The hawksbill turtle: a source of protein and revenue in the Caribbean. |
The protection of animal species
is not necessarily incompatible with responsible commercial exploitation, says Cuba
 Every year, thousands of hawksbill
turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) are caught and killed despite the existence of the
1975 convention (CITES,
see box p. 14)
banning the sale of their shells, which are the source of a hard, compact, translucent
substance much in demand for making combs, jewellery and eye-glass frames. The trade
ban has contributed to hurting Caribbean fishing communities that for centuries have
lived off the turtles and their protein-rich meat and eggs.
Cuba is no exception. Between 1960 and 1990, some 150,000 hawksbills (about 5,000
a year) were caught along Cuba’s coastline, which accounts for a third of the species’
nesting places in the Caribbean.
Ten years ago, Cuba introduced fishing regulations that allowed co-operatives in
only two villages, one on the Isla de la Juventud (off the south coast) and one in
the eastern province of Camagüey, to catch a maximum of 500 hawksbills a year
but banned hunting them during the mating season or catching specimens with shells
less than 66 centimetres across. The turtle meat is then distributed to authorised
fishing co-operatives and to Cuban hospitals. Catching hawksbills is banned in the
rest of the country and punishable by a fine of 5,000 pesos ($250) in a society where
people earn only about $10 a month. Also, says José Alberto Alvarez, an expert
at the Environmental Inspection Centre (CICA), “if fishermen poachers are found with
their boat, the boat is confiscated. This is the harshest penalty under our fishing
law.”
Cuba signed the CITES but, like Japan, its main client, opted out of the clause dealing
with hawksbills. This allowed both countries to continue trade in the shells. In
1993, however, Japan signed the hawksbill clause and ceased to be a buyer. Since
then, Cuba has stockpiled 6.9 tonnes of hawksbill shells in a warehouse in the fishing
village of Cojimar, near Havana.
CICA says the hawksbill turtle is not in danger of extinction along Cuba’s coastline,
and that regulated hunting helps local fishing communities. But the trade ban means
Cuba’s stock of shells is steadily growing. At the CITES conference held in Nairobi
in April 2000, Cuba sought permission to sell its current $5 million stockpile to
Japan and then to sell the shells of up to 500 hawksbills a year. The proposal narrowly
failed to win the necessary two-thirds majority.
A
regional programme
CICA’s director
Silvia Alvarez says “the votes in favour were significant because they were based
on technical evidence, while those against were based on emotion, because the turtle,
like dolphins, whales and elephants, are creatures people adore.
“A catch of 500 a year isn’t very large at all because surveys show that there are
about 15,000 nesting female hawksbill turtles in Cuban waters,” she says. “We’re
defending the principle of a regulated trade in them, with the proceeds going to
the communities that catch them and to pay for more research into the species.”
She accepts that the rest of the world’s refusal to back the Cuban position arises
from fear that the sale of the shells in Japan would encourage a black market in
them, but adds that Cuba “takes quite the opposite view. There is a black market
in the shells precisely because selling them is totally forbidden.”
Cuban scientists say that in the area between Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands—countries
that contain only one per cent of the total hawksbill habitat—about 2,000 turtles
are caught illegally every year. “We should have a regional programme for controlled
fishing,” says Ms Alvarez.
A Caribbean-wide group was set up in 1997 to look into the state of the species.
Its members include Cuba, Antigua-Barbuda, St Lucia, St Kitts-Nevis, St Vincent,
Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname. Venezuela, Colombia and the Dominican Republic
have expressed interest in joining.
Meanwhile, Cuba continues with its programme of catching an annual maximum of 500
turtles. “We’ve got two more years until the next CITES meeting to show that what
we’re doing is a good thing,” says Ms Alvarez, who thinks “the main obstacle is the
notion that the only way to protect natural resources is not to use them.”
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