This past month, the team toured the Singapore Zoo, consistently rated as one of the best zoo groups in the world and a part of Wildlife Reserves Singapore. Our director Eric Goode sat down with WRS conservation director Dr. Sonja Luz and discussed issues of illegal trade, confiscations of Ploughshare Tortoises in Southeast Asia, and identified species both organizations can team up with and save from extinction. Sonja and her colleagues at WRS were amazingly generous with their time, insight, and ideas. They are really on the conservation forefront of many smaller, overlooked animals and those most affected by the pet and wildlife trade.
While in Singapore, the Turtle Conservancy attended the Conservation Asia Conference at the National University of Singapore. The theme was "sustainable landscapes for people, business and biodiversity." Many talks focused on ways to combat the rampant animal trafficking currently underway in Southeast Asia. Everything from rhino horn, ivory, pangolins, birds and turtles. Speakers ranged from "Green criminologists" and advocates of wildlife farming to some of the Turtle Conservancy's partners Dr. Gerald Kuchling and Dr. Chris Shepherd (TRAFFIC). The conference was organized by the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) Asia section and the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) Asia-Pacific.