China and the Tiger Trade Ban

China and the Tiger Trade Ban



March 2007 - Chinese business owners 
who would profit from the tiger trade are pressuring the 
Chinese government to overturn its successful 1993 ban on 
trading products made from tigers, according to a new TRAFFIC 
report released today by World Wildlife Fund and TRAFFIC - the 
wildlife trade monitoring program of WWF and IUCN-the World 
Conservation Union. 
The report by Kristin Nowell and Xu Ling warns that allowing 
Chinese domestic trade in captive-bred tiger parts for use in 
traditional medicine and clothing to resume is a likely "death 
sentence" for the endangered species. 
Tigers are threatened with extinction, with a global effective 
population size of fewer than 2,500 adults in the wild, down 
from about 100,000 tigers of all ages at the turn of the last 
century. 
Classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened 
Species, a recent global assessment found that the tiger now 
occupies just seven percent of its historic range, with much 
of that range having been lost in China. 
Adding to the pressure on tigers, investors in the growing 
number of large captive breeding "tiger farms" in China have 
petitioned the government to legalize trade of products from 
these facilities, which now house a total of 4,000 tigers, 
Nowell and Ling report. 
The farms keep captive-bred tigers together in large 
enclosures - a condition not found in the wild - and feed live 
animals to them before busloads of tourists. Such farmed 
tigers are unsuitable for reintroduction into the wild, 
TRAFFIC says. 
In June 2006 a group of foreign delegates was invited to China 
by the State Forestry Administration's, SFA, Department of 
Wildlife Conservation to advise the government on legalizing 
domestic trade in captive-bred tiger medicines. The delegation 
was informed that the government had received a petition in 
October 2005 from unnamed domestic interests to review the 
effectiveness of the 1993 domestic trade ban. 
As part of the SFA's research process, the foreign delegation 
was taken to the two largest tiger captive breeding centres - 
Hengdao River Breeding Centre and Xiongsen Bear-Tiger Mountain 
- the Beijing Tong Ren Tang Pharmaceutical Company, Chinese 
medicine markets and hospitals, law enforcement agencies in 
Beijing and Guilin and the North-east Forestry Research 
Institute in Harbin. 
The international community learned of the policy review at 
the 54th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee in 
Switzerland in October 2006. 
In January, an SFA spokesperson told China's Xinhua national 
news service that the government had no intention of easing 
its 1993 trade ban, but that China "welcomed well-researched 
advice or comments from experts and anyone who cares about the 
fate of wild tigers." 
Also in January, China's CITES Management Authority reported 
to CITES that "the Chinese government is assessing its [tiger 
trade ban] policy with a primary principle that it should be 
more beneficial to the global conservation and population 
resumption of the wild tiger." 
Tiger bones are ground to powder for medicines like this. 

In view of these developments, WWF and TRAFFIC are urging that 
China uphold the domestic ban on trade in tiger parts. 
"Reopening any legal trade in tiger parts would be an enormous 
step backwards for tiger conservation," said Leigh Henry, 
Program Officer for TRAFFIC North America. 
"A legal market in China would muddy the waters for 
enforcement officials and provide smugglers with a convenient 
cover for laundering wild tigers since farmed and wild 
products are indistinguishable," he said. 
"Raising tigers in captivity is 250 times more expensive than 
poaching wild tigers so there's plenty of incentive to poach 
and smuggle the last remaining wild populations to 
extinction," said Henry. 
Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered 
Species, CITES, all international trade in tigers and their 
parts is banned. 
China's existing policy - a complete trade ban within the 
country, implemented in 1993 - has been vital to protecting 
tigers in the wild, the TRAFFIC report states, by curbing 
demand in what was historically the world's largest consumer 
in tiger parts. 
China's measures to implement and enforce its domestic trade 
ban - from public education campaigns and promotion of 
effective substitutes for tiger medicines to severe punishment 
for law breakers - have been effective. 
Still, tiger survival is threatened by illegal trade in bone, 
used for traditional medicines or for health tonics. 
The illegal trade in skins for clothing is a growing threat, 
as well. Demand for big cat skins as status symbol clothing, 
particularly in China's Tibetan Autonomous Region, is 
increasing, with about three percent of Tibetans in major 
towns claiming to own tiger or leopard skin garments even 
though they knew it was illegal. 
Tiger and leopard skins fetch high prices. 
With tigers so rare, demand has widened to other Asian big cat 
species, including leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard, 
write Nowell and Ling. China's consumers have held the largest 
market share of these global, illegal trades. 
Undercover surveys by TRAFFIC documented in the report found 
little tiger bone currently available in China. Less than 
three percent of 663 medicine shops and dealers claimed to 
stock it, and most retailers were aware that tigers are 
protected and illegal to trade. 
But 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. 
In their report, Nowell and Ling warn that, "Trade is flexible 
and new markets and trade routes constantly arise." 
Since 1999, China has seized more tiger and leopard products 
than any other range state, Nowell and Ling report. "This 
shows strong enforcement effort, and considerable enforcement 
success. However, China's seizure records are also an 
indication of continuing demand, despite the market declines 
suggested by TRAFFIC's surveys. China's enforcement efforts 
must remain strong if illegal trade is to continue declining 
in future years." 
"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 and U.S. support 
for it," said Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf, director of WWF's 
Species Program. 
"To overturn the ban and allow any trade in captive-bred tiger 
products would waste all the efforts invested in saving wild 
tigers. It would be a catastrophe for tiger conservation," she 
said. 
Captive tiger populations are a drain on resources and 
encourage continued demand for tiger products. Intensive Tiger 
breeding should be stopped, breeding programs should be 
integrated with international efforts, and stocks of Tiger 
carcasses should be destroyed, the report states. 
WWF and TRAFFIC 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. 





 

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