Letters 5 Literature Cited . . . Farming Endangered Turtles to Extinction in China Turtles are facing a global extinction crisis that is particularly acute in Asia because of China’s insatiable demand for their meat for soup and shells for traditional Chinese medicine (van Dijk et al. 2000; Turtle Conservation Fund 2002). International conserva- tion efforts, still grappling with the scope of the crisis, are also faced with the revelation that large com- mercial turtle farms are operating in China. Our investigations reveal that the scale of these operations, especially that pertaining to endan- gered species, vastly exceeds all pre- dictions (van Dijk et al. 2000; Shi & Parham 2001; Shi et al. 2004) and that there are over 1000 farms in China worth over a billion U.S. dollars (Shi & Provincial Forestry Bureau for En- dangered Species Import and Export Management Office of China, unpub- lished data). We submit that these lu- crative farming operations are a ma- jor threat to the survival of China’s diverse turtle fauna. Turtle farms are a problem mainly because they are the primary pur- chasers of wild-caught turtles. Apart from increasing their total stock of adult animals, farmers are always seeking wild breeders because suc- cessive generations of farm-raised tur- tles show a marked decrease in repro- ductive capability. This reliance on wild-collected individuals indicates that turtle farming is not a sustain- able practice. As the wild popula- tions decline, it will become increas- ingly difficult to supplement farm stock from the wild. Nevertheless, es- tablished turtle farmers with enough capital are continuing to purchase turtles whenever possible, opting to earn profits while they can, appar- ently with little regard for the future. In the short term there may be some benefits in terms of deflecting pres- sure from imported species (in con- junction with stricter import regu- lations, e.g., Meng et al. 2000), but these gains can only be considered temporary, with a permanent cost to wild Chinese turtles. In the long term turtle farms serve no function beyond generating profit for a few en- trepreneurs. The existence of an enormous, largely unregulated, turtle-farming in- dustry creates additional and seri- ous challenges for turtle conserva- tion. Wildlife collecting and trading stations can now launder illegally collected turtles as captive-produced fare. This kind of shell game is par- ticularly obvious for species such as the big-headed turtle (Platyster- non megacephalum), which does not breed readily in captivity. An- other issue is that as Chinese tur- tles have become more scarce, some turtle farmers have started switch- ing to North American species such as snappers (Chelydra, Macrochelys) and sliders (Trachemys), which are much easier to breed, but of course have no conservation value for China because they are non-natives. Whether any part of the turtle- farming industry can ever be co- opted into conservation strategies re- mains to be seen, but at the present time the two efforts are heading in opposite directions. Even assuming that the farming of endangered, na- tive turtles could be made sustain- able, there is a cultural demand for wild-caught game. This is especially true in China, where the nutritional properties of wild animals are pro- mulgated by the practitioners of tradi- tional medicine and deeply ingrained in the national psyche. Consequently, wild-caught turtles fetch significantly higher prices than farm-raised turtles, and no amount of captive breeding will decrease the desire for wild tur- tles. Therefore, after the inevitable crash in the farming of native tur- tles, the depleted wild populations will still face intense harvesting pres- sures. China is developing rapidly, and the escalation of turtle farming has followed the path of other capital- ist ventures following the economic reforms of the 1980s. The fusion of China’s growth with China’s utilitar- ian attitude toward nature empha- sizes quick profit over sustaining bio- diversity. Despite the fact that indus- trialization of the wildlife trade is of- ten proffered as a salve for dwindling species, there is mounting evidence to suggest it can have a strong dele- terious effect. In the case of Chinese turtles, the farms are wayward arks, gathering together the last vestiges of wild populations and then process- ing them for the soup pot. Only a massive effort by the Chinese govern- ment could curb or alter legal Chi- nese turtle-farming practices, and it is unlikely that the black market tur- tle farms could ever be controlled. The bleak future of Chinese turtles is mirrored in other commonly farmed wildlife such as crocodiles, snakes, and bears (Wan & Fan 1998; Thorb- jarnarson 1999; Li 2004; Zhou & Jiang 2004). We predict that the gathering of these species into breeding facil- ities is an ephemeral phenomenon that will be replaced eventually by a permanent one: the extinction of wild populations. Shi Haitao, *,† James F. Parham, ‡,§ Michael Lau, ** and Chen Tien-Hsi †† * Department of Biology, Hainan Normal Uni- versity, Haikou, 571158, Hainan Province, China, email haitao-shi@263.net † Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 9 Section 4 Conservation Biology Volume 21, No. 1, February 2007