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You are here: Home / Welcome to the World of Caribbean Sea Turtles! / The WIDECAST Network / Colombia

Colombia

CoordinatorsRegulationsPublicationsLearn More
Karla Barrientos Muñoz, M.Sc.
Directora Científica
Fundación Tortugas del Mar
Oficina Principal Carrera 46B No.
43 Sur-20 Interior 402
Envigado, Colombia
Phone: (57) 301-4571132
Mobile: (57) 300-4151535
biokeroz@gmail.com
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Excerpted from:
Bräutigam, A. and K. L. Eckert. 2006. Turning the Tide: Exploitation, Trade and Management of Marine Turtles in the Lesser Antilles, Central America, Colombia and Venezuela. TRAFFIC International, Cambridge, UK.

• Resolución Nº 167 of 1966, issued by the Instituto de Desarrollo de los Recursos Naturales Renovables (INDERENA, now the MMA), established restrictions on the use of trawl nets in fisheries on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and prohibited their use at distances of less than one nautical mile from all coasts, islands and keys on national territory.

• Resolución Nº 1032 of 1977, issued by INDERENA, prohibited the capture of Hawksbill Turtles across all of national territory.

• Resoluciones Nº 726 of 1974 and Nº 709 of 1981 and Acuerdos Nº 24 of 1983 and Nº 54 of 1988, issued by INDERENA, prohibited trawling in areas with large concentrations of marine turtles, including the Golfo de
Morrosquillo, San Bernardo Archipelago, Golfo de Urabá, and the coast of Guajira.

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• Decreto Nº 622 of 1977, establishing the National Parks system, prohibits fishing in areas that are important for turtles, either as nesting or foraging zones or migration routes. These areas coincide with areas designated as national parks, such as Corales del Rosario and San Bernardo, Tayrona, Sanquianga, Gorgona, Ensenada de Utría and certain areas in San Andrés and Providencia (Seaflower Biosphere Reserve).

• Decreto Nº 1608 of 1978, which established regulations for the Natural Resources Code (Código Nacional de los Recursos Naturales y Protección del Medio Ambiente, Decreto Nº 2811 of 1974), prohibits the capture and commercial use of individuals and products of wild fauna, including the collection of eggs or neonates and the destruction or alteration of wildlife breeding areas.

• Decreto Nº 1681 of 1978 regulates the exploitation of living aquatic resources such as through capture, extraction or collection. Article 149 of this law indirectly protects marine turtle foraging areas.

• Ley Nº 17 of 1981, through which Colombia ratified CITES, prohibits the export and import of marine turtles and their products.

• Acuerdo Nº 021 of 1991, issued by INDERENA, establishes specific protection measures for all marine turtle species, as well as for nesting beaches and foraging areas.

• Resolución Nº 108 of 1992, issued by the Instituto Nacional Para la Pesca y Acuicultura (INPA—the National Institute for Fishing and Aquaculture), prohibits the exploitation of marine turtles incidentally captured in shrimp trawls and requires the use of turtle excluder devices (TEDs) throughout the Colombian Caribbean.

• Resolución Nº 157 of 15 March 1993, issued by INPA, requires the use of TEDs by the shrimp trawl fleet operating in the Colombian Caribbean. This resolution was subsequently revised by Resolución Nº 148 of 1994, which requires the use of a hard-type TED.

• Resolución Nº 2879 of 21 November 1995, issued by the CAR of Guajira, the Corporación Autónoma Regional de La Guajira (CORPOGUAJIRA—the Autonomous Regional Corporation for Guajira), establishes a regional prohibition on the exploitation of marine turtles.

• Resolución Nº 107 of 15 February 1996, issued by INPA, requires the use of TEDs by the shrimp fleet operating on the Pacific Coast.

• Resolución Nº 68 of 1999 amends Resoluciones Nº 148 and Nº 157 to broaden the use of TEDs and regulates other materials used in their construction.

• Ley Nº 599 of 2000 is the current Penal Code (Código penal).

Although this body of legislation is extensive, Ceballos (2002) notes that its implementation is deficient, as there are insufficient financial and logistical resources to ensure compliance and enforce the laws and, in many instances, the laws are inconsistent with the economic and social realities in the different coastal zones. The blanket ban on the take and commercialization of wildlife adopted through Decreto Nº 1608 in 1978, for example, has been recognized to have been unrealistic and over-simplistic and is considered anachronistic. It is in the process of revision, but no date has been set for adoption of eventual revisions.

