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IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group
IUCN COMMISSION GROUP

IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group

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Group leadership

Dr Craig STANFORD
Dr Natalia GALLEGO-GARCIA

More about the Specialist Group

The TFTSG provides expertise and science-based recommendations with conservation relevance covering all species of freshwater and terrestrial turtles and tortoises. The TFTSG is the recognized global authority and official IUCN Red List Authority for the determination of global threat levels for these species. The TFTSG works closely with the IUCN Red List Programme to assess, evaluate, and determine appropriate threat level categorizations for tortoises and ...

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More about the Specialist Group

The TFTSG provides expertise and science-based recommendations with conservation relevance covering all species of freshwater and terrestrial turtles and tortoises. The TFTSG is the recognized global authority and official IUCN Red List Authority for the determination of global threat levels for these species. The TFTSG works closely with the IUCN Red List Programme to assess, evaluate, and determine appropriate threat level categorizations for tortoises and freshwater turtles on the IUCN Red List, providing new and updated determinations on a constant basis. 

The TFTSG also works closely with and assists CITES in matters regarding international trade of tortoises and freshwater turtles, including helping to determine trade levels, evaluating the impacts of international trade, reviewing proposals to change turtle species inclusions on the CITES Appendices, and assisting CITES implementation by the responsible national authorities by providing expertise regarding turtle identification, distribution, biology, and overall conservation threats.

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Impact on species’ conservation status:
TFTSG intend to complete assessments of all 360 species and 485 taxa by the end of the current quadrennium. There are also multiple species for which captive breeding and in-situ projects are expected to make a measurable impact on preventing in-situ extinction of those species.

Specialist Group work

This major compilation and assessment project of the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group is producing individual species accounts of the conservation biology of all 360 freshwater turtle and tortoise species.

Understanding threats to Tortoise and Freshwater Turtles

Tortoises and freshwater turtles face both known and emerging threats. TFTSG studies these at local and global levels.

TFTSG on the IUCN Red List

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TFTSG provides expertise and science-based recommendations with conservation relevance covering all species of freshwater and terrestrial turtles and tortoises.

Annual Report

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Eduardo Reyes does conservation fieldwork in Chiapas, Mexico. Photo by Craig Stanford

Photo: Craig Stanford

Coahuila Box Turtle, Terrapene coahuila, Endangered, Mexico. Photo by Craig Stanford

Photo: Craig Stanford

Radiated Tortoise, Astrochelys radiata, Critically Endangered, Madagascar. Photo by Craig Stanford

Photo: Craig Stanford

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