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News 18 Apr
07 Conservationists urge China not to lift tiger trade ban PlanetArk 30 Mar 07 China Breeders Urge Lifting of Tiger Parts Ban WWF 13 Mar 07 Lifting Chinese tiger trade ban a catastrophe for conservation TRAFFIC 13 Mar 07 Lifting Tiger Trade Ban a Catastrophe for Conservation PlanetArk 13 Mar 07 Wildlife Groups Urge China to Keep Tiger Trade Ban GENEVA - Any easing of China's ban on selling tiger hides and bones could be catastrophic to efforts to save the endangered wild cat, leading conservation groups said on Tuesday. TRAFFIC, a wildlife monitoring project of the Swiss-based WWF and World Conservation Union, said it was concerned Chinese officials would succumb to pressure from businessmen seeking to revive commerce in tiger parts. China's ban, introduced in 1993, has virtually eliminated the market for traditional medicines made from tigers in what was once the world's largest consumer of such goods. Environmentalists believe there are only 5,000 to 7,000 tigers remaining in the wild, with the largest number in India. But in China, investors in "tiger farms" -- housing an estimated 4,000 tigers bred in captivity -- have been lobbying authorities to legalise trade from such facilities. TRAFFIC Executive Director Steven Broad said lifting the ban, or amending it to allow sales of parts of tigers bred in captivity, would threaten years of work to protect the animal. "It would be a catastrophe for tiger conservation," he said. The WWF said any renewed tiger-part trading would create incentives for wild-animal poachers. "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," said Susan Lieberman, director of the WWF's Global Species Programme. The conservation groups urged China to retain its ban and strengthen efforts to stop illegal trade in tiger and leopard skin garments, widely considered a status symbol in Tibet. A moratorium on tiger breeding and a commitment to destroy all existing tiger carcasses could also help, they said. WWF 13 Mar 07 Lifting Chinese tiger trade ban a catastrophe for conservation Gland, Switzerland – Any lifting or easing of the current Chinese ban in 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 1990s, 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. TRAFFIC 13 Mar 07 Lifting Tiger Trade Ban a Catastrophe for Conservation Any lifting or easing of the current Chinese ban in 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': China's markets for wild and captive tiger products since the 1993 domestic trade ban 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 TRAFFIC, 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 1990s, 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." 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." TRAFFIC and WWF are calling 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. PlanetArk 30 Mar 07 China Breeders Urge Lifting of Tiger Parts Ban BEIJING - China tiger breeders called for the lifting of a ban on selling tiger parts on Thursday, saying the trade in tiger medicines used to treat rheumatism and loss of sexual appetite would help preserve the endangered species. China banned the sale of tiger bones and hides in 1993, which virtually wiped out the market for traditional medicines made from tigers in what was once the world's largest consumer of such goods. Wang Ligang, general manager of the Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Park, and Zhou Weisen, director of the Guilin Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Garden, said the ban had not stopped the decline in tiger numbers and that patients were suffering from less choices in medical treatments. "If legal channels exist and patients can legally get their wanted materials of tiger bone in their medicine, the motivations to purchase tiger bones from illegal sources can be greatly minimised," Wang said. Tiger bones are used to treat everything from skin disease and convulsions to laziness, malaria and rheumatism. Tiger penis is is believed by many to be a powerful aphrodisiac. The breeders said their operations had made heavy losses since the ban, despite opening the parks to tourists. Guilin Xiongsen, whose tiger population had reached 1,300, was losing 35 million yuan (US$4.53 million) a year, Zhou said. "If we cannot solve this problem immediately, the fate of over 1,000 tigers is a major concern." China's tiger breeding centres have come under fire from wildlife groups who say they undermine conservation and illegally sell tiger meat and medical elixirs containing tiger body parts. Zhou denied that the onsite restaurant at Guilin Xiongsen sold tiger meat to customers, after a reporter said staff had presented him with a meat dish which they said was tiger. "This could not have happened... It's possibly an employee quality issue," Zhou said. Wildlife groups fear Chinese officials will succumb to pressure from businessmen seeking to revive the trade in tiger parts. "It would be like a death signal for the conservation of wild tigers," WWF UK spokesman Tshering Lama told Reuters. She said there should be a moratorium on captive tiger breeding, which had not produced tigers that could fend for themselves in the wild, and was too costly to produce cheap enough medicines to compete with poachers' offerings. Environmentalists believe there are only 5,000 to 7,000 tigers remaining in the wild, with the largest number in India. Yahoo News 18 Apr 07 Conservationists urge China not to lift tiger trade ban Conservationists attending a conference in Nepal on the world's dwindling tiger population appealed to China Wednesday not to lift a ban on the trade in tiger parts. With less than 5,000 tigers worldwide left in the wild, China has argued it is under increasing pressure from wealthy tiger farm owners to lift a 1993 ban and start selling captive bred tigers. "Strong petitions" have been made to Beijing to decriminalise the trade in tiger parts, said Wang Weisheng, a Chinese government conservation official at the conference. Tiger body parts have been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine, but the criminalisation of the trade in parts has been successful in reducing poaching, conservationists argued. "The Chinese medical trade was initially the main threat to tigers in the wild, but since the market closed in 1993, tigers have been slowly recovering," Kristin Nowell, Asian big cat coordinator for TRAFFIC the wildlife trade monitoring network of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), told AFP. China has yet to make a decision on whether to lift the ban on trade in tiger parts, and the government would make its decision "based on scientific purpose, and not based on the political purpose," Weisheng said. On Tuesday, delegates to a Tiger Syposium held before the World Tiger Forum were shocked after one of the owners of China's largest tiger farms physically attacked a British television news crew who recently filed a report on banned tiger meat and bone products for sale at a Chinese tiger farm. The tiger farm owner did not attend the conference Wednesday. Conservationists are concerned that the owners of the two largest farms that each have more than 1,000 big cats are pressuring Beijing to lift the ban. Beijing has said it has around 5,000 tigers in captivity in the country. "The owners of China's two largest tiger farmers are very politically connected. They are the ones putting the pressure on the government," said Nowell. "The risks are just too great if you reopen the trade, even if you try to limit it strictly to captive bred animals," said Nowell. "This would send a signal to poachers around the world that the trade is on again and it's very difficult to distinguish whether a tiger bone comes from a captive animal or a wild one," he said. Allowing captive bred tiger parts to be sold would increase the pressure on the remaining wild animals, said Judy Mills, director of the Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking (CATT) If China were to lift the ban on trade in tiger parts "it will probably recruit new users and among those users will be very wealthy people who can afford the 'champagne' of tiger bone, and they will want the bones of wild tigers," Mills told AFP. "We don't know what will happen if we rekindle demand among 1.3 billion people in China. There is a chance that the remaining (wild) tigers could be wiped out in a heartbeat," she said. The trade in tiger parts is a lucrative one. Conservationists say that while some poachers in India are paid as little as 20 dollars per tiger, in China, illegal whole dead tigers sell for between 20,000 and 30,000 dollars. The two-day Global Tiger Forum has seen delegates from seven countries arrive in Nepal's capital to discuss how best to preserve dwindling wild tiger populations. links New Chinese law aimed at curbing tiger trade WWF 1 Sep 06 The full report (PDF) "Taming the Tiger Trade" can be downloaded from the TRAFFIC website Related articles on Big cats and wildlife trade |
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