The Bali governor's request for 1,000 green turtles a year from the Forestry Ministry, to be used in religious rituals, has drawn the ire of the international community, says an activist.
Over 1,000 divers and tourism community members from Europe have signed a petition jointly organized by the NGO Save Our Sea Turtles (SOS) of Switzerland and ProFauna Indonesia, Rosek Nursahid, the ProFauna chairman, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
"We're strongly against the use of protected animals in such rituals," he said.
He added the petition had been circulated in public since August and now had more than 1,000 signatures, with more expected before it was sent to the authorities by the end of the year.
Earlier in the year, Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika requested from the Forestry Ministry's Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation a quota of 1,000 green turtles a year to be slaughtered and served up at religious rituals by the province's predominantly Hindu community.
The directorate then asked for a recommendation from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), which criticized the plan.
"With LIPI's refusal, we also demand the Forestry Ministry to say no to the proposal, considering that approving it would be legally and scientifically baseless," Rosek said.
He added that approval of the proposal would only make the use of the protected animals in the resort island even more difficult to control, which could then trigger a surge in the illegal trade of turtles in the region.
Rosek also expressed concern that approving the proposal would threaten the island's all-important tourism industry, as happened in 2000.
He said that back then, hundreds of thousands of people, including foreign tourism agencies and travel bureaus, had threatened to boycott Bali, following a report by ProFauna Indonesia on the illegal trade of turtles in the province, unless stern action was taken against the trade.
The traded turtles, Rosek went on, were captured from other regions, including East Java, Flores, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.
The number of turtles illegally traded in Bali is reportedly to between 2,000 and 3,000 a year.
Rosek said ProFauna had observed turtles being smuggled into Bali, mostly for commercial purposes, including consumption and tourist attraction.
In Tanjung Benoa, for instance, at least seven tourist sites openly display green turtles to attract visitors, Rosek said.
In some of those places, tourists are even allowed to ride on the back of a turtle, for a fee, he added.
Each of the sites in Tanjung Benoa, Rosek went on, had between 60 and 100 turtles for these purposes.
"As Indonesia's main tourist destination, Bali should show a positive image by helping preserve these rare animals, and not call for a thousand protected turtles to be used in religious rituals," he said.
"This shows the government is not serious in dealing with the turtle issue."
