4 March 2015: The Secretariat of the Indian Ocean-South East Asian (IOSEA) Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has published a fact sheet based on an IOSEA synthesis paper, titled ‘Illegal Take and Trade in Marine Turtles in the Indian Ocean Region,’ which was presented at the seventh meeting of IOSEA Signatory States in 2014. The fact sheet was developed by the IOSEA Secretariat and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The fact sheet notes that, in recent years, national and international illegal trade in marine turtles and their derivatives has been largely under-reported by the 35 Signatory States of the IOSEA Marine Turtle MoU, despite indications that illegal trade in the region was expanding. The report on illegal take and trade, developed by the IOSEA Secretariat in 2014 to examine the key patterns and trends since the year 2000, highlights that consumption of turtle meat reportedly occurs in 75% of IOSEA Signatory States, and that in 2012, Indonesia warned that international trafficking of marine turtles was on the rise nationwide due to increasing demand from East Asian countries.

The fact sheet highlights that IOSEA Signatory States could boost their efforts to combat the trade by: harmonizing and enhancing the enforcement of existing legislation; conducting more thorough research into current turtle markets and the socio-economic drivers of demand; and enhancing regional cooperation by working with appropriate bodies, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), INTERPOL, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Wildlife Enforcement Network, the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), and relevant non-governmental organizations.

The IOSEA-MoU is a specialized intergovernmental agreement concluded under the auspices of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). [Publication: Illegal Take and Trade of Marine Turtles in the Indian Ocean Region] [IOSEA Website]