A senior mainland wildlife official has spoken out in favour of bear farming, just a week after a Hong Kong group said it had forged a deal with Beijing that it hoped would end the practice.
Dr Fan Zhiyong, the official in charge of managing the mainland's obligations under Cites, the Convention on International Trading in Endangered Species, argued bear farming could help stop bear hunting.
Dr Fan denied reports in the British press that he had called for the ban on international trading in Asian bear parts to be lifted to meet demand in Japan and South Korea. But he said Beijing might in future apply under the convention to end the ban.
'I can only say that under the present situation, bear farming can help lessen the pressure on the hunting of wild [black] bears for their bile,' he said.
Trading bear bile within China is legal and demand is therefore 'an unchangeable fact', Dr Fan said. 'When there's a demand, it must be met one way or another. The question is whether there is a better solution,' he said.
His remarks come a week after the Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation signed an agreement with forestry officials from Sichuan province and experts from the government-affiliated China Wildlife Conservation Association to release 500 captive bears to a sanctuary within five years. It also aims to eliminate bear farming on the mainland.