Tiger conservation?

July 10, 2006

India Today

July 17, 2006

GUEST COLUMN; Pg. 75

699 words

Burning Bright

Barun Mitra

China tries to balance its tiger-breeding strategies and a thriving

market in tiger bones

Every crisis is an opportunity. While it may provide an opportunity

to explore new options in an attempt to end the crisis, it may also

blind people to alternatives, making them cling to failed policy

options that have contributed to the problem. China and India

reflect these contrasting approaches in their efforts to save the

tiger.

Since the 1970s, India has enacted tough laws and mobilised huge

resources to prevent hunting and trading of tigers, but the present

debate over a tiger census is an indication that the policy of

prohibition has not secured the future of tigers.

India has the largest number of tigers in the wild-anywhere between

two and four thousand. China probably has only 20 or 30 left in the

wild. But it is in China that tiger parts, particularly bones, are

in demand for treating severely arthritic patients as per

traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

China too adopted a similar policy of prohibition in 1993, but to no

avail. In fact, the prohibition may have increased the suffering of

Chinese patients who rely on TCM for relief. Conscious of this dual

crisis, China is now experimenting with a range of radical policy

options. The contrast with India-where there are news reports of

enlisting even the army to protect the tiger-could not have been

more glaring.

In China, over the past decade, special tiger-breeding bases set up

both under the public and private domain have virtually perfected

the art. There are over 4,000 tigers in captivity in China today,

and an effort is on to build a genetic profile, so that the number

of pure sub-species could be documented and increased.

There are around 20 tiger-breeding facilities in China. While most

are small, some are quite large. A 40-hectare tiger and bear park in

the town of Guilin houses around 1,000 tigers in enclosures and

cages. This is a major tourist destination, but the revenue from

tourism is nowhere near adequate to meet the cost ($4,000) of

raising a tiger. The cost of the feed constitutes about 75 per cent

of the total cost. To meet the expenses. this park has been

completely mortgaged to banks. Some years ago, it had to destroy a

stock of tonnes of bones from dead tigers, because the cost of

refrigeration was too high.

Yet, Chinese entrepreneurs and wildlife managers look optimistic. An

adult tiger leaves behind about 12 to 15 kg of dry bones, which

could sell for $ 500-1,000 per kg in the market for TCM. Apart from

that, the skin, claws and some other organs fetch another $10,000.

In addition, there is a constant demand for pure-bred sub-species of

live tiger cubs and young adults from zoos and other establishments

around the world. Also, the cost of feed can be reduced

substantially by substituting commercial meat with low-cost

wildlife. Tiger farms are eminently viable financially. Clearly,

commerce is no enemy of conservation.

China has, in fact, created a legal domestic market, and developed a

computerised documentation system to track wildlife products like

ivory and musk, from their stocks to manufacturing, retailing and

customer documentation.

China is also experimenting with re-wilding techniques at a tiger

valley in South Africa through public-private partnership. It hopes

to master this art and train captive-bred tigers to survive in the

wild.

There is a willingness in China to experiment even in

internationally sensitive issues. From a limited domestic trade in

tiger bones they hope to raise enough revenue to sustain their new

tiger conservation strategies. The legal trade is expected to reduce

the pressure on wild tigers, while helping Chinese patients. If this

policy works, China may have, in a decade, over one lakh tigers in

captivity and the natural death rate may be adequate to meet the

demand for tiger bones.

For years, India has not discussed tiger conservation with China.

The question is whether India will behave like a tiger, and bravely

join China in search of new conservation strategies, or meekly

sentence the tiger to inevitable extinction.

Barun Mitra is director of Liberty Institute, an independent think-

tank based in Delhi. He was a member of a team that was recently

invited to China to witness their tiger conservation strategies.

Moderator's note:

The zoo tiger has never been an endangered species. In selling the bones and

encouraging the marketing of a nonsense remedy, the Chinese are guaranteeing the

poaching of the last wild tiger.

If I was a tiger I would prefer extinction of my species to a future of

captivity, certainly of captivity in the conditions currently offered in Chinese

zoos.

John.

July 11, 2006

I was on this trip with Barun and have a few comments to make.

First, no matter what " we " think of using animal parts in Traditional

, there are many people in China who believe in them. Over

the last 10 years, " we " have tried to inform the Chinese that there are

alternatives or that this is just plain nonsense. It hasn't worked (this

approach). We met with many doctors (sure, they chose pro-tiger bone

spokespeople), TCM pharmacists, and others who say they have conducted

clinical trials and that it tiger bone works and that substitutes are not as

effective. Personally, in the absence of clinical trials done by western

standards, I am with John but who am I to dictate demand to 1+billion

Chinese, or even a small fraction of them?

Secondly, the logic behind Barun's message is that if a legal supply of

tiger bone is available in China (where the bulk of the poached tigers seem

to be going), and that this legal (read certified genuine, it is very

difficult to tell real from fake tiger bone) supply is cheaper than wild

caught tigers, then people will make a rational choice and buy the cheaper,

pure stuff. Why would anyone pay more for a product that could be fake?

Now, before anybody goes ahead I think there needs to be done some rigorous

market research and economic modeling to find out if farmed tigers could be

acceptable, how much it would cost to raise them, and in conditions that

would be acceptable to those with animal welfare concerns, how illegal trade

network might react, how illegal tigers could be kept out of the legal

pipeline, and if, in fact, if the presence of a legal supply would alleviate

the commercially-driven poaching pressures on the wild population. To go

ahead without doing such work would be, in my view, irresponsible.

Third, we went to two tiger farms. The animals there lived in conditions

that were comparable to what I would call a " basic " zoo, i.e. decent sized

enclosures, fresh water, in some cases running, shade, some " enrichment " in

terms of foliage and trees. Clean. Some of the animals were roaming

around large, semi-natural enclosures. More room, in fact, than what I see

in Singapore, the AZA certified zoo of which I was a Board Member, and, as

one of the other people commented, the San Diego Zoo.

Fourth, I think it can be more humane to kill a zoo animal than in the wild.

Animals die a very painful death in snare traps, thrashing about for days,

some even gnawing off their leg to get free. Poison is also not pretty.

Worst is when a mother tiger is poached and her cubs then die without her to

look after them.

Fifth, while this column is primarily concerned with animal welfare,

remember that welfare and conservation, while related, are not the same and

sometimes even have conflicting objectives. One of the objectives of tiger

conservation is the continued existence of wild tigers, roaming freely in

their natural habitat.