Lampung turtles on brink of extinction

The turtle population in West Lampung district, Lampung province, is on the brink of extinction due to coastal abrasion and lack of re-greening programs, a turtle lover activist said. "West Lampung's coastal areas are damaged due to abrasion and lack of re-greening programmes so that turtles are discouraged to land on the beach to lay their eggs," H Ahyar (56), a turtle hatch activist in Sukamaju village, Ngambur subsdisrict, West Lampung, told Antara news agency on Monday. He said that besides the unfavourable condition due to damaged to the coastal areas, turtle eggs were also prone to theft. Now only a small number of turtle eggs could be found at the beach. "Re-greening programmes in the coastal areas must be carried out in order to attract turtles to lay their eggs. After all, the turtles would lay eggs far from the conservation areas if re-greening is not conducted," he said. While, head of the Maritime and Fisheries Services of West Lampung, Nata Djudin Amran said that the government had no enough funds to carry out re-greening programs in the coastal areas. He said that the limitation of budget has caused the regional government unable to do much. The regional government, he said, was now making its efforts to collect young mangroves to be planted in the coastal areas. "This coastal areas are a turtle conservation location where all stakeholders should pay attention because otherwise turtle population in the area could become extinct," Nata said. The coastal areas of West Lampung are designed to serve as a turtle conservation location for at least four species, namely gray turtles, hawksbill turtles, green turtles and leather back turtles.