With numbers surpassing nine million, Hong Kong now welcomes just as many turtles as tourists every year. However, while tourists take food and accommodation from the City of Life, turtles have their homes and lives taken for food.

Conservationists warn that the turtle trade in Hong Kong is contributing to the Asian turtle crisis. "The crisis is very real," said Bosco Chan Pui-lok, an ecologist at the University of Hong Kong.

In the 1970s nearly all turtles found in Hong Kong and mainland markets were native species to China. Now these are hardly seen in Chinese markets, which suggests that turtle populations in China are largely depleted. This has led to an increase in turtle imports from around the region to fuel demand in China, the world's largest turtle-consuming country.

"More than nine million turtles are imported into Hong Kong every year, so imagine

how huge the trade is throughout southern China," said Mr Chan. "If the current volume

of trade continues for a decade, no turtle populations can naturally sustain themselves."

The increasing demand for turtles for food and traditional Chinese medicine across Asia poses the greatest threat to the survival of freshwater turtles, terrapins and tortoises - known collectively as chelonians.

Turtle meat and soup are believed to warm the blood during the cold season. The Chinese soft-shelled terrapin (Pelodiscus sinensis), for instance, sells for about $130 per catty - approximately $200 for a chelonian the size of a portable CD player. This species is commonly bred in captivity in Thailand and China. However, most of the 13 species of Asian turtles found in Hong Kong markets, such as the Chinese Pond Terrapin (Mauremys mutica), are likely to be taken from the wild.

Conservationists say it is hard to farm hard-shell chelonians. "It's easier to breed soft-shelled species than hard-shells," said Dr Michael Lau Wai-neng, senior conservation officer at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in the New Territories. Dr Lau said that in Taiwan it had taken more than 20 years to develop good breeding and hatching techniques for soft-shelled turtles.

Soft-shelled chelonians laid about 10 eggs per clutch and several clutches a year, whereas the hard shelled grew more slowly and produced fewer eggs, he said. Typically, a hard-shell freshwater turtle laid two to four eggs per year.

Traffic Southeast Asia, the wildlife trade monitoring programme of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) and The World Conservation Union (IUCN), says most turtles traded in Chinese markets are wild-caught and originate from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia. The rest are farm-raised soft-shelled turtles from Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore.

Peter Paul van Dijk, senior programme officer for Traffic Southeast Asia, said he was startled by the number of turtles being traded. A one-day survey at one cross-border point on the Sino-Vietnamese border in 1994 documented more than 12.5 tonnes of tortoises taken into China (equivalent to more than 8,000 daily or three million a year). Indonesian traders report two to three tonnes of turtles (about 2,000) leaving Jakarta on a daily basis. Similar volumes are exported from Phnom Penh.

A 1997 videotape of a food and medicinal market in Guangzhou documented about 10,000 turtles of 37 different species available over two days, including five species which cannot be traded under international law. "As the demand grows and the regional supplies dwindle, the trade has begun to involve countries such as the United States and Australia," said Dr van Dijk.

Chinese soft-shelled turtles are cheap compared with the Chinese three-banded box terrapin (Cuora trifasciata). "Of 13 known species traded in Hong Kong, Cuora trifasciata is the most expensive," said Mr Chan. Prices of $8,000 have been known to change hands for a typical 1.5-kilogram adult.

Cuora trifasciata are still scattered around Hong Kong, but there is no data to indicate its population status here. However, due to the market value of this species, illegal trapping had increased in recent years, said Mr Chan. "Over the years, my colleagues and I have seen an increase in the number of turtle traps set in Hong Kong," he said.

Mr Chan told of one Hong Kong turtle trader who bought 250 Cuora trifasciata adults every year from local suppliers. "If this continues the turtle population here will not sustain itself," he said. "Chelonians, by their very nature, grow slowly, produce only a few eggs a year and are susceptible to predation when young."

Traditionally, perhaps because of Cuora trifasciata's  Chinese name which means Gold Money Turtle, its shell or plastron - its hard underbelly - is ground to powder and mixed with herbal medicine to make turtle jelly. But turtle jelly has only recently become popular in Hong Kong. Suppliers tout it as having cancer preventing and blood-detoxifying properties.

Gene Tung, a Chinese herbalist who has practised for more than 20 years in Wan Chai, said the plastron could help restore the body's kidney functions, soothe joints, tendons and bones, and alleviate menstruation problems. It also contained vitamin A and calcium, he said.

Another popular belief is that turtles can help eliminate "heatiness", or the body's imbalanced state after eating too much fried food. However, Mr Tung said there were alternatives to turtles to cure this condition.

Dr Cheung Hon-yeung of the Department of Biology and Chemistry at City University agreed that
alternatives could be used. He said his research over the past five years had shown no biological activity from plastrons of four turtle species. "My findings eliminate the myth that plastron extracts have significant anti-cancer properties," he said.

He did find that turtle samples containing selenium -known to prevent tumour growth - had a small growth-inhibiting effect on cells, but "the effect was not strong enough to be considered of therapeutic value".

Most nutrients and minerals in turtle jelly came from the herbs in the jelly's preparation, not from the turtle, said Dr Cheung. "Preparations vary because there is no quality control and quality assurance in turtle jelly formulae."

Despite beliefs about the jelly's properties, traditions can change - the Kung Wo Tong chain, which began business in 1904, only began serving cold jelly a few years ago to persuade customers to buy in the summer.

"It's all about marketing strategy," said Mr Chan.  Government statistics show that the trade in Hong Kong was worth more than $3 billion in 1997. "While the consumption of turtle jelly plays an important cultural role in Hong Kong society, the trade in wild-caught freshwater turtles and tortoises is currently unsustainable for many, if not most, species," said Dr van Dijk. "The drastic decline in Cuora trifasciata has meant other Asian species are now even more commonly captured and traded."

Wellcome and ParknShop also sell turtle jelly, though the product is not among their 3,000 most popular items, according to their Web sites. A spokesperson for Wellcome said the company was willing to consult consumer and environmental organisations about the creatures' plight. ParknShop also claimed to be glad to hear of the problem.

"Their response is very encouraging," said Dr Lau. " With their support, the unsustainable turtle trade could be put on everyone's agenda. Something has to be done now. Laws and regulations governing trade in turtles need to be revised and enforced."

Dr van Dijk said concern about the decline in Cuora trifasciata and other Cuora species traded
in larger numbers had even prompted Germany and the United States to propose including all Cuora species under international rules which would only allow export with a permit. "Whether all Cuora species will be listed will be decided at the 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species this April," he said.

However, conservationists face an uphill battle in raising awareness of the Asian turtle crisis to the authorities in China. In December, Traffic organised a five-day workshop in Cambodia about the trade in freshwater turtles and tortoises. Representatives from China were invited but did not attend.  Despite national legislation that protects some turtlem species in every Asian country (Hong Kong protects the five species of native non-marine turtles), Dr van Dijk said enforcement was the problem.

For instance, front-line staff such as customs officers, wildlife enforcement workers and wardens must be able to identify the various species in trade for effective enforcement, something also hampered in many countries because of lack of specific legislation.

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