Study refutes claim that Indonesia’s legal turtle trade supports livelihoods

Study refutes claim that Indonesia’s legal turtle trade supports livelihoods

With an evolutionary history of more than 200 million years, turtles and tortoises have outlived dinosaurs and persisted on the planet despite mass extinction events. But around the turn of the 21st century, chelonian numbers in Southeast Asia dropped so dramatically that it sparked what biologists called the “Asian turtle crisis.” With a growing middle class in China, turtle meat was no longer a delicacy savored on special occasions; it became …