ENVIRONMENT: Cuba Gives Up on Selling Tortoiseshell

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Aug 22 2002 (IPS) - Cuba withdrew its proposal to renew exports of hawksbill turtle shells, which was to be discussed by the party states to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Cuba’s initiative, which was to be voted on by the 158 signatory nations to the convention at the 12th CITES meeting, scheduled for Nov 3-15 in Santiago, Chile, requested the downlisting of the population of hawksbill turtles inhabiting Cuban waters from Appendix I (a total ban on trade or hunting) to Appendix II (regulated fishing or hunting).

Hawksbill turtles are the only source of commercial tortoiseshell, also known as ‘carey’ or ‘bekko’, which is used in jewellrey and ornaments. Although international trade in the species is banned, the turtles are still harvested for domestic trade in many countries, including Cuba, Indonesia, Solomon Islands and Fiji.

Cuba was hoping to be allowed to place stockpiles of 7.8 metric tons of tortoiseshell, hunted from 1993 to 2002, on the international market.

Similar initiatives presented in 1997 and 2000 failed to obtain the necessary two-thirds of the votes.

Despite the withdrawal of Cuba’s request, the state-monopolised press insisted that the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), a marine species, is not in danger of extinction in Cuba, whose programme for the conservation and management of the turtles permits the capture of no more than 500 specimens a year, under strict controls.

According to the Cuban press, the number of turtle nests on the beaches of this Caribbean island nations grew 20 percent between 1996 and 2001.

The turtles, which are hunted for their meat in Cuba, can only be captured in two areas: Nuevitas, 646 kms east of Havana, and Cocodrilo, on the Isla de la Juventud, a small island located on the south side of Cuba. But in both of those areas, hunting is banned during mating season, from May to July.

CITES subjects international trade in selected species to certain controls, which require that all import, export and re- export of species covered by the Convention must be authorised through a licencing system.

The species covered by CITES are listed in three appendices, according to the degree of protection they need. The lists are updated every two and a half years.

Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction, in which all trade is banned. Appendix II includes species that are not necessarily endangered, in which trade is strictly regulated. Appendix III contains species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES parties for assistance in controlling the trade.

A source at Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment told IPS that the proposal to transfer hawksbill turtles to Appendix II was withdrawn out of respect for the position of other Caribbean nations, which disagree with Havana.

“We withdrew our proposal due to the priority that our country places on relations with other Caribbean nations, because we do not wish to hurt the interests of the rest of the region,” said a ministry official who preferred not to be identified.

Cuba “ratifies its decision and commitment to maintaining cooperation” with other states in the region “in common efforts to boost the population of hawksbill turtles,” Granma, the newspaper of the governing Communist Party, reported Thursday.

Granma said the government of Fidel Castro remains willing to share the results of Cuba’s scientific research and experience in designing plans for the sustainable management of the species.

Environmentalists consider turtles captured in the waters off of Cuba as part of a larger Caribbean population that traditionally nests in countries where most sub-populations have shrunk or even disappeared.

Environmentalist groups like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warn that the global population of hawksbill turtles is threatened by hunting for meat, leather and tortoiseshell, the harvesting of tened by hunting for meat, leather and tortoiseshell, the harve