Madagascar Online : Le premier magazine d'actualité en ligne, spécialisé sur Madagascar Un site utilisant WordPress
Hunting and exporting turtles has long been forbidden in Madagascar. The Great Isle’s turtles are under the CITES Convention’s protection, just as the other endangered species around the world. The law has however been repeatedly circumvented. This time around, the turtles were illegally smuggled by ship. But already twice in the first half of this year, cargoes have been seized and the international airport of Ivato. In March, then in May of this year, the custom services busted a cargo of hundreds of local turtles on the verge of taking a flight to Nairobi, Kenya. Although the police forces argues to have caught the outlaws right handed, several other cases of illegal exportation of internationally protected species often go around undetected, on various accounts
A cargo of endemic species of turtles from Madagascar, previously smuggled by raft, has been seized in the Comoros. The turtles were stacked in a suitcase and carefully glued in order to avoid movements potentially deemed to betray their presence. A certain score of them perished during the travel under these conditions.