Fur is back ... and so is illegal fur trade, CITES says

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Fur is back ... and so is illegal fur trade, CITES says

Agence France Presse (AFP)

Thu June 7, 2007

 

With fur back in fashion, the illegal fur trade is also on the rise,

wildlife crime experts said Thursday at a world forum in The Hague on

regulating wildlife commerce.

 

" Unfortunately, fashion takes cycles and fur is back in, " said John

Sellar, a wildlife crime expert on the secretariat of the 171-nation

Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild

Fauna and Flora (CITES).

 

" The situation in Western China is that there is a serious level of

illegal trade in leopard, snow leopard and tiger skins, " he said.

 

The illegal fur trade had been on the decline when fur was deemed

outmoded by fashionistas -- but with fur back on the catwalks, the

illegal trade is picking up, too, he said.

 

Another real fashion victim is the Tibetan antelope or chiru. Its

undercoat is known as Shahtoosh, a prized wool considered to be the

most warm, soft and fine. The wool can only be obtained by killing

the antelope and it takes three animals to make a one by two metre

(3.3 by 6.6 foot) woman's shawl.

 

In a recent haul, wildlife crime officers in Switzerland seized

several of such luxury shawls from a store in the St Moritz ski

resort where they were selling for up to 20.000 dollars (15,000

euros) a piece, Sellar said.

 

According to wildlife organisations, the Chiru population has dropped

from more than one million at the turn of the 20th century to some

75,000 today due to poaching.

 

Sellar stressed that the illegal trade in wildlife was hard to stamp

out because of high profits, the low risk of getting caught and

relatively leniant sentences if people are apprehended.

 

" Border agencies have to prioritize and wildlife trade is just one of

the issues they deal with in addition to the trafficking of

narcotics, people and weapons, " said Peter Younger, wildlife crime

officer at international police organisation Interpol.

 

It was difficult to put a figure on wildlife crime revenues, Sellar said.

 

He stressed there were certain areas of wildlife trading where

organised crime were present, like the Russian mafia's involvement in

the caviar trade, but added that it was difficult to get a clear

picture.

 

" We simply don't know. There is such a huge variety we are dealing

with a range from tourists who take something they did not know was

listed as an endangered species to organised crime. "

 

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