A member of the Chàm Island’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) management board releases an endangered tortoise. Seven turtles were rescued by local farmers in 2021. — Photo courtesy of Chàm Islands MPA

CHÀM ISLANDS  — The Chàm Island’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) management board and Quảng Nam provincial rangers have released an endangered turtle to the local forest, three days after it was captured by a local farmer and handed to the MPA.

Huỳnh Thùy Hương, an MPA communication employee, told Việt Nam News that the Chinese strip-neck turtle (Mauremys sinensis) was found by Trương Công Tánh at a paddy field in Điện Bàn Town in Quảng Nam Province on January 14, who gave the turtle to the MPA.

The 1.5kg, 24cm shell turtle, which is listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a critically endangered species, was returned to the wild on January 20.

Chinese strip-neck turtle (Mauremys sinensis) -- a critically endangered (CR) species listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) -- is found on a paddy field in Quảng Nam Province. — Photo courtesy of Chàm Islands MPA

According to MPA, seven tortoises and sea turtles, handed in by locals, have been released in the Chàm Islands in 2021.

The Chàm Islands-Hội An (including the total area of the Islands’ land and water and Hội An) was recognised as a World Biosphere Reserve in 2009. It is home to a large population of sea turtles and tortoises.

The MPA also reported that nearly 1,000 baby turtles had been released into the ocean in 2017-19 since the ex-situ hatching (moving turtle eggs to another place for hatching) conservation project was launched in 2017.

The Chàm Islands is the only successful site for the ex-situ turtle eggs hatching project in central Việt Nam. — VNS