The economic situation

Madagascar is ranked at 155 of the 187 countries covered by the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index (http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi), with 81% of the human population considered to live in extreme poverty. Within Madagascar, the sub-arid south-western region represents the poorest part of the country. During lean seasons, people often rely heavily on natural forest products (SuLaMa 2011; R. Neudert et al. unpublished data 2013).

The animal situation

The radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) has been facing a rapid decline for some time (Nussbaum & Raxworthy Reference Nussbaum and Raxworthy2000; O’Brien et al. Reference O’Brien, Emahalala, Beard, Rakotondrainy, Reid, Raharisoa and Coulson2003), with a reduction of 47% of the population between 2000 and 2011 (Rafeliarisoa et al. Reference Rafeliarisoa, Walker and Louis2013). Due to its rapid decline, the species is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List (Leuteritz & Rioux Paquette Reference Leuteritz and Rioux Paquette2008). Even though it is protected under Malagasy and international law, exploitation has increased in recent years. The species is used locally as bushmeat (Walker & Rafeliarisoa Reference Walker and Rafeliarisoa2012). Several tonnes of dried tortoise meat are confiscated each year, corresponding to up to 50000 tortoises at a given time (Andriamarohasina Reference Andriamarohasina2011). Locally, tortoises are sold for US$ 2.5–6.5. In addition, tortoises are traded in large quantities internationally. Animals sell for c. US$ 200 in Asia and c. US$ 5000 in the European pet markets (Todd Reference Todd2011).

Alleviation of the problem

Tortoise populations could be managed by local communities (under a community-based natural resource management [CBNRM] scheme) as part of the BioTrade scheme (Abensperg-Traun Reference Abensperg-Traun2009; http://www.biotrade.org/index.asp). Each community could be assigned an annual quota of animals for legal trade and export. Animals for trade could be marked individually via a subcutaneous microchip (passive integrated transponder [PIT] tag; Nussbaum & Raxworthy Reference Nussbaum and Raxworthy2000) at a cost of c. US$ 6 per animal. The PIT tag numbers assigned to each community could be managed and publicized by the relevant national CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) authority. This would enable each individual tortoise to be tracked, and provide the customer with a fully transparent record of origin for each animal, without the need for sophisticated analyses (unlike the problems associated with the trade in species’ parts, such as wood, skins or ivory). The animals could be marketed by an international non-governmental organization (NGO), thus reducing the need for middlemen and enabling local communities to receive a greater share of the revenue. Since no investment is required if animals are collected from their natural habitat, protection of the animals simultaneously implies protection of its original habitat. It is vital to acknowledge that, under present arrangements, poaching gangs are so aggressive in their approach that communities are powerless to stop their activity, and the development of legal trade needs the international customer to refrain from buying untagged animals. A legal trade in tagged animals should achieve better prices, thus compromising the profitability of the illegal trade. Despite these and other problems associated with CBNRM (see for example Dressler et al. Reference Dressler, Buscher, Schoon, Brockington, Hayes, Kull, McCarthy and Shrestha2010; Sommerville et al. Reference Sommerville, Milner-Gulland, Rahajaharison and Jones2010; Pollini & Lassoie Reference Pollini and Lassoie2011), market dynamics (Thorbjarnarson Reference Thorbjarnarson1999) or insufficient knowledge (Smith et al. Reference Smith, Benitez-Diaz, Clemente-Munoz, Donaldson, Hutton, McGough, Medellin, Morgan, O’Criodain, Oldfield, Schippmann and Williams2011), the marketing seems manageable and community-based management should thus promote better conservation (Roe Reference Roe2008; McGuire et al. Reference McGuire, Rafeliarisoa, Randriamanantenasoa, Randrianindrina, Shore and Louis2013; Tlusty et al. Reference Tlusty, Rhyne, Kaufman, Hutchins, Reid, Andrews, Boyle, Hemdal, McGilvray and Dowd2013).

Legalizing the trade of A. radiata as a conservation measure had been suggested before (Nussbaum and Raxworthy Reference Nussbaum and Raxworthy2000; Lingard et al. Reference Lingard, Raharison, Rabakonandrianina, Rakotoarisoa and Elmqvist2003; Ganzhorn Reference Ganzhorn2011), but has not been adopted by the conservation community due to the known problems with CBNRM. Yet, since the conservation measures currently in place do not seem to have impacted illegal activity and conservation over the last decades, it may be time to reconsider such conventional conservation approaches (Berkes Reference Berkes2007; Rissman Reference Rissman2013).