26/09/2005 – Plans being
considered in China to test the viability
of re-opening the domestic trade in tigers
and their parts, banned since 1993, would
spell disaster for the already critically
endangered species, according to WWF, the
global conservation organization, and TRAFFIC,
the wildlife trade monitoring network.
WWF and TRAFFIC believe that the re-opening
of the trade of captive bred tigers for traditional
medicine from so-called “tiger farms” for
sales in China’s domestic market would threaten
the world’s remaining wild tiger populations.
Tiger bone has been used as a treatment for
rheumatism and related ailments for thousands
of years in traditional Asian medicine.
“This could be the final act that drives
the tiger towards extinction," said Dr
Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF's Global
Species Programme.
"We’re afraid that poachers living near
the world’s last populations of tigers may
kill them to supply illegal markets that are
likely to develop alongside any new legal
ones.”
The opening of the trade would also send
the wrong signal to consumers, who may think
it is acceptable to buy tiger parts, whether
tiger bone in eastern China or tiger skins
in western China, according to WWF and TRAFFIC.
The world’s tigers are at a record low, numbering
around 5,000. The domestic trade ban in China
in 1993 gave a welcome boost to tiger conservation
by curbing demand for tiger products from
other range states such as India, Nepal, Bhutan,
and Indonesia.
“If this goes ahead, it will undo all the
excellent work the Chinese government has
done over the last 12 years,” said Steven
Broad, Executive Director TRAFFIC International.
“China has led by example in the past by
imposing harsh penalities on wildlife trade
criminals and through determined enforcement
measures. To go back on all this, especially
when there are alternatives for use in traditional
medicine, just doesn’t make sense.”
Pressure is also increasing on Asian big
cats because of a rapidly growing market for
Asian tiger and leopard skins in Tibetan regions,
with animals illegally hunted every year throughout
their range to meet this market demand. In
August, in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet
Autonomous Region, TRAFFIC investigators found
23 shops in the city’s main square openly
selling skins and parts of tigers and leopards.
WWF and TRAFFIC are also calling on authorities
in the region to curb the demand for Asian
big cat skins and parts, and strengthen enforcement
efforts along trade routes, in transit markets,
and markets in Asia.
END NOTES:
• In May 1993, in response to international
conservation concern about the threat to rhinoceroses
and tigers posed by commercial trade, the
State Council of the People's Republic of
China issued a ban on trade in rhinoceros
horn, tiger bone, and their medicinal derivatives.
This ban included the removal of these items
from the official pharmacies of China, and
the cessation of all manufacture and commercial
trade within China.
• In recent years, a substantial number of
commercial captive-breeding centres have been
established for tigers. In some range countries
there are now a greater number of tigers in
captivity than in the wild. Captive breeding
facilities are distinguished from legitimate
‘zoos’ by their commercial nature, and the
priority that they give to breeding large
numbers of tigers for commercial purposes.
• TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring
network, works to ensure that trade in wild
plants and animals is not a threat to the
conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a joint
programme of WWF, the conservation organization
and IUCN – The World Conservation Union.
