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Didiher Chacón (ANAI Association/WIDECAST), at right, and Isabel Naranjo (PRETOMA) with confiscated hawksbill jewelry.
| SAN JOSÉ, COSTA RICA - The Costa Rican Sea Turtle Conservation Network, under the coordination of Didiher Chacón of Asociación ANAI/WIDECAST, and in collaboration with officers from the Ministry of the Environment and the National Coastguard, have confiscated more than 2,700 hawksbill jewelry items from local artisans, in two separate operations; one in downtown San José on December 4 and the other in the port city of Puntarenas on December 22, 2001. Roxana Silman of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation and Randall Arauz of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project served as experts to identify hawksbill products. These operations were the latest actions, which preceded an education campaign targeting local artisans warning them of the endangered status of hawksbill turtles and the illegal nature of this activity under Costa Rican legislation.
Hawksbill sea turtles are critically endangered and are protected under national laws of nations throughout the world, and their sale internationally is restricted. These ancient animals have survived on Earth for about 100 million years, and may take 20 or more years to reach sexual maturity. The beautiful shell of these turtles is known as "tortoisehell", historically used to make combs, jewelry and other trinkets. The killing of these animals has been banned in most of the world to protect them from being hunted into extinction.
Confiscated tortoiseshell bracelets and rings.
| Prior to these operations, local artisans were interviewed. "Most of the
artisans acknowledged that they knew the activity was illegal, but showed no
concern", said Isabel Naranjo, of Asociacióón PRETOMA. "Local artisans claim
that most of these products are imported from Nicaragua, and their clients
include Costa Ricans and tourists from the USA and Europe, clearly in
violation of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species
(CITES)", Naranjo said.
"Costa Rica has actively opposed recent attempts to downlist hawksbill
turtles at CITES, which would allow Cuba to legally slaughter 500 critically
endangered hawksbill turtles, to be sold to Japan for the manufacture of
trinkets", said Didiher Chacóón. "As such, Costa Rica should also set an
example by stopping all illegal commerce of hawksbill products within our
own borders in accordance with our laws; the open and illegal commerce of
hawksbill products in Costa Rica is a shame to our authorities" declared
Chacóón. "We will continue with these operations in coordination with the
local responsible authorities, and additional efforts will be directed
towards a campaign to promote "hawksbill free" artisan shops by means of an
ecolabel and certification, supplemented with a plea to domestic and foreign
tourists NOT to buy hawksbill products", he informed. These activities are
part of a project supported by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and
IFAW.
CCC's Roxana Silman and Ileana Vargas with confiscated tortoiseshell items.
| According to Randall Arauz, "The current hawksbill exploitation levels throughout Centralamerica are definitely not sustainable. Although all Centralamerican countries have legislation that clearly prohibits trade in hawksbill shell, there is little or no political will to enforce the legislation and the hawksbill products are processed and sold on a massive scale both domestically and internationally," he stated. "We hope that other Centralamerican countries will follow the example and ensure that their national laws protecting sea turtles are stringently enforced," urged Arauz.
One of the hottest issues discussed during the recent CITES meeting in
Kenya, Africa, 2000, was the Cuban proposal to downlist the hawksbill turtle
from Appendix 1 to Appendix 2 of CITES allowing international commerce from
Cuba to Japan. The Cuban proposal is based on studies that conclude that
the harvest is sustainable.
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