13 Mar 2007 - Gland, Switzerland
– Any lifting or easing of the current Chinese
ban on tiger trade is likely to be the death
sentence for the endangered cat species,
a new TRAFFIC report says.
The report, Taming the Tiger Trade, warns
that Chinese business owners who stand to
profit from the tiger trade are putting
increasing pressure on the Chinese government
to overturn the 1993 ban. This would allow
domestic trade in captive-bred tiger parts
for use in traditional medicine and for
clothing to resume.
According to WWF and TRAFFIC (the wildlife
trade monitoring programme of WWF and IUCN-the
World Conservation Union) the Chinese ban
has been essential to prevent the extinction
of tigers by curbing demand in what was
historically the world’s largest consumer
in tiger parts.
In compliance with the resolutions of the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES),
the ban has virtually eliminated the domestic
market for tiger products in traditional
medicines.
“In the early 11000s, we feared that Chinese
demand for tiger parts would drive the tiger
to extinction by the new millennium. The
tiger survives today thanks in large part
to China’s prompt, strict and committed
action,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director
of TRAFFIC.
“To overturn the ban and allow any trade
in captive-bred tiger products would waste
all the efforts that China has invested
in saving wild tigers. It would be a catastrophe
for tiger conservation.”
It is estimated that fewer than 7,000 tigers
remain in the wild. Around 9,000 exist in
captivity, the vast majority in the USA
and China.
Measures to implement and enforce the Chinese
trade ban have ranged from public education
campaigns and promotion of effective substitutes
for tiger medicines to severe punishment
for law breakers, the report shows. As a
result, undercover surveys by TRAFFIC found
little tiger bone available in China. Less
than 3 per cent of 663 medicine shops and
dealers claimed to stock it, and most retailers
were aware that tigers are protected and
illegal to trade.
However, a TRAFFIC survey documented 17
instances of tiger bone wine for sale on
Chinese auction websites, with one seller
offering a lot of 5,000 bottles. And demand
for big cat skins as status symbol clothing,
particularly in China’s Tibetan Autonomous
Region, is increasing, with about 3 per
cent of Tibetans in major towns claiming
to own tiger or leopard skin garments even
though they knew it was illegal.
Investors in the growing number of large-scale
captive-breeding “tiger farms” in China
are pushing for legalizing trade of products
from these facilities, which now house 4,000
tigers, the report adds.
“Allowing trade in tiger parts to resume,
even if they are from captive-bred tigers,
would inevitably lead to an increase in
demand for such products,” said Dr Susan
Lieberman, Director of WWF’s Global Species
Programme.
“And a legal market in China could give
poachers across Asia an avenue for ‘laundering’
tigers killed in the wild, especially as
farmed and wild tiger products are indistinguishable
in the marketplace.”
WWF and TRAFFIC call on the Chinese government
to maintain its domestic trade ban; strengthen
its efforts to enforce the law against the
illegal trade in tigers and other Asian
big cats, particularly of skins; impose
a moratorium on all tiger breeding; destroy
the stocks of tiger carcasses; and increase
public awareness of the current trade ban.
Sabri Zain, TRAFFIC International
Joanna Benn, Communications Manager
WWF Global Species Programme
