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The Chinese appetite for turtle meat will be high on the agenda at next
April’s meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) in Nairobi. Pro Wildlife, a Munich-based conservation group,
reports that demand for tortoises and freshwater turtles is depleting stocks
across Southeast Asia. Several species discovered as carcasses on sale at
markets have never been seen in the wild, says Allen Salzberg of the New York
Turtle and Tortoise Society. The Animal Committee of CITES agreed to raise the
issue and the Pro Wildlife report was presented at a meeting in Madagascar last
month.