Indonesia offers excellent habitats to marine turtles, which
is reflected in the occurrence of:
- Green Turtle
- Hawksbill
- Leatherback
- Olive Ridley
- Loggerhead
-
Flatback
Threats to Sea Turtles
in Indonesia
The major threats to marine turtles in Indonesia, as
in the rest of the world, are human induced. Turtle
harvest, incidental catch in fisheries and egg collection
cause the most severe impacts on marine turtle population.
Turtle dealers have justified
for years the island's high turtle consumtion rate -
sometimes reaching more than 20,000 turtles per year
- by claiming that turtle meat was traditionally part
of religious rituals and traditional festivals.
Taking care of injured turtles and
setting them free to the ocean, information for local
fishermen and burying turtle eggs - still for sale on
many markets - on remote beaches for hatching, is our
way in enforcing Law No. 5/1990, and Government Decree
No. 7/1999 on Natural Resources Protection and Conservation
- which stipulate that poaching, trading and slaughtering
of turtles are illegal .