24/08/2005 - Concern is
increasing over the role of the Tibetan market
in the trade of tiger and Asian leopard skins,
with many animals hunted every year in the
Himalayas to meet the market demand in Tibet.
The trend for clothing made with tiger and
leopard skins (chubas), a tradition once found
only in eastern Tibet, has now become fashionable
in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet.
"If nothing is done to curb this growing
demand now, tigers will be lost from the world
forever," said Dawa Tsering, head of
WWF China’s Tibet Programme.
"I believe that with the right tools
and information, Tibetans will weigh this
issue between fashion, culture and conservation
and be part of the solution."
Although there are no accurate estimates
of the world tiger population, numbers are
believed to have fallen by about 95 per cent
since the turn of the last century – down
from around 100,000 to the present estimate
of between 5,000 and 7,000.
Throughout their range, tiger populations
are threatened from poaching and trade, as
well as habitat destruction, loss of prey,
and conflict with humans. Trade investigations,
seizure reports, and other anecdotal information
all point to China as a major destination
of the skin and other pars of Asian big cats.
WWF China’s Tibet Programme has been working
to save biodiversity in the Tibetan Plateau
since 1998, when WWF China established the
WWF Tibet field office in Lhasa to manage
its activities in Tibet. WWF is the only international
organization that has a field office in Tibet
with full time staff to help conserve Tibet’s
natural resources.
Over the last seven years, WWF and the Tibet
Forestry Bureau have jointly carried out numerous
conservation activities in Chang Tang Nature
Reserve, a 300,000km2 protected area of the
Tibetan Plateau that still harbours many of
the wild animals that once roamed widely across
the rest of Tibet, inc luding wild yak, kiang,
Tibetan brown bear, Tibetan argali sheep,
Tibetan gazelle, and the largest of Tibet’s
four populations of chiru (Tibetan antelope).
