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| Corbis |
According to the World Conservation Union, there are less than
2,500 mature tigers left. |
Tigers continue to be in trouble, and on June 3 the the member nations at the CITES Conference of the Parties 14 will once again wrestle with the problems involved in protecting the world's largest cat from ongoing, illicit demand for its skin, bones and body parts.
Poaching and Illegal Trade Threaten Tigers
At an International Tiger Symposium held in Kathmandu, Nepal in April 2007, experts from around the world reported that tiger populations remain in decline almost everywhere. Poaching and illegal trade persist, but information on their scope and extent remains inadequate.
Tigers in central India have declined by over 50 percent in the last five years, with poaching the likeliest cause. Poaching threatens to drive the Sumatran tiger to extinction within a decade, and the South China tiger may already be extinct in the wild.
China Lobbying to Open Trade in Tiger Parts
Meanwhile, China—which banned trade in tiger products in 1993—is lobbying hard to gain permission to open up international trade in tiger parts from its commercial tiger breeding "farms." Conservationists (who uniformly condemn the farms as useless for tiger conservation) fear that such a move would make it far easier to launder contraband tiger bones and meat onto international markets. HSI, with many other conservation organizations, has declared that lifting the ban would be "a death sentence for wild tigers remaining in India, Nepal, Russia, Indonesia and across their Asian range."
While no proposal at the CITES meeting addresses China's aims, the country has introduced a report arguing strongly for the re-opening of trade. Ostensibly, the report is in response to a 2005 call by the CITES Standing Committee for tiger range states to report on implementation of conservation and trade efforts (Resolution Conf. 12.5 on "Conservation of and trade in tigers and other Appendix-I Asian big cat species"). This resolution called on Parties to step up their anti-poaching legislation and improve enforcement.
China spends much of their report detailing anti-poaching activities, it uses the document to argue for farming and trade, even condemning its own 1993 trade ban as a move that "has seriously impacted not only the Chinese traditional culture but also the medicinal treatment and health care of the Chinese people, in particular those in poverty"—despite statements by the traditional medicine industry that tiger bone is neither needed nor wanted by them and is not necessary for human health.
Controls on Tiger Trade in China Inadequate
The Chinese trade ban does not extend to tiger skins. While conducting a mission to China in March and April of 2007 to examine trade in big cats, the CITES Secretariat raised concerns about the demand for tiger and other animal skins, including snow leopard, in China's western provinces, including the Tibetan Autonomous Region. In recent years, the skins have been increasingly used for traditional ceremonial robes, or Chubas, garments that once contained, at most, only small patches of fur awarded to their wearers for valor.
Education campaigns seem to have been successful and demand for skins has fallen since a peak in 2005. But the Secretariat was far from satisfied with the overall level of enforcement and public education on tiger conservation in China—though it recognized the sheer difficulty of combating illegal activities in a country of China's size and cultural complexity, and he noted that "China cannot combat wildlife crime alone."
meaningful cooperation from the highest levels to the lowest. It remains to be seen whether they will take that chance.
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UPDATE |
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On June 13, 2007, the fourteenth meeting of the parties to CITES rejected raising captive tigers for trade in their parts and urged China to phase out its commercial tiger farms. more>> |
There are altogether twenty-one tiger range states, but only a few besides China (Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam) have submitted reports to the CITES Secretariat in response to the Standing Committee's call. According to these reports, countries are doing the best they can to combat tiger poaching despite a lack of resources.
In India, the country with by far the largest tiger population, more than 600 people have been arrested for tiger poaching since 1999, but only 10 have been convicted.
CITES Must Act to Protect Tigers
The biggest issue relating to the conservation of tigers facing the Parties at CoP 14 may well be one of political will. In the past, the Parties rejected a call for a high-level diplomatic summit on tiger conservation and coordinated, properly-funded international action. Both are a necessity if wild tigers are to survive.
At this meeting, faced with clear proof that the tiger crisis is becoming worse, the Parties have a chance to rally in support of real, meaningful cooperation from the highest levels to the lowest. It remains to be seen whether they will take that chance.
