By Teresa Telecky
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| US Fish & Wildlife Service |
| A Siberian tiger. |
Tigers may soon disappear from the wild unless more effective efforts are made to halt illegal trade.
Tiger numbers have decreased dramatically in recent decades due to poaching to supply the illegal trade in tiger parts.
Tiger bones and other parts are used in traditional medicines to treat arthritis and other conditions. And the animals' skins are used as clothing for certain cultural ceremonies and even as decorative objects such as rugs and wall hangings.
Fewer than 3,500-4,000 tigers are estimated to remain in the wild in Asia, the only region of the world where they exist. About 100 years ago, there were an estimated 100,000 tigers in the wild.
The five existing tiger subspecies—the Amur, Bengal, Indochinese, South China, and Sumatran—all are critically endangered or endangered throughout their ranges. The Caspian tiger of southwest Asia, the Bali tiger and the Javan tiger all became extinct in the last 50 years of the 20th century.
Today, most wild tigers live in India; smaller populations exist in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russian Federation, Thailand and Viet Nam. Tigers have become extinct in at least 10 other countries. At an International Tiger Symposium held in Kathmandu, Nepal, in April 2007, experts from around the world reported that tiger populations remain in decline nearly everywhere.
A Neverending Battle
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| D. Chapagain/Wildlife Conservation Nepal |
| Accused tiger traders with soldiers. |
Wildlife officers in countries where tigers live fight a daily battle against poachers. Recently in Nepal, a wildlife smuggler was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 Nepalese Rupees (US$ 1,591)—the maximum fine allowed for a wildlife crime in that country—after being caught in 2005 with five tiger skins, 36 leopard skins, 238 otter skins, and 123 kilograms of tiger bones.
The seizure, the largest of its kind ever made in Nepal, occurred thanks to the hard work and cooperation of two non-governmental organizations—Wildlife Conservation Nepal and the Wildlife Trust of India—and the wildlife authorities at Langtang National Park, Nepal, where the smuggler and his loot were found.
India, home to most of the world’s wild tigers, recorded 130 tigers poached between 1999 and 2004 (as compared to 82 known natural deaths), according to the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
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China Drives Demand
Illegal markets in China drive most tiger poaching and illegal trade. To its credit, China has taken many steps to stem the problem—including—in 1993, the establishment of a ban on the import, export, sale, purchase, transport, carrying and mailing of tiger bone and tiger products. Also in 1993, China’s Ministry of Health annulled the national medicine standard on using tiger bone in prepared Chinese medicine, and the use of tiger bone in external remedies.
China has banned all production and sale of Chinese medicine containing tiger bone and increased legal penalties for smuggling tiger parts.
However, China’s commitment to ending tiger trade is wavering. At the June 2007 meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), China presented a document that stated that the trade ban had not worked as demonstrated by the fact that wild tiger populations were still in decline.
China further stated that the ban "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." They argued that tigers should be treated like crocodiles: farmed for their bones and skin.
Indeed, even while banning the tiger trade, China simultaneously allowed tiger breeding farms to start up and flourish. According to China’s 2007 report, there are 5,000 tigers on farms in China with an annual production of 800 animals.
Tiger Farms Not a Solution
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| D. Chapagain/Wildlife Conservation Nepal |
| Tiger bones. |
Tigers on these farms are kept in small pens with no enrichment, typical of many types of commercial farm animal production facilities.
In addition to being raised for slaughter (although the farms cannot legally sell the tiger parts, they stockpile them for the future), the tigers kept on the farms are used in a variety of ways, including for public entertainment.
Visitors to the farms can purchase live prey to feed the tigers who, because they have been taken away from their mothers at such a young age and have grown up in an unnatural environment, have not been taught how to effectively kill prey animals.
The public, including children, cheer while the prey animals are wounded but not killed by the tigers. The prey animals, writing in pain, are taken away by farm workers. Young cubs are declawed; defanged adults are used as photo props.
Removing Ban Could Be Disastrous
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| D. Chapagain/Wildlife Conservation Nepal |
| Results of a tiger parts seizure. |
If China were to remove its domestic tiger trade ban in order to allow the use of tiger parts from farmed tigers, all the country's efforts to date would be undermined. Instead of dampening the demand for tiger parts, this would only increase it, driving poaching. It would not be possible for tiger farms to meet the demand for tiger parts, so more wild tigers would be poached to meet it.
It is well known that people who use tiger parts for medicinal purposes prefer wild over farmed tigers. Open markets for tiger products in China would provide a cover for even more illegal trade than is currently occurring. Importantly, the traditional medicine industry members have stated that they neither need nor want tiger bone, and it is not necessary for human health.
In response to China’s report, the 2007 CITES meeting agreed that “Parties with intensive operations breeding tigers on a commercial scale shall implement measures to restrict the captive population to a level supportive only to conserving wild tigers; tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts and derivatives.”
The way to stop tiger poaching is to stop demand. The way to stop demand is to ban trade and effectively enforce the ban; and educate the public.
Markets for tiger parts and products must be closed once and for all if tigers are to be saved.
