How Can An App Help Reduce Trafficking Of ‘Tortoiseshell’ In Colombia?

A biologist from Colombia is using an app and education to help environmental authorities to fight the trafficking of “tortoiseshell” goods made of endangered turtles.

Endangered Hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) are a main source of “tortoiseshell” used in combs and other trinkets and although the trade was banned in 1977, a 2020 study showed tortoiseshell was still being sold in Cartagena, Colombia due to a lack of knowledge by tourists and local authorities alike.

Cristian Ramirez Gallego, conservation biologist, co-founder of the NGO Tortugas del Mar and one of the authors of that study explains that he is currently working with NGO SEE Turtles to reduce the trade in Hawksbill goods in Colombia by providing training to local environmental and law-enforcement agencies.

“I have conducted training for the training for the correct identification of hawksbills, I have taught them how to use the SEE Shell app which using artificial intelligence, helps to determine if a tortoiseshell is real or fake,” he says, adding that he hopes that by educating authorities across the country, they can limit the trade.

Ramirez explains that Hawksbill turtles are vital to the health of coral reefs and the species that inhabit this important ecosystem because they are one of only a small group of marine animals specialize in eating sea sponges.

“An individual hawksbill turtle, for example, can consume up to 500 kilograms of sponges a year, helping to keep sponge populations in check, so that corals do not suffocate and other organisms can grow there,” he says, “This is why we call them ‘the architects of reef’ because, without them, sponges could overgrow and crowd out vital corals.”

In a 2022 study, Ramirez and colleagues also updated the diversity, distribution and conservation status of turtles in Colombia.

Growing up in Colombia

Ramirez was born in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, where he swam in the sea and rose through the ranks of the local version of Cub Scouts, but his formative moment would come by chance.

“I was not even 10 years old and the doorbell rang: it was a man who eagerly offered my parents a cheap deal for a box full of science and history books,” he says, adding that to his surprise, it included The National Geographic Society: 100 Years of Adventure and Discovery.

“This book and the subsequent subscription to the National Geographic magazine, along with the other environmental activities I was involved in, were the trigger for my career in research and conservation,” he says, adding that he would go on to study biology in Medellin, Colombia.

Ramirez explains that illegal wildlife trafficking is a major challenge that crosses borders, so that solutions should also be addressed by all.

“An important part of the demand for wildlife by-products comes from some countries in the Global North but we scientists from the Global South are called upon to implement comprehensive solutions that are adapted to the specific needs in our countries,” he says, ” This means creating local strategies that help to curb the supply from our countries, while educating those who demand such products.”

Saving Hawksbill Turtles In Venezuela

Further east, Clemente Balladares Castillo and his team in Venezuela is helping save Hawksbill Sea Turtles by working with communities in the Los Roques archipelago and the Gulf of Paria.

“The Hawksbill turtle is the most sought-after marine reptile species, not only for its meat and eggs, but also for its ornate shell, which is used for illegal in illegal jewelry in most countries,” he says.

In the 2000s after working with the development of satellite oceanography applications for the Simon Bolivar University, Balladares saw an opportunity at the Ministry of Environment (Minec) of Veneuzeula and in 2001 went to the town of Macuro where sea turtle depredation was alarming.

“Something had to be done,” he says, “The power to change the minds of illegal looters and its possible consequences in the local extinction of critically endangered species such as the Hawksbill is a great achievement,” he says.