wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  PlanetArk 14 Jun 07
UN Meeting Rebukes China Over Tiger Trade
Story by Alister Doyle

Yahoo News 13 Jun 07
UN wildlife trade body rebukes China on tiger farms
by Marlowe HoodWed

PlanetArk 13 Jun 07
China Restaurant Served Banned Tiger Meat - CITES
Story by Alister Doyl

PlanetArk 13 Jun 07
Tigers Disappearing From Yet Another Indian Reserve
Story by Bappa Majumdar

PlanetArk 12 Jun 07
Key Facts about Tigers

Straits Times 14 Jun 07
Claws out after farm served tiger meat

THE HAGUE - CHINESE tiger farms came under renewed scrutiny when wildlife officials confirmed that a team of investigative journalists had been served tiger meat at a farm's restaurant.

The report came on the eve of a meeting of the 171-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). Journalists with British television network ITN visited Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain farm in Guilin, south-western China, in February and sent some of the meat they were offered at the farm to a Chinese laboratory.

DNA tests established it was tiger meat, ITN reported.

The farm's owner called the analysis fraudulent, but Cites senior enforcement officer John Sellar told delegates on Tuesday that a respected US laboratory had reviewed the Chinese test and said its findings 'appear to be valid'.

'We expect the issue to generate significant debate over whether China should continue allowing unlimited breeding by private owners, who then claim financial pressure and push to reopen trade to pay for their operations,' said Mr Steven Broad, executive director of wildlife monitoring group TRAFFIC.

International trade in tigers and tiger parts is banned by Cites. However, conservationists fear that the Chinese authorities are being pushed by wealthy investors in tiger farms to end the 14-year domestic ban on sales of tiger products.

Such a move would be disastrous for the world's estimated 5,000 wild tigers, the conservationists say. 'It would mean the end of the species,' said Ms Susan Lieberman, of wildlife lobby group WWF.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS

PlanetArk 13 Jun 07
China Restaurant Served Banned Tiger Meat - CITES
Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

THE HAGUE - Genetic experts have found evidence a restaurant in China has served tiger meat in defiance of a 1993 ban, a UN expert said on Tuesday.

John Sellar, the senior enforcement officer for the Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), said the tiger farm he visited in China "vehemently denied" serving big cat meat in a linked restaurant.

But evidence compiled after he visited the Guangxi Xiongsen Bear & Tiger Garden this year backed up a report by Britain's ITN television that the restaurant had tiger on the menu, he told a CITES meeting.

Sellar sent a copy of a genetic laboratory report made on a sample of meat obtained by ITN to experts at the US.

Fish and Wildlife Service, who confirmed the study was properly carried out and the results matched tiger DNA, he said.

China has said it is investigating the charges.

All international trade in tiger meat is banned under CITES and China outlawed all domestic sales in 1993.

Beijing told CITES last week it would allow trade in parts from captive-bred tigers if a scientific review proved the step would reduce poaching and help tigers worldwide.

China says it has 5,000 captive tigers in farms, by some experts' estimates more than the total left in the wild across Asia after decades of hunting and destruction of habitats.

Neighbouring nations including India fear sales could mean more poaching in the region -- if sales are legal in China, it probably costs less to shoot an Indian tiger and transport it to China than to raise it from a cub in a Chinese farm.

"The farm we visited is actively hoping to take part in trade," Sellar said. "Of greater concern is that this facility has begun to engage in trade in tigers."

Tiger bones have long been a valued ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine used in the forms of wines, powder, balms and pills to cure illnesses ranging from rheumatism to general weakness, headaches and paralysis.

China joined India, Nepal and Russia in a draft document on Tuesday at CITES saying countries should limit farmed populations to "a level supportive only to conserving wild tigers".

PlanetArk 14 Jun 07
UN Meeting Rebukes China Over Tiger Trade
Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

THE HAGUE - A UN wildlife conference rebuked China on Wednesday for reviewing a 1993 ban on domestic trade in tiger parts amid fears that any sales could drive wild cats to extinction.

"Tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts or derivatives," according to a decision by the 171-nation UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in The Hague.

Beijing told CITES last week that it was considering allowing domestic trade in parts from its 5,000 captive-bred tigers if a scientific review proved it would reduce poaching and help stocks of wild tigers worldwide.

