China's proposal to lift ban on trade in tiger bone opposed
Conservationists and neighbouring governments say they are determined to block a Chinese proposal to lift a ban on the sale of medicines made from tiger bone.
At this week's Global Tiger Forum - a meeting of government officials and tiger experts in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu - a delegation of Chinese officials presented information they said showed the medical value of tiger bone, and claimed tiger farms could meet demand while protecting the creatures in the wild.
'The reason we banned trade in tiger is because we could not successfully breed the tiger in captivity,' said Xu Yanchun, a professor at Harbin's Northeast Forestry University. 'Now we can.'
Wang Wei, deputy director-general of China's Department of Wildlife Conservation, said the ban had cost China US$4 billion.
A medical expert presented data showing that 69.3 per cent of patients with bone disorders want to be treated with tiger products.
Conservationists are determined to block the move. 'This is make or break time for me,' said Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Preservation Society of India. 'If we lose this fight then we've lost the battle to save tigers in the wild. This is the closest we've ever got.'
Scientists believe there are about 2,500 breeding adult tigers left in the wild, with about 80 per cent of them in India. Of India's 30 tiger reserves, conservationists believe six may have lost their last tiger.
China once had a major population but has only a few dozen left, with so few South China Tigers that they are 'functionally extinct' in the wild. Yet there are more than 4,000 tigers in Chinese farms. China argues that selling their products will 'flood the market' and reduce demand for animals poached from the wild.
There has never been a successful attempt to release captive-bred tigers into the wild.
Opponents argue the present policy is working. Diane Walkington of the WWF says there would be even fewer wild tigers if China had not imposed a domestic trade ban in 1993. 'China has done an amazingly good job [of enforcement] over the last 14 years,' she said.
Thirty environmental organisations have united to form the International Tiger Coalition. They argue that lifting the ban would stimulate demand for tiger products.
A recent survey by the wildlife trade research group Traffic found that although more than 200 companies made tiger medicine before the ban, tiger products are now available in only 3 per cent of medicine stores.
Following the ban, tiger bone was taken off the official list of medicines.
The coalition says wild animals are more valuable than farmed creatures in traditional medicine because they are said to be more potent. They also are cheaper. It costs thousands of dollars to raise a tiger but just US$20 to hire a poor peasant to poach one.
Once on the market, they say, there is no way to tell whether a tiger product is wild or farmed. '[Lifting the ban] will be the final nail in the coffin for wild tigers,' Ms Wright said.
There is some evidence that farmed tiger products already are available. Reports by wildlife groups and British broadcaster Independent Television News found that the Guilin Xiong Sen Tiger and Bear Farm, which has more than 1,000 tigers, sells tiger wine in its gift shop and tiger meat in its restaurant.
The firm has received funds from the State Forestry Administration.
Lure of the wild
The International Tiger Coalition says wild animals are more valuable than farmed creatures in traditional medicine
The amount (in US dollars) a peasant gets to poach a wild tiger $20
