Dear Tourists in Bali, Please Don’t Buy Sea Turtle-based Souvenirs!

Yayasan Penyu Indonesia (YPI/Indonesian Turtle Foundation) and PROFAUNA Indonesia are calling tourists visiting Bali to not wear or buy sea turtle-based souvenirs. The campaign was staged on 18 November 2019 by distributing flyers in tourists-packed location including the Indonesian Tourist Information Centers (ITIC) as well as hotels around tourist destinations in Kuta, Bali.

The flyers contain information about how shells are mercilessly collected from alive sea turtles, and that later they would be left to die in pain.

Muhamad Jayuli, YPI's Campaign Officer, stated that giving these information to tourists and local people is a necessary as the cruelty behind sea turtle products are still unknown to most.

"We hope that after reading the flyers, tourists will understand the issue and stop buying sea turtle-based souvenirs," said Jayuli.

All sea turtle species are protected under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry's Decree P.106/2018. Indonesia's Law no.5 of 1990 concerning the Conservation of Living Natural Resources and Its Ecosystem states that anyone is prohibited from capturing, trading, or keeping sea turtle and its body parts. Violation of this law would result in 5 years of jail time and IDR 100 million fines.

"Not only giving information, we also ask everyone to participate in the effort to curb sea turtle trade by reporting to YPI or the authorities if they find sea turtle products being sold as souvenirs," added Jayuli.

YPI, Turtle Foundation, and PROFAUNA will be running this campaign on a nationwide scale calling people not to buy or wear sea turtle products. The "Stylish without Shell" campaign is aimed at curbing the trade of sea turtle-based souvenirs in Indonesia.