Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 7 • Number 6 • 30th March 2007

China Tiger Breeders Urge End to Trade Ban

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Tiger breeders in China are lobbying for the legalisation of domestic sales of tiger parts — a deeply controversial issue that has outraged conservationists.

Chinese traditional medicine makes use of tiger parts for a number of remedies, and the country used to be the largest consumer. Chinese authorities stopped the sale of tiger parts in 1993. However, there are ca 4000 tigers that have been bred on farms. Following the 1993 ban, the breeders opened their facilities to the public in the form of tiger parks. However, the breeders are making economic losses and are now calling for the legalisation of the sale of tiger parts.

“If legal channels exist and patients can legally get their wanted materials of tiger bone in their medicine, the motivations to purchase tiger bones from illegal sources can be greatly minimised,” said Wang Ligang, general manager of the Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Park said on 29 March.

Environmental groups disagree. They argue that any legal trade would lead to great increases in illegal trade of the critically endangered species. Animal rights activists further claim that the tigers that are bred have no chance of natural survival, and the practice should be banned. Any tiger parts coming from the parks would further be more expensive than those from illegal sources.

“Reopening any legal trade in tiger parts would be an enormous step backwards for tiger conservation,” said Leigh Henry of wildlife monitoring network TRAFFIC. “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 added.

TRAFFIC recently released a report on the potential effects of lifting the domestic sales ban on tiger products, entitled “Taming the Tiger Trade: China’s Markets for Wild and Captive Tiger Products Since the 1993 Domestic Trade Ban.” There are only 2500-7000 tigers left in the wild, mostly in India.

India, for its part, is looking to strengthen its legislation to combat illegal sale of tiger parts, as required under the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Additional resources

The TRAFFIC report “Taming the Tiger Trade: China’s Markets for Wild and Captive Tiger Products Since the 1993 Domestic Trade Ban” is available at http://www.traffic.org/content/842.pdf.

“China to farm tigers, India wakes up,” TIMES OF INDIA, 30 March 2007; “China Breeders Urge Lifting of Tiger Parts Ban,” REUTERS, 30 March 2007; “China Urged to Uphold Domestic Tiger Trade Ban,” ENS, 13 March 2007; “Lifting Chinese tiger trade ban a death sentence for wild tigers say WWF and TRAFFIC,” WWF RELEASE, 12 March 2007; “Wild Tigers Face A New Threat From China,” THE STRAITS TIMES, 21 March 2007.