Turtle trade is a long-term conservation problem, which drives many turtle populations in Vietnam to the brink of extinction. In this study, we conducted interview surveys in three northern provinces in Vietnam, including Bac Kan, Quang Ninh, and Tuyen Quang between 2013 and 2015 to investigate the scale and trend of turtle trade in Vietnam. The results of the study show that the prices of most species increased alarmingly during the study period, probably due to the rarity of the species and the higher demand from China. | VNU Journal of Science: Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vol. 32, No. 1S (2016) 245-253 Illegal Turtle Trade in Bac Kan, Quang Ninh, Tuyen Quang Provinces and Online Illegal Turtle Trade Tran Thi Khanh Linh1, Pham Van Thong2,*, Le Duc Minh1, Timothy McCormack2 Hoang Van Ha2, Nguyen Tai Thang2, Ngo Thi Hanh1 1 Faculty of Environmental Sciences, VNU University of Science, 334 Nguyen Trai, Hanoi, Vietnam 2 Asian Turtle Program of Indo-Myanmar Conservation Received 08 July 2016 Revised 19 August 2016; Accepted 01 September 2016 Abstract: Turtle trade is a long-term conservation problem, which drives many turtle populations in Vietnam to the brink of extinction. In this study, we conducted interview surveys in three northern provinces in Vietnam, including Bac Kan, Quang Ninh, and Tuyen Quang between 2013 and 2015 to investigate the scale and trend of turtle trade in Vietnam. The results of the study show that the prices of most species increased alarmingly during the study period, probably due to the rarity of the species and the higher demand from China. More importantly, our surveys of online trading activities through social networks suggest that the new method of turtle trade dramatically rises in recently years, and overtakes the traditional networks as the most common way of trading. Based on the trend and scale of the trade, we recommend several conservation measures to mitigate turtle trade, especially formulating new regulations to stop online trading activities. Keywords: Turtle trade, Bac Kan, Quang Ninh, Tuyen Quang, online trade. 1. Introduction∗ example, the illegal trade in wildlife has continued unabated since Vietnam opened its market to China in the early 1990s [3]. In this context, turtle is not an exception. Freshwater turtles and tortoises, in some cases serving as keystone species or an important link in the food web, play a crucial role in ecosystems. However, turtle populations around the world have declined drastically over the past 30 .
