China reopens trade in tiger and leopard skins
‘Loophole’ defies the spirit of big cat conservation pledge
August 2011
LONDON: Despite Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s promise to the world that his country would “vigorously combat poaching, trade and smuggling of tiger products”, China appears to have quietly reopened the trade in tiger and leopard skins.
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Ahead of next week’s meeting of the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Standing Committee in Geneva, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has directly contacted participants – including those from the UK, the USA and all tiger and Asian leopard range countries – to urge them to challenge China on the issue.
Although previously committing to end trade in the parts of Asia’s big cats, it appears China has resumed trade in tiger and leopard skins via the implementation of its 2007 Skin Registration Scheme.
The Scheme allows for tiger and leopard skins from ‘legal origins’, including those from captive-bred big cats, to be registered, labelled and sold; EIA believes this provides the perfect cover for illegal skins to be laundered and seriously undermines China’s promise to last November’s International Tiger Summit in St Petersburg by re-opening trade at a time when the rest of the world is seeking to end it.
Although previously committing to end trade in the parts of Asia’s big cats, it appears China has resumed trade in tiger and leopard skins via the implementation of its 2007 Skin Registration Scheme.
The Scheme allows for tiger and leopard skins from ‘legal origins’, including those from captive-bred big cats, to be registered, labelled and sold; EIA believes this provides the perfect cover for illegal skins to be laundered and seriously undermines China’s promise to last November’s International Tiger Summit in St Petersburg by re-opening trade at a time when the rest of the world is seeking to end it.
And EIA has already discovered several examples of skins for sale online, which appear to have formal permits.
“Parties to CITES may feel they’ve been misled as a result of China’s tactics,” said EIA Tiger Campaign Head Debbie Banks.
“What they’ve failed to grasp is that despite committing to the domestic trade ban on tiger bone, China has refused to make the same commitment over skins or answer questions about how many skins are being traded, but the system is there.
“The Skin Registration Scheme is going in totally the wrong direction. It’s doing nothing to actually help tiger and leopard conservation, instead providing a cover for illegal trade and creating a confused consumer market.”
“Parties to CITES may feel they’ve been misled as a result of China’s tactics,” said EIA Tiger Campaign Head Debbie Banks.
“What they’ve failed to grasp is that despite committing to the domestic trade ban on tiger bone, China has refused to make the same commitment over skins or answer questions about how many skins are being traded, but the system is there.
“The Skin Registration Scheme is going in totally the wrong direction. It’s doing nothing to actually help tiger and leopard conservation, instead providing a cover for illegal trade and creating a confused consumer market.”
By permitting the Skin Registration Scheme to go ahead, China’s State Forestry Administration (SFA) appears to making a complete mockery of Premier Wen Jiabao’s pledge regarding tiger conservation. In May, EIA wrote to him directly to alert him to this situation but has yet to receive a reply.
“China is one of the world’s leading economies and is always insisting it doesn’t need outside help to protect wildlife and stop illegal trade,” added Banks. “There can be no more excuses; it has had ample time to strengthen its laws and invest in enforcement operations which target the criminals controlling the trade. If it really wanted to end the trade and save tigers and leopards in the wild, there is a lot more it could do.”
“China is one of the world’s leading economies and is always insisting it doesn’t need outside help to protect wildlife and stop illegal trade,” added Banks. “There can be no more excuses; it has had ample time to strengthen its laws and invest in enforcement operations which target the criminals controlling the trade. If it really wanted to end the trade and save tigers and leopards in the wild, there is a lot more it could do.”
URGENT CALL TO ACTION – FROM EIA
EDITORS’ NOTES
- Parties to CITES Standing Committee in Geneva should seek clarification from China about the status of the registration and domestic sale of the skins of tigers and other Asian big cats;
- China should formally ban all trade in all parts and derivatives of Appendix I Asian big cats from all sources – tigers, leopards, snow leopards, clouded leopards and Asiatic lions;
- China should ensure its enforcement is far more specialised and focused than at present, moving beyond border seizures to target the domestic criminals responsible.
