A new study has cast doubt on claims that Indonesia’s legal freshwater turtle trade meaningfully supports local livelihoods, arguing instead that the trade benefits only a few hundred people while pushing several species closer to extinction.
Indonesia legally harvests nearly 50,000 freshwater turtles and tortoises each year, exporting most of them to China for meat. Four species dominate this trade: the vulnerable Asiatic softshell turtle, the endangered Southeast Asian box turtle, the Asian leaf turtle, and the Malayan softshell turtle.
All four are regulated under CITES, meaning international trade requires permits, and collectors must be licensed within Indonesia. However, researchers say the legal trade contributes only marginally to incomes.
Only a Few Hundred Earn Minimum Wage
The study, published in Discover Animals and led by wildlife trade researcher Vincent Nijman of Oxford Brookes University, examined harvest quotas across 27 Indonesian provinces between 2016 and 2022.
By multiplying legal harvest limits by turtle market prices ranging from $1.10 to $20 per turtle researchers estimated how many collectors could realistically earn a minimum wage.
Their findings show that legal trade could support only 241 to 306 collectors nationwide at subsistence minimum wage levels. If aiming for a livable wage about one-and-a-half times the minimum wage that number drops to between 161 and 204 people.
Even when assuming part-time collection that contributes just 10% of annual income, the trade could support only about 2,400 to 3,000 people in a country of 285 million.
The study did not factor in costs such as permits, equipment, and transportation meaning real earnings are likely even lower.
Illegal Trade Likely Sustains Profitability
Researchers argue that for the turtle trade to be financially viable at a larger scale, illegal harvesting beyond legal quotas would likely be necessary. Indonesia has a documented history of wildlife quota violations involving birds and reptiles, and the authors suggest turtles may be similarly overharvested.
Even if illegal collection significantly increased supply, the study estimates only about 1,500 to 3,000 people could earn minimum wage incomes a small fraction of the population.
Meanwhile, the ecological cost could be severe. In 2023, taxonomists split the Southeast Asian box turtle into six species and subspecies, including Indonesia’s critically endangered Palu box turtle. Experts say this new classification raises urgent concerns about current harvest quotas.
Turtles and tortoises have survived for over 200 million years, but Southeast Asia experienced what biologists termed the “Asian turtle crisis” in the early 2000s, as rising demand from China turned turtle meat from a luxury dish into a common food item.
Combined with habitat loss and pollution, overharvesting has placed more than half of the world’s turtle and tortoise species at risk.
Conservationists warn that turtles reproduce slowly and live long lives, making population recovery extremely difficult once numbers decline sharply. They also play critical ecological roles as scavengers in freshwater systems, helping maintain ecosystem balance.
The researchers urge Indonesian authorities to strictly enforce harvest quotas, ban trade in threatened species, and provide alternative livelihood options for collectors.
They argue that promoting wild-caught turtle trade as a poverty-alleviation tool is misleading, given its limited economic contribution and high ecological cost.
With many targeted species already endangered or vulnerable, experts say Indonesia faces a clear choice: strengthen conservation safeguards now or risk accelerating the decline of some of the world’s oldest surviving reptile lineages.