Indigenous Colombians shun turtle meat to save dying species

Source: Agence France-Presse

Indigenous Colombians shun turtle meat to save dying species
by Staff Writers
Punta Agujas, Colombia (AFP) Nov 3, 2010

Indigenous Wayuu people living on South America's northernmost tip are dropping their age-old tradition of eating turtle meat as a main protein source because the reptile is dying out.
"This really is rejecting the culture of my ancestors," 72-year-old Olegario Choles told AFP. "I grew up eating turtle, and raised my kids on the money I make hunting them.

"But now the turtles are scarcer and scarcer. The nets come back empty," he said.

"The time has come to save them, in order to save ourselves," conceded Choles, the leader of the Wayuu on Colombia's impoverished La Guajira peninsula, one of the poorest regions in South America according to the website of The Wayuu Taya Foundation, an NGO helping the Amerindian group.

Read more: http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Indigenous_Colombians_shun_turtle_meat_to_save_dying_species_999.html

to save themselves. We should learn from these people.

do something half this significant.

protection in the United States of the:

Green sea turtle;
Hawksbill sea turtle;
Kemp's Ridley sea turtle;
Leatherback sea turtle;
Loggerhead sea turtle;
Olive Ridley sea turtle;
Desert tortoise;
Gopher tortoise;
Alabama red-belly turtle;
Bog turtle;
Flattened musk turtle;
Ringed map turtle; and
Yellow-blotched map turtle?

With capture or killing of them (even inadvertently) being a criminal act subject to varying degrees of punishment from fines to jail time?

Would that qualify as "something half as significant"?

While every bit of what you mention is a truly wonderful thing it was not a change to an entire regions way of life.

Something like giving up beef or chicken (at least the way we grow them) would be a lot closer.

If so, presumably BP will be facing massive fines and Club Fed vacations for its executives for threatening nearly the entire population.

But I'm not holding my breath.

But I agree, I doubt there will be direct application of the penalties to BP officers and directors. Prosecutorial discretion and all that. The Southern Environmental Law center has brought a lawsuit against BP though, for endagerment and harm to a number of species, including sperm whales, gulf sturgeon, manatee and five kinds of sea turtles (leatherback, loggerhead, green, hawksbill, and Kemp's ridley).

The Endangered Species Act prohibits the "take" of endangered species, with "take" defined as "to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct." The Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service have interpreted "harm" as meaning "an act which actually kills or injures fish or wildlife. Such an act may include significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures fish or wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns including breeding, spawning, rearing, migrating, feeding or sheltering."

Under these definitions, BP should be liable. It will be interesting to see.

for reasons they consider more important than satisfying their appetite, and providing a staple part of their diets.

It requires an actual intelligent grasp of a real problem, and considers denial of immediate satisfaction MORE important than mindless, unconscious repetition of an old habit which has become so deeply ingrained it is considered a right.

It's a very, VERY big step from a group of people whose options are very limited. It's enormous.

Cultural dietary and medicinal habits can be devastating to an eco-system, yet extremely hard to dislodge. While beef cattle are not under threat of extinction, the land use in raising them has had a dramatic impact on flora and fauna in places like the US, Argentina, and Venezuela. There are also the ramifications of direct hunting. Think in modern times of whales, tuna, cod, hippos, tigers, etc., and in pre-historic times, man's hunting to extinction of:

* woolly mammoths

* Columbian mammoths

* American mastodons

* three types of ground sloths

* glyptodonts

* giant armadillos

* several species of horses

* four species of pronghorn antelopes

* three species of camels

* giant deer

* several species of oxen

* giant bison

Was it the change in the Climate OR man that did them in? Was Man's movement into the New World a product of the Climate Change or independent of the change in Climate of about the same time period?

This is tied in with Clovis Points, while almost all of Native American DNA show Asiatic ancestors, Siberian Hunters did NOT use anything like Clovis Points, but European Hunters did. Did some Europeans, sail/walk/sled, along the edge of the ice pack that then existed from England to New England at about the same time period? England was connected to France by land at that same time period (Through both were more like Alaska is today). Thus bring with them the Clovis Point, which other Humans from Siberia copied, either is an exchange of trade goods, so just seeing and copying the Clovis Points.