EDITORS’ NOTES
- The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is a UK-based Non Governmental Organisation and charitable trust (registered charity number 1040615) that investigates and campaigns against a wide range of environmental crimes, including illegal wildlife trade, illegal logging, hazardous waste, and trade in climate and ozone-altering chemicals.
- The EIA report, ‘Enforcement not Extinction: Zero Tolerance on Tiger Trade‘ outlines EIA’s recommendations for urgent actions to reverse the tiger’s decline. Click here to read it.
- EIA has written to China seeking clarification over the 2007 Skin Registration Scheme and raised questions about it from the floor at UN meetings, but China has failed to respond. Read about it here.
- The International Tiger Forum in St Petersburg in November 2010 resulted in the adoption of the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) and the goal of doubling the wild tiger population by 2022. See more on this here.
- During a GTRP Implementation meeting in March 2011, China admitted to its reliance on NGO information to assess the status of trade, interpreting an absence of such information from NGOs to mean trade had been deterred.
A Note from 'Bush Warriors'
Today, there are fewer than 3,200 tigers left in the wild due, primarily, to extensive habitat loss, poaching, and conflict with humans. They’ve lost 93% of their habitat over the past 110 years, which parallels a nearly 97% reduction in the species’ population over the same period of time. Experts say that if current trends continue, we could lose the tiger in just twelve years.
China is well known as the being the center of demand for tiger parts. Though in attendance at the international summit, we have yet to hear what their main commitment to tiger conservation will be. As the biggest threat to wild tigers today is that of poaching to supply this demand, it seems only logical that China’s biggest contribution would be to tackle the consumer side of the problem. Many conservationists agree that the nation could show their true commitment to the movement by shutting down its dozen or more tiger farms, estimated to be holding some 6,500 captive tigers.
At one time, only two years ago, you could revel in the symbolic nature of these creatures while you snacked on their flesh at some of these places. “Negative press” is what ultimately ended the sale of “tiger steaks” at this place, but strangely, and of big business, tours still end at a shop where you can purchase a variety of vintage tiger bone wines for just US $95-$293. The rice wine, in which tigers’ skeletons are soaked, are sold as a “tonic” said to have medicinal powers that can improve joint health and increase sexual vigor. Somehow, tiger farm proponents refer to this practice as “conservation” of the failing species.
It’s largely agreed by the conservation community that these facilities are breeding these cats for one sole purpose: to die. Nearly every part of the tiger’s anatomy is valued in this black market now. Reports have revealed these operations intentionally neglecting and even starving their captive cats, just so their body parts could be harvested for sale. All of this, in the name of ‘conservation’. The activities directly stimulate the black market demand for tiger parts, which the trade of has been banned in the country since 1993. By providing the lucrative industry with tiger products, such as tiger bone wine, it validates the myths that surround the use of these animals’ parts and gives the false notion that their use is legal and justified.
The Chinese government is both directly and indirectly involved in the fueling of this market that is similar to that of narcotics. The Deputy Director of China’s State Forestry Administration, Yin Hong, has defended tiger farms, claiming that, although some have been found illegally selling tiger products from time to time, the drop in wild populations is not related to the farms. Yet trade data and continued poaching of these animals proves otherwise. Interestingly, the government also has financial ownership in some of these places.
“All of the demand for tiger parts is coming from China,”explained Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, in an interview with the New York Times. “Unless the Chinese change their attitude, the tiger has no future on this earth.”
The Chinese government is both directly and indirectly involved in the fueling of this market that is similar to that of narcotics. The Deputy Director of China’s State Forestry Administration, Yin Hong, has defended tiger farms, claiming that, although some have been found illegally selling tiger products from time to time, the drop in wild populations is not related to the farms. Yet trade data and continued poaching of these animals proves otherwise. Interestingly, the government also has financial ownership in some of these places.
“All of the demand for tiger parts is coming from China,”explained Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, in an interview with the New York Times. “Unless the Chinese change their attitude, the tiger has no future on this earth.”