But many nations, including India, Russia, Nepal, Bhutan and the United States, said any domestic Chinese sales would simply encourage poachers to cash in and shoot remaining tigers in the wild around Asia.

"This is a clear message that when these folks go back to China, they are going to have a strong time justifying (sales) at all," said Todd Willens, head of the US delegation at the June 3-15 talks in the Hague.

Tiger numbers in the wild are thought to have plunged from 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to perhaps 5,000 because of hunting and loss of habitats. Tigers are prized for furs and their parts are used in traditional medicines.

The CITES decision was adopted by consensus even though China argued strongly against, delegates said.

Beijing says its breeding centres support conservation of wild tigers -- China has only about 30 tigers left in the wild.

CONSERVATION

The CITES decision also said that countries with "intensive breeding operations" should limit numbers to "a level supportive only to conserving wild tigers". China has not successfully introduced farmed tigers to the wild.

John Sellar, CITES senior enforcement officer, was sceptical after visiting a breeding centre in China this year. "The potential for any of those tigers to be used for conservation purposes seems to be very limited, if existent at all," he said.

He urged nations to act to help the tiger which he said was "staring extinction in the face."

CITES banned all international trade in tiger parts in 1975 and has no formal authority over domestic laws such as in China.

Many nations suspect that China's tiger farmers have bred thousands of caged cats in a gamble that Beijing would eventually permit domestic sales. In Chinese medicine, tiger parts are used as cures for everything from colds to rheumatism.

"The other (tiger) countries have stood up for the tiger and said: China please don't lift your ban," said Susan Lieberman, species expert at the WWF.

Willens said that he believed that the resolution would not close down circuses or tiger fairs in other nations, such as the United States or in the European Union.

Earlier, China had tried to reassure delegates that it would not rush to lift the domestic ban and that the scientific evaluation would be "transparent and open".

Yahoo News 13 Jun 07
UN wildlife trade body rebukes China on tiger farms
by Marlowe HoodWed

The UN body regulating wildlife commerce rebuked China for large-scale tiger farming Wednesday and cautioned Beijing not to lift a domestic ban on the trade in products made from tiger parts.

"Tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts and derivatives," said a resolution passed by the 171-nation Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). China said earlier that it was evaluating petitions from domestic businesses to lift a 1993 ban on the domestic trade in tiger by-products, especially medicinal tonics.

"If we can provide tiger bones from captive breeding facilities in designated hospitals ... the underground market will shrink dramatically," Wang Weisheng, the head of China's wildlife management services, told journalists.

Wang also said the money raised from the sale of tiger bones could be used in wildlife programs.

Most conservationists say that re-opening the markets in tiger products would seal the animal's fate.

"If China lifts the ban, it will be the end of tigers," said Sue Lieberman, head of the World Wildlife Fund's global species programme. Legalized trade would encourage poaching of animals in the wild, even in neighbouring countries, and make it possible to launder furs and valuable body parts through authorized domestic businesses, she said.

There are probably less than 25 wild tigers left in China, and only a couple of thousand in their native habitat worldwide.

The resolution questioned the practice of operating huge tiger farms. Countries that permit tiger breeding "on a commercial scale," said the resolution, should "restrict the captive population to a level supportive only to conserving wild tigers."

While not singled out, China is the only country in the world to allow mass breeding of tigers, with 5,000 of the big cats housed in huge farms in the northeast and southwest.

The language is significant, say conservationists, because it removes any possible scientific justification for maintaining large populations of genetically-compromised tigers that cannot be released into the wild.

"The managed, coordinated zoo population of tigers in the world is in the hundreds, which is enough to maintain genetic diversity," said Kristin Nowell, an expert on illegal tiger trade at wildlife monitoring network TRAFFIC, one of dozens of conservation and wildlife groups sharply critical of the farms.

CITES has classified all Asian big cats as threatened with extinction, and has banned cross-border trade in live animals or products made from their body parts.

But it has no authority to forbid domestic commerce in threatened wildlife within a single country.

A motion by Beijing to insert the word "international" ahead of the phrase condemning "trade in (tiger) parts" -- which would have exempted tiger-bone byproducts produced and sold within China -- was slapped down in a vote Wednesday.