Lets also not forget about the Russian/Siberian Mammoth skull apparently killed with a musket ball in it. Now, we know Mammoths survived in the old world long after they disappeared from the New World, but did some survive till the invention of Gun Powder? The three theories as to that Skull are 1. Someone invented a musket and used in when Mammoths were common. Early cannon were sometimes made of wood, only lasted a few shots but still effective. Gun powder is just a mix of three common chemicals thus possible (This is the Russian Explanation), 2. The Skull was fired at thousand of years after the Mammoth died, the Russians who found the Skull dismiss this action for the Musket Ball looks like it hit an actually living skull, not a frozen dead one. Bullets fired into frozen anything can look like they hit living fresh, this is the Western explanation of the Skull, 3. Mammoth survived into the 1600s in Northern Siberia, an opinion rejected by the experts, but would explain the facts the best.

Just pointing out that while the most popular explanation of the extinction of the large animals are blamed on man, the world was also seeing a huge influx of new creatures (Including man) and with that a mixing of disease of such animals AND the world was seeing a gradual warming which changed what was available to eat. Thus other explanations for their extinction are possible, with man just being part of what drove those animals to extinction.

Above it was referenced protection of many species. Well that's all well and good (very actually) but not anywhere near as impacting on Americans as this event is for SA.

cattle are not endangered.

from the article you posted:

Indigenous Colombians shun turtle meat to save dying species.


"But now the turtles are scarcer and scarcer. The nets come back empty," he said.

----

how is this analagous to cattle in the US????

I got chills reading that article.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.:thumbsup:

Apr 13
2009.

SAND TEARS OF THE DESERT WAYUU:
To commemorate the 2nd anniversary of the Bahia Portete massacre

Lágrimas de arena del desierto WAYUU

Between the 18th and 20th of April in the “Media Luna” sacred territory of the Wayuu people, located in La Guajira, we gathered for the second Yanama in memory of the massacre that occurred in Bahia Portete in April of 2004 at the hands of paramilitaries. To this event came the ONIC organization, other indigenous of Colombia, national and international NGOs, human rights organizations, environmentalists and unions, at which we shared meals, drinks, customs, hopes, the sea, the landscape, and the strength and magic of our territory. The objective of this encounter was to accompany the survivors of the massacre and share solidarity with all the Wayuu people in their struggle and determination that the victims of this massacre not be forgotten and that there not be impunity for the perpetrators.
This genocidal act was perpetrated by the paramilitary structure headed by Rodrigo Tovar “Pupo,” known as Jorge 40, assisted by Chemna Bala, Josemaria Ipuana, and his nephew Adrian Agustin Bernier.

This massacre killed women, children, young people, men, and elders, and the survivors have been forced to live outside their ancestral territory and outside the country to reside in Venezuela. But we are not renouncing our intent to return to our salty land. We thirst and hope to again feel the winds of the sea in our own desert land.

The barbarism against the Wayuu has not stopped, even though the zone has been militarized under the excuse of protecting this town and despite the promise of Colombian Vice-President Santos that he will not allow one single more death to the members of this community. Yet, the government continues to turn a blind eye to the murders that have occurred after the massacre. Such is the case of Edilia Epinayuu, one of the witnesses of the massacre and murdered by the paramilitaries on the 13th of July of the year 2005. The government refuses to acknowledge the complicity of the military and paramilitaries that we were able to observe and it does not have ears to listen to the threats that are raised constantly against the Wayuu people and its leaders. In the zone of this scene of torture, where the Colombian military is posted to “take care of” the houses, where torture rape and death occurred in the middle of the burning desert of salt and sand, appeared vulgar graffiti reminders of the acts of rape and other crimes that were committed against a dignified people. We also saw recently made threats written on the walls against their leader, Debora Barros Fince, who has fought to assure that the horrible acts committed against her people be not forgotten or fall in impunity.

Though the massacre occurred two years ago, there continues to be exerted physical, moral and psychological violence against this town, without intervention by the government forces purported to protect it. In this visit to Bahia Portete, the participants to the Yanama encounter were able to observe that, in the area controlled by the government, the indigenous houses are being destroyed and roofs, water tanks and doors are being dismantled. With this action the government attempts to erase the memory of the landscape and dwellings from the minds of the people.

More:
http://www.bridgesacrossborders.org/2009/04/sand-tears-of-the-desert-wayuu/

http://intercontinentalcry.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/alta-guajira.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_5x-W7If3AQs/R7L8NEh6vDI/AAAAAAAAAAo/PmtHOYsCWak/s320/Wayuu.jpg http://www.paisatours.com.nyud.net:8090/images/guajira_wayuu_l.JPG

http://www.elfoton.es.nyud.net:8090/gallery/d/142651-2/atardecer+wayuu.jpg http://www.radiofeminista.net.nyud.net:8090/junio04/notas/SMDrefugiadosindiomara10.jpg http://www.colombia.travel.nyud.net:8090/en/images/stories/turistainternacional/Quehacer/naturaleza/parquesnaturales/makuira2.jpg

K&R.