FW: (CN) Chinese menus, medicine threatening wildlife

[Guest guest]

Debasis Chakrabarti [animalcrusader]

13 November, 2008 1:19 AM

dr john wedderburn

Chinese menus, medicine threatening wildlife

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AA5BX20081111

Chinese menus, medicine threatening wildlife

 

12 Nov 2008, 1352 hrs IST, REUTERS

 

BEIJING: Wild animals are climbing back onto Chinese plates after

the deadly SARS virus made some diners wary, and booming demand for

traditional medicine is also threatening some plants, environmentalists said

on Wednesday.

 

Nearly half of urbanites had consumed wildlife in the past 12

months, either as food for medicine, with rich and well educated Chinese

most likely to tuck into a wild snake or turtle, a survey of urbanites in

six cities found.

 

They enjoyed eating wildlife because they saw it as " unpolluted " ,

" special " and with extra nourishing and health powers, according to a study

commissioned by Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

 

" This consumer demand is increasingly placing the natural

environment, both in China and abroad, at risk through unsustainable and

illegal wildlife trade, " the report said.

 

Around half of the southern Chinese markets checked by Traffic were

also selling wildlife for the pot, mostly reptiles but some birds and

mammals as well. Two species for sale are on an international list of 800

critically threatened animals. In an encouraging sign, only 3% of diners

order the most endangered animals, but Traffic said a new approach was

needed to persuade Chinese customers not to eat other wildlife.

 

Species endangered by their culinary and medicinal popularity in

China include the pangolin, tiger and Chinese sturgeon, the report said.

 

An outbreak of the deadly SARS virus six years ago resulted in a

local gourmet favourite, the civet, being banished to the black market. The

racoon-like animal was blamed for spreading SARS, which infected 8,000

people globally and killed 800. And more than half the people surveyed still

worried about the threat of diseases, hinting at one possible tactic in the

battle to cut sales of wildlife for the dining table.

 

" A 'causing a problem to you' approach (e.g. legal liability,

deteriorated living environment, hazardous to one's health) instead of a 'be

compassionate' approach could have a more immediate effect, " the report

said.

 

The demand for medicine could also be as destructive to natural

vegetation and habitats as the quest for food, in a country where

traditional medicine is widely used and has also yielded valuable compounds

for use in Western treatments.

 

The country's total exports of traditional medicine were also worth

$1.1bn last year. Catering to this market and the demand from an expanding

and increasingly wealthy domestic population is straining areas where wild

plants are gathered. Up to a fifth of medicinal plants and animals are now

considered endangered, Traffic said. But only about one third of China's

traditional medicine output is from wild plants, the rest are farmed -- most

with good practice.