More importantly, it should be noted that subsistence fishing of marine turtles is permitted by law in Colombia. Ley de Pesca Nº 13 of 1990 (the General Fishing Law) stipulates, in Article 47, that subsistence fishing, defined as that undertaken without intent to profit and for providing food for the fisher and his family, is unrestricted throughout national territory (Córdoba et al., 2002). This definition would appear to render illegal the commercial use of products from marine turtles taken in a subsistence fishery and, thus, to provide a major loophole for a take of marine turtles that would be more appropriately characterized as artisanal (which results in commercialization of the products) and which would be affected by protective legislation. However, Ceballos (in litt., 27 February 2004) cautions that there may be a difference of interpretation on this and that commercial use of marine turtles at the local level, such as to purchase foodstuffs for one’s family, may be considered part of a “subsistence take”.

Amorocho Llanos, D.F. and C.E. López Alonso. 1998. Conservación de las tortugas marinas en Colombia: guía temática. FES-WIDECAST-FARB. 56 pp.

Ceballos-Fonseca, C. 2004. Distribución de playas de animación y áreas de alimentación de tortugas marinas y sus amenazas en el Caribe Colombiano. Bol. Invest. Mar. Cost. 33:77-99.

Ceballos, C. 1996. Plan Nacional para la Conservación de las Tortugas Marinas y Continentales con Distribución en Colombia. Subdirección de Fauna, Dirección General Forestal y Vida Silvestre, Ministerio del Medio Ambiente. Consultancy report.45pp.

Ceballos-Fonseca, C. 2000. Tortugas (Testudinata) Marinas y Continentales de Colombia, Biota Colombiana 1 (2) 187 – 194, 2000

Córdoba, J.A. and C.E. López. 1997. Diagnóstico actual de las tortugas marinas, 1996, en el Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina. Tesis Biólogo Marino y Biólogo con enfasis en marina. Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano y Universidad del Valle. Facultad de Biología Marina y Facultad de Ciencias. 207 pp.

Dirección General de Ecosistemas. 2002. Programa Nacional para conservación de las tortugas marinas y continentales en Colombia. Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial, Bogotá, Colombia. 63 pp.

INVEMAR (Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras). 2002. Determinación de la Distribución y del Estado Actual de Conservación de las Tortugas Marinas del Caribe Colombiano. Informe final. Convenio SECAB-INVEMAR 052-029/01. Diciembre 2002. 125 pp. + anexos.

Mast, R.B. 1986. Preliminary report on findings of the Second Western Atlantic Turtle Symposium sea turtle research survey of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Unpublished.

McCormick Anzola, C. 2001. Eventos de anidación y forrajeo de tortugas marinas en los atolones del Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, Caribe Colombiano. Abstract of paper presented to IX Congreso Latinoamericano sobre Ciencias del Mar. CORALINA. Unpublished.

MMA (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente). 2002. Programa Nacional para la Conservación de las Tortugas Marinas y Continentales de Colombia. Dirección General de Ecosistemas. 63 pp.

Parsons, J.J. 1964. San Andrés y Providencia: una Geografía Histórica de las islas Colombianas del Mar Caribe Occidental. Banco de la República, Bogotá. 192 pp.

Rueda Almonacid, J.V. 1987. Tortugas Marinas: Especies Colombianos en Peligro de Extinción. Reporte Nacional al II Simposio sobre Tortugas Marinas del Atlántico Occidental. STAO. Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Instituto Nacional de los Recursos Naturales Renovables y del Ambiente—INDERENA. 80 pp. + annexes. Unpublished.

Rueda, J.V., J.E. Mayorga and G. Ulloa. 1992. Observaciones sobre la captura comercial de tortugas marinas en la peninsula de la Guajira, Colombia. Pp. 133–153. In: J.V. Rodríguez-Mahecha and H. Sánchez Páez (Eds). (1992).

WIDECAST-Colombia. 2001. Sea turtle research and conservation: filling knowledge gaps, capacity-building and networking on the central Caribbean coast of Colombia. Phase II (2001–2002). Preliminary report, March–November 2001, to National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Asociación WIDECAST-Colombia, Ministry of Environment (MMA), and National Parks Administrative Unit (UAESPNN). 17 pp. Unpublished.

Colombian Ministry of the Environment
Colombian Biodiversity Research Institute Alexander von Humboldt
Colombian National Natural Parks Special Administrative Unit (UAESPNN)
Colombian National Marine Research Institute Jose B. Vives de Andreis (INVEMAR)
Colombian Sustainable Regional Corporations Association
World Wildlife Fund Colombian Program Office
Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, Research Department
Fundación Darién

Click to open a larger map

Flag_of_Colombiasmall

Loggerhead N, IF
Green N, F
Leatherback A
Hawksbill F
Kemp’s Ridley A
Olive Ridley A
N=Nesting
F=Foraging
IN=Infrequent Nesting
IF=Infrequent Foraging
I=Infrequent (further data unavailable)
A=Absent

Dow et al 2007b

Colombia National Nesting Beach Atlas

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