Conservation Actions
Heosemys annandalii is included in CITES Appendix II. It is specifically protected from exploitation in Thailand under the Wild Animals Reservation and Protection Act (van Dijk and Palasuwan 2000). The species is present in several protected areas throughout its range.
Location Information
The range of Heosemys annandalii includes Cambodia, the Mekong lowlands of Lao PDR, northern Malaysia, central and southern Thailand, and southern Viet Nam (Iverson 1992, Tana et al. 2000). Its presence in peninsular Myanmar is uncertain.
Geographic Range
Extant
Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Thailand, Viet Nam
Population Information
According to Tana et al. (2000), the population is probably near extinction in Viet Nam, greatly reduced in Lao PDR, and low in Thailand. They state that the Cambodian population is of high importance for the conservation of the species in the region, however, numbers in Tonle Sap have drastically reduced in the last 10 years. Status in Thailand was listed as Vulnerable in the 2005 ONEP Red Data; this species is uncommon in the southern Chao Phraya River Basin (M. Cota pers. comm. 2018). The population in Malaysia is marginal to the species’ distribution and presumed to be very small.
Population reduction is suspected to have been over 80% in its entire range in the past and continuing. Although populations in Thailand are in better condition, there is at least a 50% population reduction in that country, and it has been decimated in the remainder of its range.
Threats
The main threats to this species are harvest and habitat loss throughout its range. In Malaysia, draining of the swamp habitat is a major threat (Sharma and Tisen 2000), while in Thailand most of the suitable habitat has been converted to agriculture and the watercourses are regulated (van Dijk and Palasuwan 2000).
This species is collected and consumed throughout its range. Turtles in Cambodia are consumed for local subsistence and traded domestically for meat, eggs, Khmer and Chinese medicine, decoration, pets and Buddhist release. Of greater magnitude is the illegal international trade, however, the legal trade is controlled by a government export agency with around 100 tons of turtles exported in 1998-1999 (Tana et al. 2000). Illegal trade was known to occur with Cambodian turtles being transported to Viet Nam (Tana et al. 2000) and with Vietnamese turtles being exported to China (Hendrie 2000).
IUCN Red List Account Link
Please click here to see the species' IUCN Red List Account page.
Photo Credits
Lao Conservation Trust for Wildlife
