Science/Nature
More than 20,000 Orinoco River Turtles Freed
By Press Release
Apr 22, 2008, 18:32

80,000 arrau turtles are scheduled for release this year for a total of 350,000 in the last 3 years. 800 young, endangered Orinoco alligators are also to be released this year.

Venezuela's Vice-minister for Environmental Conservation, together with settlers and representatives of several organizations, headed the liberation of more than 20,000 arrau turtles (also called the giant South American river turtle) in a wide fauna refuge, located in Santa Maria del Orinoco, state of Amazonas, Venezuela’s south.

Hundreds of kids, young people and adults traveled by boat to the place where the turtles were freed. Once the young turtles touched the sand, they immediately ran to the water covering the river with their tiny heads.

The Vice-minister of Popular Power for Environment started the liberation this year, and 80,000 arrau young turtles will be progressively liberated. Arrau is an endangered species, hunted for food by some settlers and for sale in cities, where they become exotic plates.

“In the last six years this program has increased in a great measure, and with the liberations of the current year we will achieve 350,000. In three years we have liberated 200,000. The government has given an important support to the program,” pointed out the Vice-minister.

The numbers show that since the program started, in 1989, more female nests have increased from 500 to almost 1,200.

“This is a clear demonstration of our proposal of government, a society with a sustainable model of development. Today we are working for the preservation of arrau turtle in the planet, because flora and fauna has the right to live as human beings do, sharing what nature has given to us. That is the reason why this 18-year program is so important to us,” said Rodriguez.

The capitalist model has destroyed a lot of species in the world because natural resources are considered merchandise, and “if that situation doesn’t change, our flora, fauna, and human beings will always be endangered, because we will have no water and oxygen for life. This relation has to change.”

Nowadays, “a lot of fishermen give back the turtles to the Orinoco when they get caught,” he said, and remarked the necessity that citizens have to be informed about these actions and get involved to achieve success in the conservation of species.

The Venezuelan Vice-minister thanked all the local communities, the National Guard and NGOs for cooperating in the program. He remarked that this arrau turtle program has established fluvial transportation to schools in the Orinoco river’s bank as the project’s social investment.

Houses will also be built for people living in that fauna refuge.

Vice-minister Rodríguez considers the communities are not in a second place because they are the ones who definitively develop the conservation program, together with environmental authorities. It is a shared duty.

The Venezuelan official announced the expansion of the arrau young turtle liberation program that in 2008 will also reach Apure, Barinas and, Guárico states (Southwest llanos), as well as Amazonas.

The Ministry of Environment will also liberate 800 young alligator of the Orinoco River this year, which has only 2,500 specimens nowadays. Bolivarian News Agency, MINCI