Chelonians, which include turtles, terrapins and tortoises, have been part of the local population’s diet since colonizers arrived on the Amazon River. That meat has become common on people’s tables, especially in riverside and traditional communities. However, deficient law enforcement in remote areas and poaching threaten species and Amazon biodiversity.

Eating chelonians, which include turtles, terrapins and tortoises, is a common cultural habit among riverine and traditional communities in Brazil’s Amazonas state. Residents interviewed by InfoAmazonia say that their meat is “rarely consumed” but essential for the local populations. Exploiting these animals as a source of subsistence is controversial, but the threat to biodiversity lies in poaching, according to the Amazonas State Police Environmental Corps (BPAmb): between 2013 and 2023, 4,551 animals were seized from poachers in the state.

However, these figures point to underreporting of poaching as a result of deficient law enforcement in remote areas of the state. Biologist Willandia Chaves is a researcher at the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech University in the US. In 2021, she led a study on the real figures of turtle meat consumption in Amazonas. The survey found that 1.7 million individuals were consumed per year on average. The state capital Manaus s for about one third of that.

Chaves’s research contrasts with official data, which, in addition to being much lower than the figures found by the study, fluctuate from one year to another. For example, in 2021, when Chaves estimated an average in the millions, there were 183 seizures in the state, according to BPAmb.