KARACHI: The World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) has appreciated the recent seizure of 45 black spotted turtles by the Punjab wildlife and parks department in Faisalabad.

According to the organisation, the department confiscated a consignment of 45 spotted turtles at the Faisalabad airport on March 8 when it was about to be loaded to a Malaysia-bound flight.

“The offender has been identified as a Karachi-based exporter of dried fish and preserved vegetables to Malaysia. He chose to travel to Malaysia via Dubai from Faisalabad, because it’s a relatively unknown place for incidents involving illegal wildlife trade. He claimed that he acquired the consignment from a Lahore-based dealer through a contact in Karachi,” WWF-P senior communication officer Asif Sandeelo quoted Punjab wildlife official Mohammad Atif Saeed as saying. The turtles were found to be wrapped in suitcases, he added.

WWF-P senior director for biodiversity Rab Nawaz said the organisation had been observing an increase in the illegal trade of black-spotted turtles, which were particularly in high demand in the East Asian market.

“The customs officials seized two consignments at the Lahore airport earlier this year and rescued about 184 black-spotted turtles from traffickers.

“The price of one freshwater turtle in the Asian markets is estimated to be $250,” he said.

According to him, an undercover market study conducted by the WWF-P as part of a USAID project in 26 cities of Pakistan has showed that all surveyed markets deal in illegal trade of wildlife including freshwater turtles.

“Despite the fact that freshwater turtles are protected under the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab wildlife protection laws and are included in the revised wildlife protection act of Sindh, their illegal trade continues.

“This highlights the need to develop a strategy to tackle their illegal trade on an urgent basis ensuring interprovincial and stakeholder coordination,” he noted.

As illicit wildlife trafficking was not just an environmental issue, it should be treated as a crime, he said.

But the government should address the rootcause of the menace, which was poverty, by extending livelihood support to marginalized communities so that they were not exploited by illegal trade mafia, he added.

Pakistan is home to eight freshwater turtles, all of them are under serious threat and are listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The scale of the illegal trade is evident from the fact that last year the law-enforcement agencies seized five illegal consignments comprising 1,345 freshwater turtles and 1.9 tonnes of their body parts (including dried meat and bones) which were destined for different East Asian countries.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2016