World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

INDONESIAEven allowing for the fact that some of the tortoiseshell reported in theCustoms export statistics may not represent sea turtle material, it seemsthat at least 13-20 t of raw Hawksbill shell and some 30-50 t of stuffedturtles may be exported each year. This would represent a harvest of over10 000-15 000 large Hawksbills and 25 000-50 000 small turtles.Turtle skin is the other commodity which is known to be exported fromIndonesia, mostly from Surabaya and Ujung Pandang. Its export from Bali wasprohibited, but Customs officials in Surabaya were reported not to recogniseit as deriving from marine turtles and therefore not to require exportpermits (Anon., 1984d) . Formerly most of the skin used to be exported toFrance, Italy and Japan, but the strengthening of European import controlssince 1984 has meant that exports to Europe have become considerably moredifficult for the traders to arrange (Schulz, 1987). Imports of turtle skinto Japan have been recorded in Japanese Customs statistics since 1976, andthe volumes are shown in Table 92. Some skins imported from Singaporeprobably originated in Indonesian waters, and so these figures are alsogiven. Schulz (1987) surmised that Surabaya and Jakarta were still the mainports from which turtle skins were exported. He was unable to obtain anyindications of the level of trade, but the fact that European imports appearto have been curtailed and that Japanese imports have dropped indicates thatthe volume may have declined.While it is certainly true that the export of marine turtle products isstill continuing at an alarming rate and constitutes a major threat to thesurvival of the wild populations, there are some encouraging signs that someattempts to control the trade are beginning to be effective. Largely as aresult of measures taken by PHPA to tighten export controls, the imports toJapan of raw bekko, stuffed Hawksbills and turtle skins all showed markeddeclines in 1986. Some of the trade may have been diverted via Singapore,as Japan's imports of bekko from there nearly doubled in 1986, but thisincrease does not compensate for the drop in imports direct from Indonesia.LEGISLATIONP. coriacea is protected under Decree No. 327/kpts/um/5/1978L. olivacea is protected under Decree No. 716/kpts/um/10/1980.C. caretta is protected under Decree No. 716/kpts/um/10/1980.The export of protected animals is prohibited,may be exported under permits issued by PHPAC. mydas and E. imbricataThere are several local regulations issued at the provincial or districtlevels, and Schulz (1984) reported that these regulations were in theprocess of being catalogued.RANCHINGVarious ranching activities have taken place in Indonesia, some directedtowards head-starting and release of juvenile turtles and others towards thecommercial production of small turtles for meat and for the stuffingindustry. There are probably many small-scale operations on a variety ofislands, but the main documented ones are summarised below.260