Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 10 • Number 5 • 19th March 2010

WWF Releases Report on State of Wildlife Trade in 2008

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Chinese attempts to reduce or eliminate trade in endangered wildlife have been hindered its porous border with Burma, according to a new report by TRAFFIC, WWF’s wildlife trade monitoring network. “The State of Wildlife Trade in China 2008,” part of an annual series that assesses trends in China’s wildlife trade, finds that poor enforcement of wildlife trade regulations in China is allowing dealers to provide door-to-door delivery of rare or banned animal goods by smuggling items across the border from Burma’s less-regulated markets.

Despite the presence of Burmese laws forbidding trade in endangered species, the locations investigated by TRAFFIC are effectively exempt from national rules, since the region-Special Region 4-is an autonomous state controlled by the rebel group the National Democratic Alliance Army.

The report also highlights the illegal trade in big cat products - including tiger bone wine and furs - and points to this as a key issue at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Conference of the Parties currently underway in Doha, Qatar (see related story, this issue).

Tiger and leopard parts were found in some Western-China markets, although the presence of such items has decreased, raising concerns that the trade has become more carefully organised and is operating ‘under-the-radar’. Additionally, TRAFFIC’s investigation into Burmese markets confirmed that wildlife trade has become more covert through internet operations. The report details efforts to curtail this based on a seminar on controlling the online trade in endangered species, hosted by the Endangered Species Import and Export Management office of China (ESIEMO) and the Department of Public Information Network Security Supervision (PINSS).

“China’s border areas have long been considered a hotbed for illegal trade, with remote locations often making surveillance a difficult problem in sparsely populated areas,” said Professor Xu Hongfa, director of TRAFFIC’s China programme. And State-run Chinese media outlet People’s Daily recently confirmed the presence of a market for tiger products when it noted a spike in demand for tiger bone tonic wine coinciding with the Chinese Lunar Calendar’s current Year of the Tiger.

The report also highlights and assesses official China-Japan timber trade data, freshwater turtle farms in China, sustainable use of traditional medicinal plants, application of wildlife trade information, coral and ivory Trade in East Asia, and Chinese-Nepalese efforts to increase enforcement of cross-border illegal wildlife trade.

Despite the reported problems in effectively managing its border with Burma, the TRAFFIC report says China has made great strides in managing and controlling processing and trade in ivory.

More information

The State of Wildlife Trade in China 2008 can be accessed here: http://www.traffic.org/general-reports/State-of-Wildlife-Trade-Report-2008.pdf

“Porous China-Myanmar border allowing illegal wildlife trade,” TRAFFIC. 16 March 2010; The State of Wildlife Trade in China 2008, TRAFFIC East Asia China Program. 16 March 2010; “Myanmar a gateway for wildlife trade to china: Report,” AFP. 17 March 2010; “China’s Illegal Wildlife Trade in Tigers, Turtles, Timber,” ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE. 17 March 2010.