55. Safi, A. and Hashmi, MAU (2021). A review of environmental hazards and vertebrate biodiversity of upper San Marcos river, Texas, USA. SPC Journal of Environmental Sciences, 3 (1) (2021) 17-22.
    56. Sardari, P., Felfelian, F., Mohammadi, A., Nayeri, D., Davis, E.O., 2022. Evidence on the role of social media in the illegal trade of Ira-nian wildlife. Conserv. Sci. Pr. 4, e12725 https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.12725.
    57. Shah, N. (1996). Wildlife Trade in Sindh, A report published by WWF-P for TRAFFIC International. Pp. 57.
    58. Segura, A., Delibes-Mateos, M., & Acevedo, P. (2020). Implications for Conservation of Collection of Mediterranean Spur-Thighed Tortoise as Pets in Morocco: Residents' Perceptions, Habits, and Knowledge. In Animals (Vol. 10, Issue 2). https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10020265.
    59. Sengottuvel, RR., Mendis, A., Sultan, N., Shukla, S., Chaudhri, A and Mendiratta, U. (2023) From pets to plates: network analysis of trafficking in tortoises and freshwater turtles representing different types of demand. Oryx, Page 2 of 12 © The Author(s), 2023. Pub-lished by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605323000376.
    60. Shepherd, C., Gomez, L., & Nijman, V. (2020). Illegal wildlife trade, seizures and prosecutions: A 7.5-year analysis of trade in pig-nosed turtles Carettochelys insculpta in and from Indonesia. Global Ecology and Conservation, 24, eo1249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01249.
    61. Smith, K.M., Zambrana-Torrelio, C., White, A., Asmussen, M., Machalaba, C., Kennedy, S. et al. (2017) Summarizing US wildlife trade with an eye toward assessing the risk of infectious disease Introduction. Eco-Health, 14, 29-39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-017-1211-7.
    62. Stanford, C.B., Iverson,J.B., Rhodin, A.G.J., van Dijk, P.P., Mittermeier, R.A., Kuchling, G., Berry, K.H., Bertolero, A., Bjorndal, K.A., Blanck, T.E.G., Buhlmann, K.A., Burke, R.L., Congdon, J.D., Diagne, T., Edwards, T., Eisemberg, C.C., Ennen, J.R., Forero-Medina, G., Frankel, M., Fritz, U., Gallego-Garcı´a, N., Georges, A., Gibbons, J.W., Gong, S., Goode, E.V., Shi, H.T., Hoang, H., Hofmeyr, M.D., Horne, B.D., Hudson, R., Juvik, J.O., Kiester, R.A., Koval, P., Le, M., Lindeman, P.V., Lovich, J.E., Luiselli, L., McCormack, T.E.M., Meyer, G.A., Pa´ez, V.P., Platt, K., Platt, S.G., Pritchard, P.C.H., Quinn, H.R., Roosenburg, W.M., Seminoff, J.A., Shaffer, H.B., Spencer, R., Van Dyke, J.U., Vogt, R.C. & Walde, A.D. (2020) Turtles and tortoises are in trouble. Current Biology, 30, R721–R735. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.04.088.
    63. Stoner, S. (2018) Operation Dragon: Revealing New Evidence of the Scale of Corruption and Trafficking in the Turtle andTortoise Trade. Wildlife Justice Commission, The Hague, The Netherlands. wildlifejustice.org/turtles-operation-dragon
    64. Stoner, S.S. & Shepherd, C. (2020) Using intelligence to tackle the criminal elements of the illegal trade in Indian star tortoises Geoche-lone elegans in Asia. Global Ecology and Conservation, 23, e01097. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01097.
    65. Sullivan, M., Robinson, S., Littnan, C., 2019. Social media as a data resource for #monkseal conservation. PLoS One 14, e0222627. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222627.
    66. Sung, Y.-H., Karraker, N.E. & Hau, B.C.H. (2013) Demographic evidence of illegal harvesting of an Endangered Asian turtle. Conser-vation Biology, 27, 1421–1428. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12102.
    67. TTWG (2021): Turtle Taxonomy Working Group [Rhodin, A.G.J., Iverson, J.B., Bour, R., Fritz, U., Georges, A., Shaffer, H.B., and van Dijk, P.P.]. 2021. Turtles of the World: Annotated Checklist and Atlas of Taxonomy, Synonymy, Distribution, and Conservation Status (9th Ed.). In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Iverson, J.B., van Dijk, P.P., Stanford, C.B., Goode, E.V., Buhlmann, K.A., and Mittermeier, R.A. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs 8:1–472. https://doi.org/10.3854/crm.8.checklist.atlas.v9.2021.
    68. Turtle Conservation Coalition [A .G. J. Rhodin, A. D. Walde, B. D. Horne, P. P. Van Dijk, T. Blanck, & R. Hudson, editors]. (2018). Turtles in trouble: the world’s 25+ most endangered tortoises and freshwater turtles—2018. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Print Hemlock Printers, 79 pp.
    69. Van, T. P., Leprince, B., Xuan, H. L., Thu, Q. N., Le Due, 0., Bordes, C., Tien, M. V., & Luiselli, L. (2019). Observations of threat-ened Asian box turtles (Cuora spp.) on trade in Vietnam. Herpetological Journal, 29(3).
    70. Van Vliet, N., M. Q. Mesa, D. Cruz-Antia, L. N. Aquino, J. Moreno, and R. Nasi. 2014. The Uncovered Volumes of Bushmeat Com-mercialized in the Amazonian Trifron- tier between Colombia, Perú & Brasil. Ethnobiology and Conservation, 3:1–11. https://doi.org/10.15451/ec2014-11-3.7-1-11.
    71. Wyatt, T. (2013) Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims, and the Offenders. Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137269249.
    72. Xu, Q., Cai, M., MacKey, T.K., 2020. The illegal wildlife digital market: an analysis of Chinese wildlife marketing and sale on Face-book. Environ. Conserv. 47, 206–212. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892920000235.

  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    safi, A., Usman Ali Hashmi, M., ud Din Yousufzai , S., & Karl , H.-V. (2024). A review analysis of the poaching and illegal trade of tortoises and freshwater turtles (TFTs) in Pakistan. SPC Journal of Environmental Sciences, 6(1), 13-18. https://sciencepubco.com/index.php/JES/article/view/32478