“Independence Day” for river terrapins

Written by Dr. Chen Pelf Nyok

Dr. Chen is the co-founder of Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia. She currently heads the community-based River Terrapin Conservation Project in Kemaman, Terengganu, Malaysia.

11 Jul 2005

Date: 11 July 2005
By: Rosli Zakaria
Source: The New Straits Times

KUALA TERENGGANU — An “Independence Day” for river terrapins? Strange as it sounds, Aug 31 has been slated for this purpose by Kolej Universiti Sains Malaysia (Kustem) in its bid to save river terrapins from extinction and to raise funds for its terrapin research in Sungai Setiu.

This stems from the decline in the number of nests found, from several hundred in the mid-1990s to just 40 in 2003 and 30 last year.

“The river terrapin is under threat”, said Prof Chan Eng Heng of Kustem’s Faculty of Applied Science and Technology.

The “Independence Day” programme will rope in villagers and schoolchildren in Kampung Mangkok and Penarik in Setiu.

On that day, 150 one-year-old terrapins will be released into the river, followed by an awareness programme to educate the villagers, especially egg collectors, on the threat of extinction faced by the terrapins.

Kustem has chosen Sungai Setiu for the project as conservation is not carried out by the National Parks and Wildlife Department there. Sungai Setiu is one of the two major rivers in Terengganu, the other being Sungai Besut.

Chan said Kustem would focus on buying and hatching the eggs of terrapins over the next five years, and introduce an “adoption programme” similar to its green turtles programme on Pulau Redang.

“Funding to enable us to buy the eggs from collectors and for research is a problem. Terrapin eggs cost RM4 each and are more expensive than green turtle’s eggs which cost RM2.50 each”, she said.

“We applied for funds under the IRPA (Intensification of Research in Priority Areas) programme last year but have yet to get the money”.

Ironically, she said, funding for various current conservation projects on turtles and terrapins came from foreign agencies such as the US-based Turtle Survival Alliance, Turtle Conservation Forum and Cleveland Metropark Zoo, which had collectively contributed a total of RM68,000.

“We are not doing enough to save our turtles and terrapins”, she said. “There is a ban on commercial collection of the eggs, but there is no ban on selling the eggs”.

“We appreciate the support of the State Government in gazetting nesting areas to stop commercial collection of eggs, but it defeats the purpose as eggs are still being sold openly”.

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