World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

TANZANIAyear. Japanese Customs reports show that from 1964 to 1976 Tanzania was themajor source of beklco in Africa, after which it was superseded by Kenya(Wells, 1979). Recent imports are shown in Table 197.Tanzania ratified CITES on 29 November 1979 but has regularly exported seaturtle products since then, in spite of having no reservations on thesespecies. Annual Reports have been submitted every year from 1982 to 1985,and all records of sea turtle contained in them are shown in Table 198. Twocommercial shipments of shell were recorded in the 1982 report. The EECAnnual Report for 1985 indicated the import of 40 leg of scales ofE. imbricata from Tanzania to France. These data may indicate majorinfractions of CITES: first because, in 1982, export permits were issued forcommercial exports of Appendix I material, and secondly because subsequentexports to Japan have apparently not been reported in Annual Reports. Thereis some evidence that some exports from Tanzania to Japan may have beenrouted via a company in the UK (T. Milliken in litt . , 19 August 1986).There is no indication of why France apparently issued import permits for anAppendix I species in 1985.Table 197. Imports of tortoiseshell from Tanzania reported in the Customsstatistics of importing countries. All quantities in kg.1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986Hong Kong 1561 1478 308 215 604Japan (Beklco) 1719 2152 1474 1410 5943 1202 845Spain 63 143 54 - - -