The CITES resolution is not binding, but puts pressure on China to keep its domestic ban in place.

"I think it will be difficult now for China to make the wrong decision," said Lieberman, who said that China "expressed disappointment" after the measure passed.

China has also suggested that the tiger farms could "provide an abundant breeding stock for the future re-introduction and restoration of the wild tiger populations in China," according to a document distributed at CITES.

Conservationists, however, say the mass-bred tigers would not survive in the wild and are genetically compromised due to intensive inbreeding.

PlanetArk 13 Jun 07
Tigers Disappearing From Yet Another Indian Reserve
Story by Bappa Majumdar

BUXA TIGER RESERVE, India - Tigers have almost disappeared from yet another protected reserve in India, with numbers dropping drastically according to conservationists involved in a new count of the big cats.

Wildlife activists say the number of endangered animals in Buxa Tiger Reserve in northeastern India could be five times lower than the 31 estimated in the last census in 2001/02.

"We found evidence of only six tigers during the survey," said Amal Dutta, chairman of the Alipurduar Nature Club, a local conservation group that helped the state-run Wildlife Institute of India (WII) count the big cats in Buxa last year.

Conservationists attribute the tiger disappearances in Buxa mainly to poaching, saying they mirrored the situation in India's popular Sariska Tiger Reserve, where the nation was shocked to discover the entire tiger population had been wiped out in 2005.

But forest authorities in Buxa said the tigers could have moved across the border into Bhutan due to increasing human encroachment in the reserve and incessant habitat destruction.

"We share a long border with Bhutan, so anything is possible and we have to wait for the WII results to know the tiger's fate," L.G. Lepcha, Buxa's field director, said recently.

India is home to half the world's surviving tigers, but conservationists say it is losing the battle to save them.

There were about 40,000 tigers in India a century ago. A count conducted in 2001 and 2002 suggested that number had fallen to around 3,700, after decades of poaching and habitat destruction.

The latest figures, gleaned using more modern methodology but only covering part of the country, show the situation could be far worse based on findings from 16 of India's 28 reserves last month.

The results of the remaining -- which include Buxa -- are expected by the end of the year. Over the years, large human populations and their thousands of cattle have taken over much of Buxa's almost 120 sq. km (45 sq. miles) area, tucked between Bhutan's Sinchula hill range and India's tea- and oil-rich Assam state.

Vast tracts of forests have been destroyed by the more than 20,000 people living in Buxa, mainly for firewood and to make way for farming and grazing pastures for their estimated 140,000 cattle.

Wildlife experts add that villagers are often paid by poachers to lay traps, adding that the virtually porous border makes it easy to smuggle tiger skins and bones into Bhutan and sell them on the black market for lucrative prices.

PlanetArk 12 Jun 07
Key Facts about Tigers

The world's wild tigers are on a path to extinction as numbers continue to decline because of increased poaching, habitat destruction and poor conservation efforts by governments, a new report has said.

Here are some key facts about the tiger:

- The largest of all cats, the tiger is one of the most fearsome predators in the world. It can weigh up to 450 kg (1,000 lb) and measure around ten feet (three metres) from nose to the tip of the tail.

- Tiger numbers in the wild are thought to have plunged from 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to between 5,000 and 7,000 today. They now inhabit the forests of Asia -- including India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Burma, China and Malaysia.

- India is estimated to have half the world's wild tiger population. A century ago, there were about 40,000 tigers in India but a count in 2001 found there only to be around 3,700. Initial results from a new census in May suggest numbers are much lower.

- Three tiger subspecies: the Bali, Javan and Caspian have become extinct in the past 70 years. The five remaining subspecies: Amur, Bengal, Indochinese, South China and Sumatran are all seriously threatened and are listed by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as endangered.

- Threats to tigers include destruction of their habitat and poaching, as a result of increasing demand for tiger parts such as skins and bones for traditional Asian medicine. Although the trade in tiger parts is illegal, a single animal skin can fetch up to US$50,000 on the international black market.

Sources: Reuters, World Wildlife Fund (www.panda.org), Save the Tiger Fund (www.savethetigerfund.org) REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
links
Related articles on Big cats
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com