Peter Paul van Dijk

Peter Paul has worked informally and formally with the Turtle Conservancy since its beginning, focusing mostly on the field conservation work in Mapimi (Mexico), South Africa and elsewhere, as well as providing biological-scientific input in TC's publications, outreach and strategies. Peter Paul earned his doctorate in zoology from the National University of Ireland at Galway by researching the natural history of Elongated Tortoises in Thailand. He carried out various studies and surveys of tropical Southeast Asia's tortoises and freshwater turtles in the 1990s, realizing along the way how severely exploited most species were by the developing trade to East Asia. The impacts of this growing trade, referred to as the 'Asian Turtle Crisis', extirpated populations across Asia, and instead of studying species going extinct, Peter Paul decided to try and do something about it; he joined TRAFFIC Southeast Asia for several years and became deeply involved with using the CITES convention as a framework to bring unsustainable international trade under control, helping to add species to the CITES Appendices and tightening and refining the regulations governing their exploitation and trade. Peter Paul has also worked at Conservation International and Global Wildlife Conservation, now Re:wild, always focused on in-situ conservation measures for tortoises and freshwater turtles world-wide, monitoring their status through the Red List process, and further improving exploitation and trade regulations.