TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE PRACTITIONERS AND CONSERVATIONISTS TO LAUNCH BOOK

[Guest guest]

Conservationists and Practitioners of TCM Speak in Harmony Attention: Assignment

Editor, Environment Editor, Health/Medical Editor, News Editor, World News

Editor TORONTO, CANADA--

(CCNMatthews - Sept. 20, 2006) -

Conservation organizations represented by IFAW and practitioners of Traditional

(TCM)will jointly launch the book Mending the Web of Life:

and Species Conservation at the 3rd International Congress of

Traditional Medicine in Toronto. Mending the Web of Life stresses the

compatibility of the 3,000-year-old TCM practice with conservation and animal

welfare principles.

 

" The TCM community does not want to be blamed for the extinction of tigers, "

said Elizabeth Call, the author " we support the development of TCM without the

use of tiger bone and parts of other highly endangered species of wildlife " .

Traditional medicines containing tiger bone or other animal parts continue to be

marketed to consumers and practitioners. This is in spite of the fact that

since 1993, the TCM community has removed tiger bone from the official

pharmacopoeia, and identified effective alternative remedies. A study conducted

in 1998 revealed that over 80% of consumers in China would not use animal based

medicines whose ingredients were obtained illegally or cruelly.

 

The growing popularity of TCM combined with the illicit use of tiger parts and

derivatives in traditional medicine risks endangering what's left of a wild

tiger population that stands today at a scant 5,000. " Mending the Web of Life

is a pioneering effort at bridging the gap between the two seemingly divergent

disciplines and communities. It embodies the authors' collective desire to

preserve the ecosystems on which the Chinese medicinal practice depends for

survival, " said Grace Ge Gabriel, IFAW's Asia Regional Director.

 

IFAW hopes that Mending the Web of Life will bring the concept of conservation

to the forefront of discourse on TCM use and educate the public on the

unnecessary - even gratuitous - employ of animal parts derived from endangered

species.

 

IFAW and Save the Tiger Fund (STF), representing a coalition of conservationists

including Conservation Int'l, TRAFFIC, WCS and WWF for Nature, are initiating a

pledge drive at the conference. Conservationists are optimistic that the pledge

drive will collect hundreds of thousands of signatures from TCM practitioners

all over the world, supporting the call to preserve our wildlife for healthy

people and a healthy planet.

 

/For further information: Note to Editors: As a result of CITES Parties voicing

their concern regarding the rampant illegal trade threatening the survival of

tigers, the CITES Secretariat will discuss the issue at the forthcoming Standing

Committee meeting in Geneva, scheduled for October 2-6.

 

For more information, visit www.ifaw.org/ IN: ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, INTERNATIONAL