The Turtle Conservancy in Madagascar:
The ploughshare tortoise is not only the rarest tortoise in the world, it is arguably the most beautiful of them all.
Turtle Conservancy Team members have been involved with the ploughshare tortoise (Astrochelys yniphora) for decades, and in 2008 we began a major new effort with this most critically endangered tortoise. Funds are financing in situ work, enhancing protection of the ploughshare tortoise in Baly Bay National Park, where poaching is devastating the wild population.
With these funds we have now hired additional park rangers and guards, and purchased a boat – decreasing the time to mobilize and increasing law enforcement within the park. Although completely protected by law, the political instability in Madagascar has made it all too easy for poachers to remove a significant portion of the remaining wild population, estimated at 200-600 tortoises…
(read more: Turtle Trust)