World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

COLOMBIAshell. The northern cays of Serrana, Serranilla and Roncador were oftenvisited by Cayman fishermen. Most of the 5000 pounds (2 t) of tortoiseshellexported annually from the Cayman Islands between 1932 and 1939 were thoughtto come from Colombian waters (Parsons, 1972).Domestic trade Turtle meat features regularly on the menus ofrestaurants in coastal districts, and around Riohacha it is the localspeciality. Most of the Green Turtles caught are sold to localslaughterhouses because they fetch the highest prices. The less favouredLoggerheads tend to be used more for home consumption by the fishermen. Themain slaughterhouse is in Riohacha; about 80% of the turtles are butchered,while 20% are sold live for use in fiestas. On the Pacific coast, the maintrade centre is at Buenaventura and there are said to be two main tradersdealing in Hawksbill shell, paying US$400-550 a kg. Most of the shell isused locally for cock spurs, but some is sold to dealers in Ecuador (Olarte,1987).International trade Domestic trade is thought to account for the greatmajority of the turtles killed in Colombia, with relatively little export.The local tortoiseshell industry is said to use so much shell that regulartrips are made to Isla Margarita, Venezuela, to purchase shell. Japanesebuyers are said to visit Providencia annually to purchase Hawksbill shell,for which they pay a high price (Mast, 1986). However, this is presumablydeclared as having originated elsewhere when it reaches Japan, as JapaneseCustoms statistics have recorded no imports of Bekko from Colombia since1975. Imports before then are shown in Table 43.Table 43. Imports of Bekko from Colombia reported in Japanese Customsstatistics. There were no imports from 1950 to 1965 or from 1976 to 1986.Year 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975kg 212 401 167 82 26 37 58 45There is said to be a clandestine import to San Andres of Green Turtlescaught off Costa Rica. When detected, such turtles are usually released bythe authorities (Hast, 1986).At one time, there was a small export trade in turtle leather to Italy fromRiohacha, but this is said to have ceased (Mast, 1986). CITES reports (seebelow) provide some evidence of this.Colombia ratified CITES on 31 August 1981. Apart from a single shellimported to the UK in 1985, the only records of trade in turtle productscontained in the CITES Annual Reports have been of shells, carvings andbodies imported to the USA (ten C. mydas . 14 E. imbricata and oneCheloniidae, between 1980 and 1984) and of items made from C. mydas leatherof Colombian origin re-exported by Italy (77 items between 1980 and 1982).LEGISLATIONResolucion No. 1032, 9 August 1977.Prohibits all capture of E. imbricata .Decreto No. 1608, 31 July 1978.Applies to all wildlife except wholly aquatic species. Sets forth rules138