Press Release

The Adventures of Lucky Turtle; Board Game
A New Educational Resource for Children

Asia’s tortoises and freshwater turtles are critically threatened by the combined impacts of hunting for the illegal trade and loss of habitat. Since the early 1990’s the systematic and wide-spread exploitation of turtles has devastated wild populations across the region in order to feed the insatiable demands of export markets, mainly in China.

Education for Nature-Vietnam (ENV) has developed a board game to help children learn about Vietnam’s turtles and raise awareness about the many dangers and difficulties that turtles face during the course of their lives.

The game starts at birth. The object is for players to roll the dice and avoid landing on certain squares, and especially trying to avoid being sent to the “Evil Trader’s Den”. Bonus moves can be won by answering questions correctly about turtles featured on “Dr. Turtle Cards”, and a player wins when he or she makes it successfully to the “Forest Where No Man Ever Goes” (The End).

This innovative educational approach allows students to learn about turtle ecology, habitat preferences and favourite foods as well as the dangers turtles face in their struggle to survive. In a bid to overcome these challenges students learn how difficult it is for turtles to live safely and discover how they can get involved in helping to protect turtles in their habitats.

The Lucky Turtle board game was designed for up to six players, and is part of an educational package designed by ENV focused on turtles that includes a lesson plan for schools (in the final stages of development), an illustrated children’s story 'the Adventures of Lucky Turtle', Green Forest magazine special issue on turtles, and two posters. ENV plans to distribute the educational package at the beginning of the next school year (September) to environmental education programmes working in communities bordering parks and protected areas where conservation priorities include tortoises and freshwater turtles. The Lucky Turtle Board Game is distributed free to participating community-based environmental education programmes throughout Vietnam.

ENV wish to convey their sincere thanks to Auckland Zoo for supporting this important educational resource.

About ENV
Education for Nature–Vietnam (ENV) was established as Vietnam’s first environmental education-focused NGO, built upon the success and experience of the community-based Conservation Awareness Programme at Cuc Phuong National Park. ENV specialises in training of environmental educators, and carries out a variety of educational programmes and initiatives aimed at raising awareness and understanding about the environment, and the need to protect nature and wildlife in Vietnam.

For more information, please contact:
Nguyen Phuong Dung
ENV Communication Officer
Tel. + 84 4 7753685
Email: env@fpt.vn
Website: www.envietnam.org

Turtle Facts
23 June 2004

23 Species Native to Vietnam
The are 23 species of tortoises and freshwater turtles native to Vietnam. Five of these species are soft-shell turtles, and the remaining 18 are land tortoises or freshwater hard-shelled turtles.

All of Vietnam’s Species are Threatened
All 23 of Vietnam’s tortoise and freshwater turtle species are listed on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Fourteen of Vietnam’s turtle species are listed as Critically Endangered or Endangered on the Red List

Struggle for Survival
Turtles are threatened by the combined impacts of hunting for the wildlife trade and loss of habitat. Most hard-shell turtles in the trade are presently exported from Vietnam to China where they are consumed as food and used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Legal Protection
Five species are specifically protected under Vietnam’s principal wildlife protection law, Decree 48 (2002). Thirteen species are listed on Appendix II of the Convention on the Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), regulating trade across international borders.

A Profitable Enterprise
There is a growing commercial market for soft-shell turtles in Vietnam, consumed mainly in restaurants throughout the country. Farming of the Chinese soft-shell turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis) has become an immensely successful enterprise in Vietnam

An Unprofitable Enterprise
Hard-shell turtles are not easily farmed for commercial purposes. This is principally due to their ecology. Requiring many years to mature and laying few eggs, it may take ten or more years to raise a newly born turtle to a size suitable for selling. The investment in food and care during this period exceeds the market price for most species making the farming operations unprofitable.

Laundering of Wildlife
There are no clear examples of turtle “farming” operations in Vietnam for hard-shell turtle species. Most “farms” claiming to breed and raise hard-shell turtles are laundering turtles illegally collected from the wild.

The World’s Most Endangered Turtle
The Hoan Kiem turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) has recently been named the most endangered freshwater turtle in the world (2003). A single living example of this species can be found in Hoan Kiem Lake in downtown Hanoi. Experts from Hanoi National University and WCS are surveying other potential sites where the species may survive in the wild.