TRAFFIC's report has revealed that Bangkok is a major hub for the illegal international trade in freshwater turtles and tortoises. Surveys of the Chatuchak Market in Bangkok revealed that 25 out of the 27 freshwater turtle and tortoise species on sale were not indigenous and most of them were illegally imported. More than a third of the total 786 freshwater turtles and tortoises on sale were listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), including radiated tortoises which were the most common species in the market.
Chris R. Shepherd, Senior Programme Officer for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia was aghast that dealers openly confessed that “many specimens were smuggled into and out of Thailand and that they even offered advice to potential buyers on how to smuggle reptiles through customs and onto aeroplanes." Buyers usually come from other parts of Asia, most of them from Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
June 2008
