A traditional food source for Amazonian communities, freshwater turtles have been included in Brazil’s list of fauna threatened with extinction for the first time. The cágado-iaçá, or six-tubercled Amazon River turtle, had its risk elevated from near threatened to endangered in a new national list recently released by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.
Known in the Amazon as tracajás, freshwater turtles have been classified as nearly threatened for a long time, but it’s the first time that one of its species was classified as endangered, said Marília Marini, general coordinator of conservation strategies at ICMBio, the Brazilian agency in charge of conservation units.
“For the Amazon, the main highlight is the inclusion of the tracajá,” Marini told Mongabay by phone. “That is a more delicate situation, because it also involves [traditional] communities that use them [for subsistence]. So, great care is needed regarding communication and how to direct actions — ensuring they don’t negatively affect those communities that have historically coexisted with the area.”
Despite protection programs and conservation efforts, cágado-iaçá’s (Podocnemis sextuberculata) populations over the past 36 years — equivalent to three generations — declined by more than 50% in Amazonas and western Pará states, which accounts for approximately 70% of the species’ total distribution, leading to an endangered classification, according to ICMBio’s Biodiversity Extinction Risk Assessment System (SALVE).
Considered one of the smallest species of the genus Podocnemis, reaching a length of 34 centimeters (13.4 inches) and a weight of 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds), the species is widely consumed in the northern region, alongside the yellow-spotted river turtle (Podocnemis unifilis) and the Amazon turtle (Podocnemis expansa), which remain in a less concerning category, according to ICMBio.
The red-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonarius) and the yellow-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis denticulatus) were reclassified as vulnerable and endangered, respectively. Present in the Amazon and other biomes, these species are widely used as pets across various regions of the country, according to ICMBio.
Some new species added to the list are the hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), the black howler monkey (Alouatta caraya) and the red silky anteater (Cyclopes rufus); they were reclassified as vulnerable.
A total of 790 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and terrestrial invertebrates appear on the list published on June 18. When added to the list of fish and aquatic invertebrate species threatened with extinction published in April, the total of threatened species is now 1,280.
“Unfortunately, the assessment isn’t quite as optimistic as we would like it to be. We have both additions and losses, but, unfortunately, the trend leans more toward additions. We are seeing an increase in the number of threatened species,” Marini said.
Keeping the country’s lists updated is important as it creates legal restrictions to protect fauna, said Braulio Dias, director of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. “Our national lists have legal standing and impose restrictions on the capture, trade, and export of specimens of species considered threatened.”
However, they’re not updated during shorter periods of time — the previous list was from 2022 — he said, because like any public policy, it must provide opportunities for participation by the various interest groups that could be affected by the lists. “This differs from IUCN lists, which serve merely as guidelines and carry no legal weight,” Dias said by phone. “Another point is that each country’s legislation is different.”
In total, 15,588 species were evaluated, the world’s most extensive assessment of extinction risk for fauna species, according to ICMBio. “Brazil is a pioneering country,” said Arthur Brant, coordinator for the assessment of extinction risk in fauna species at ICMBio, by phone. “The IUCN red lists started in the 1960s, and Brazil had its first list in 1968. So, we have always been at the forefront of assessment and, today, with a significant volume.”
Following the pattern of previous years, the Atlantic Forest topped the biome list of threatened species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and terrestrial invertebrates, followed by the Cerrado, Caatinga and Amazon. The Atlantic Forest situation is a recurring issue, Marini said, due to the loss of the biome itself, which is the most devastated in Brazil, with only about 12.4% of its original cover remaining. “For terrestrial fauna, habitat loss stands out as the primary threat, and this includes everything related to deforestation, urban expansion, and fires.”
Wildlife trafficking is a major — and under-reported — driver for the increase of endangered species, said Marcelo Pavlenco Rocha, founder and executive director of SOS Fauna, a nonprofit working for the conservation of wildlife species that are victims of trafficking. “The published data on wildlife trafficking doesn’t reflect reality.”
“There is no way to measure how many wild animals were taken from Brazilian forests in 2025 to supply the illegal trade. You might get data on what was seized — and even that is a big ‘maybe’ — because the various institutions do not communicate with one another,” Rocha, an environmental activist for 37 years, said by phone. “You will have data from Ibama [Brazil’s environmental agency], the environmental military police, the Federal Police, and the civil police; then you will compile all that data and arrive at a figure. The issue is that you lack data on what actually reaches the final consumer.”
More than 38 million animals are taken annually from Brazil’s terrestrial biomes, according to estimates by the Brazilian National Network Against the Trafficking of Wild Animals (Renctas).
Karla Mendes is a staff investigative and feature reporter for Mongabay in Brazil and the first Brazilian to win the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism. A member of the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network, she is also the first Brazilian and Latin American ever elected to the board of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ); she was also nominated Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) chair. Read her stories published on Mongabay here. Find her on LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and 𝕏.
Amazon waterway noise threatens unique social life of giant river turtles
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
