Posted on September, 26 2005

Gland, Switzerland / Beijing, China – Plans being considered in China to test the viability of re-opening the domestic trade in tigers and their parts, banned since 1993, would spell disaster for the already critically endangered species, according to WWF, the global conservation organization, and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.
  
WWF and TRAFFIC believe that the re-opening of the trade of captive bred tigers for traditional medicine from so-called “tiger farms” for sales in China’s domestic market would threaten the world’s remaining wild tiger populations. Tiger bone has been used as a treatment for rheumatism and related ailments for thousands of years in traditional Asian medicine. 
   
“This could be the final act that drives the tiger towards extinction," said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF's Global Species Programme. 

"We’re afraid that poachers living near the world’s last populations of tigers may kill them to supply illegal markets that are likely to develop alongside any new legal ones.”  
 
The opening of the trade would also send the wrong signal to consumers, who may think it is acceptable to buy tiger parts, whether tiger bone in eastern China or tiger skins in western China, according to WWF and TRAFFIC. 
 
The world’s tigers are at a record low, numbering around 5,000. The domestic trade ban in China in 1993 gave a welcome boost to tiger conservation by curbing demand for tiger products from other range states such as India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Indonesia. 
 
“If this goes ahead, it will undo all the excellent work the Chinese government has done over the last 12 years,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director TRAFFIC International.
 
“China has led by example in the past by imposing harsh penalities on wildlife trade criminals and through determined enforcement measures. To go back on all this, especially when there are alternatives for use in traditional medicine, just doesn’t make sense.” 
 
Pressure is also increasing on Asian big cats because of a rapidly growing market for Asian tiger and leopard skins in Tibetan regions, with animals illegally hunted every year throughout their range to meet this market demand. In August, in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, TRAFFIC investigators found 23 shops in the city’s main square openly selling skins and parts of tigers and leopards. 
 
WWF and TRAFFIC are also calling on authorities in the region to curb the demand for Asian big cat skins and parts, and strengthen enforcement efforts along trade routes, in transit markets, and markets in Asia. 
 
END NOTES:
• In May 1993, in response to international conservation concern about the threat to rhinoceroses and  tigers posed by commercial trade, the State Council of the People's Republic of China issued a ban on trade in rhinoceros horn, tiger bone, and their medicinal derivatives. This ban included the removal of these items from the official pharmacies of China, and the cessation of all manufacture and commercial trade within China. 
 
• In recent years, a substantial number of commercial captive-breeding centres have been established for tigers. In some range countries there are now a greater number of tigers in captivity than in the wild. Captive breeding facilities are distinguished from legitimate ‘zoos’ by their commercial nature, and the priority that they give to breeding large numbers of tigers for commercial purposes. 

• TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of WWF, the conservation organization and IUCN – The World Conservation Union. 

For further information:
Joanna Benn, Communications Manager
WWF Global Species Programme
Tel: +41 22 364 9093 
E-mail: jbenn@wwfint.org
 
Olivier VanBogaert, Senior Press Officer
WWF International
Tel+ 41 22 364 9554
E-mail: ovanbogaert@wwfint.org 
 
Maija Sirola, Communications Coordinator
TRAFFIC International
Tel:+44 1223 277427
E-mail: maija.sirola@trafficint.org