Peter Paul van Dijk

Peter Paul van Dijk (born May 4, 1967 in the Netherlands ) is a Dutch herpetologist and conservationist . His main focus is on the Southeast Asian freshwater turtles.

Life

Van Dijk grew up in the Netherlands. In 1986 he moved to Ireland , where he studied zoology at University College Galway . After graduating with a Bachelor of Science with Honors in 1990, he went on to pursue research-based doctoral studies , for which he received a postgraduate and travel grant from the National University of Ireland . During this time he was a research fellow at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok , where he carried out research on the ecology of the yellow-headed tortoise ( Indotestudo elongata ) in western Thailand. In parallel to his doctoral thesis, van Dijk was involved in a variety of nature conservation-oriented research projects in Thailand, which focused on studies of forest and freshwater biodiversity and wetland management.

In 1998 van Dijk received his Ph.D. with his dissertation The natural history of the elongated tortoise Indotestudo elongata (Blyth, 1853) (Reptilia: Testudines) in a hill forest mosaic in western Thailand with notes on sympatric turtle species at the National University of Ireland . PhD. In his postdoc phase he continued his nature conservation-oriented field work in Thailand, including as the lead implementer of a commissioned study on the status of tortoises and freshwater turtles for the IUCN . He was also involved in the third biological impact assessment for the proposed Kaeng Sua Ten dam .

Concerned about the development of turtle exploitation across Asia, van Dijk switched from the academic sector to the NGO sector for nature conservation in December 1999 . He applied for the post of Senior Program Officer at TRAFFIC Southeast Asia (TSEA) and was selected. The global TRAFFIC network is the joint wildlife trade program of the IUCN and the World Wildlife Fund , whose Southeast Asian office in Malaysia covers all eleven states of the ASEAN region. Van Dijk's first assignment was to attend a regional workshop on the Asian turtle trade, to set up a working group to determine the status of Asian tortoises and freshwater turtles on the IUCN's Red List of Endangered Species , and to edit the minutes of the meeting. The communiqué and deliberations of the meeting were instrumental in expanding regulatory measures on freshwater turtles under the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES).

In addition to institutional priorities such as ivory and wood , Peter Paul van Dijk continued to focus on the trade in freshwater turtles and tortoises and drafted the tender application for the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) to develop medium and long-term measures for the conservation of turtles in Asia. This project was successfully completed in June 2003 following four proposals to include a total of seven species of turtles in the CITES trade rules and a detailed analysis of the state and prospects of the Asian turtle trade.

As a result of the strategic orientation of the TRAFFIC network away from species-specific projects and for personal reasons, van Dijk left TSEA and returned to the Netherlands in September 2002 to devote himself exclusively to the protection of tortoises and freshwater turtles. These included the completion of the BfN project for TRAFFIC, editorial contributions to the Conservation Biology of Tortoises & Freshwater Turtles project for the Chelonian Research Foundation and the preparation of another five proposals on behalf of the governments of the United States and Indonesia to include an additional six species of freshwater turtle under the Roof of the CITES trade rules. Van Dijk prepared a total of nine proposals to add 13 species of freshwater turtle to the CITES annexes, which were presented and adopted by the United States, China , Germany and Indonesia.

In November 2004 van Dijk became director of the Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Conservation Program at Conservation International (CI). Key responsibilities include further analyzing the turtle trade, managing the IUCN Red List assessment process for tortoises and freshwater turtles, and developing and implementing other measures to protect the survival of tortoise and freshwater turtle species around the world, including working with legislative and regulatory bodies Regulatory procedures at the US and international level.

Van Dijk has been a member of the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group (TFTSG) since 1994 and has been deputy chairman of the group since 2000. The TFTSG is the leading expert body for the biology and conservation of turtles of the IUCN and has around 300 members worldwide. He is a member of the advisory board of the Turtle Survival Alliance, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization based in Texas and the scientific advisory board of the Asian Turtle Conservation Network based in Vietnam, and he is a founding member of the Turtle Conservation Fund, a cross-organizational funding program , which supports important conservation efforts for tortoises and freshwater turtles around the world.

Van Dijk is co-editor of the Conservation Biology of Tortoises & Freshwater Turtles monograph series and member of the editorial board of Chelonian Conservation and Biology , the first journal exclusively devoted to turtle protection, and member of the editorial board of Emys .

Awards and dedication names

In 2017 van Dijk received the Behler Turtle Conservation Award from the IUCN / SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group for his services to freshwater turtle protection in Southeast Asia. In 2003 William Patrick McCord and Peter Pritchard van Dijk honored the Burmese short-headed softshell turtle ( Chitra vandijki ) in the species epithet .

Web links

• LinkedIn profile
• Conservation International employee profile
• Global Wildlife Conservation Employee Profile
• IUCN / SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group Peter Paul van Dijk Receives the 12th Annual 2017 Behler Turtle Conservation Award (with short biography)
• Literature by and about Peter Paul van Dijk in the bibliographic database WorldCat

Individual evidence

1. ^ IUCN / SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group Peter Paul van Dijk Receives the 12th Annual 2017 Behler Turtle Conservation Award
2. ↑ William P. McCord & Peter CH Pritchard: A review of the softshell turtles of the genus Chitra, with the description of new taxa from Myanmar and Indonesia (Java), Hamadryad 27, 2002, pp. 11-56.