Posted on January, 18 2018

This was the mission adopted by all environmental actors in Morondava including WWF, journalists and the authorities of Morondava last weekend. In fact, nearly 500 radiated tortoises intended for illegal international traffic were discovered in a boat coming from Toliara to Mahajanga.
 
Due to mechanical problems and also because of bad weather, the boat ran aground in Morondava on January
10 . A bad smell from the boat caught local population’s attention, and quickly they alerted the authorities. The rescue operation for these endangered tortoises was urgent. Among the 460 radiated tortoises found, only 223 were still alive while many were on the process of dying.

On Saturday morning, members of environmental organizations (FANAMBY, DURRELL, MNP, CNFEREF ...), the authorities of the environmental management office, local journalists and young people of the Mahery consortium were massively present in order to sanitize and to rehydrate the turtles. After receiving assistance from a WWF facilitator, everyone helped in the disinfection process.
 
"Convinced by the importance of protecting protected species, we could not cross our arms when we saw these suffering tortoises far from their natural environment," said Lucien Andriafanomezana from the WWF.

Thanks to this rapid and strong response from civil society, 217 tortoises were saved. Today, they are waiting at the private park of Kimony resort for their next trip back to the spiny forest of southwestern Madagascar, their home. As for the three traffickers on the boat, they were detained.
 
It is in this kind of unfortunate case that the actions of the authorities and civil society are crucial. Between 2009 and 2016, it is estimated that around 15,000 tortoises were illegally caught per year in Madagascar for national and international traffic. At the national level, WWF and TRAFFIC work among others to strengthen law enforcement to protect wild fauna and flora, among them the radiated tortoise.