ENVIRONMENT: Amazonian Turtles, the New Livestock

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 21 1996 (IPS) - The turtle burger is back. It is set to follow crocodile fry into the Brazilian diet: commercial breeders in the Amazon area are again producing the new delicary and plan to sell their produce to a network of restaurants.

Though the Brazilian Environment Institute (Ibama) has not authorised regulated the commercialisation of the turtle farm produce, the producrs are registered and under the control of the National Quelonios Centre of the Amazon (Cenaqua).

Trade in the product was banned in 1967 when turtles were in danger of extinction, but in 1989 the danger was considered to be over as a result of the work in management and repopulation carried out by Cenaqua.

For now, authorisation is limited to Amazonia: sea turtles are still considered an endangered species. Repopulation of the latter species is more complicated and slower, partly as a result of increased human pressure on the coast, Vera Ferreira, vet and Cenaqua second in command, told IPS.

Since its foundation in Goiania, central Brazil, in 1979, Cenaqua has created 115 breeding centres in the Amazon, producing 26 million turtles, most of which were returned to the wild.

Since private breeders were authorised in 1992, the centre also passed on 10 percent of its production to the “turtle raisers,” and there are now nine producers registered and controlled by Cenaqua and another 50 on the waiting list.

“We have 300,000 animals to give away each year,” said Ferreira. “Meat will only be sold to companies and restaurants authorised by the environmental authority.”

Butchery, she added, is only allowed when the turtle reaches a minimum of 1.5 kgs, which the average farmed animal does when it is two or three years old.

Pedro Queiroz, a hotel owner and turtle breeder in Manaos, capital of the State of Amazonas, is one of these farmers. “I already have 13,500 turtles, and the aim is to reach 1.6 million in a flooded area of 350 hectares,” he said, in order to supply cities as far away as Sao Paulo and even form an export market.

“It will be big business,” because we are dealing with a delicacy which in the past even brought Europeans to Manaos, he said. The local population never stopped eating this meat, which currently costs ten times the price of beef and is showy enough for the best parties, he added.

The notion of the economic viability of the turtle, renowned for its slowness and for living for centuries, naturally inspires doubts.

But Cenaqua leader, Vitor Cantarelli, said in Amazonian conditions the new “livestock raising” allows for production of up to 1,800 kgs of meat per hectare of water per year. The meat is also 94 percent protein, double the amount of beef.

Queiroz added that he would also sell the eggs, “proven aphrodisiacs,” and the fat, which is in big demand as a beauty product.

Preventing the killing of turtles by the Amazonian population is impossible. “It forms part of the local culture, they all eat the meat and they like it,” said Ferreira. The breeding avoids extinction, creates employment and income and allows for teaching environmental management and environmental education, he said.

Turtles and crocodiles have a high rate of reproduction, with the females laying an average of a hundred eggs, and sometimes up to 200, in each batch.

In natural conditions the losses are also very high, with human beings eating the eggs, while birds, fish and crocodiles eat the hatchlings, which weigh only between 13 and 15 g at birth.

Ferreira said she had seen one fish with 30 little turtles in its entrails.

However, in the breeding farms, one hundred percent of the eggs are made use of, and with the enriched diet they are offered they grow more quickly, achieviving high levels of productivity to compete with other breeders, at least in Amazonia.

A similar process occurred with the crocodiles of the Pantanal, an extensive wetland area in western Brazil and Bolivia.

The local caymans were threatened by extinction with an international campaign launched against smuggling their skins last decade.

The breeders invested in the animal until the population recovered to the point of being excessive, though international restrictions on the export of hides means there is currently a surplus withing the nation.