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HK airport foils attempt to smuggle pig-nosed turtles from Jakarta
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The Environment and Forestry Ministry has cooperated with a conservation organization in Hong Kong to return 596 pig-nosed turtles that were smuggled into Hong Kong. Ministry officials arrived at Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Friday, Aug. 24, to prepare to return the turtles to their original habita in Boven Digoel, Papua, (kompas.com/Rima Wahyuningrum)
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total of 596 illegally caught pig-nosed turtles, a vulnerable and protected species in Indonesia, were on their way to being returned to their natural habitat in Kao River in Boven Digoel, Papua, on Friday, after Hong Kong authorities foiled a smuggling attempt.
"We are working with a Hong Kong conservation organization for the repatriation. That means we’ll return the protected animals,” The Environment and Forestry Ministry's biodiversity conservation director Indra Exploitasia said at Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten.
Hong Kong airport officials found the live pig-nosed turtles inside a suitcase of an Indonesian passenger on a Jakarta-Hong Kong flight.
The Indonesian passenger was ordered to pay a HK$ 20,000 (US$2,547 or Rp 37 million) fine.
Under Indonesian law, the turtles are classed as a vulnerable and protected species that are not allowed to be traded. Law No. 5/1990 on natural resource conservation and the ecosystem stipulates that the trading, keeping, distribution or killing of a protected species is an offense, carrying a maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment or Rp 100 million (US$6,965) in fines.
"[We hope passengers] will realize that this [smuggling] is illegal and damages the environment. The trade [in protected species] is to be discouraged, and even stopped,” Hong Kong conservation and education center Kadoorie Farm And Botanic Garden Corporation senior conservation officer Tan Kit Sun said. (stu)
