Earning your own stripes

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Toby Sinclair <tobysinclair

Jun 30, 2009 11:10 AM

Debbie Banks (EIA) on farming tigers

nathistory-india

 

[image: BBC NEWS]

Earning their stripes

 

 

*VIEWPOINT *

Debbie Banks

 

*Next week in Geneva, a prime issue for a UN endangered species committee

called Cites will be illegal trade in wild tigers. In this week's Green

Room, Debbie Banks argues that a handful of businessmen want to reduce the

tigers to nothing more than a luxury commodity. *

“ *Business interests have continued to breed tigers speculating that the

ban would one day be lifted and that they would be sitting on a valuable

stockpile of body parts *”

 

 

" Bagh Bachao, Jungle Bachao, Bharat Bachao " is the rallying cry of NGOs and

activists across India, and they're right: Save the Tiger, Save the Forest,

Save India.

 

The future of the tiger and its jungle home are inextricably linked to the

survival of all of us, not just the people who live in tiger country.

 

The forests that are protected in the name of the tiger are vital to

mitigate climate change and to secure water resources.

 

The tiger is an indicator of the health of the ecosystem and thus a symbol

of good governance and political commitment to an equitable and sustainable

future.

 

It is also a cultural and religious icon, venerated, feared and revered by

communities across Asia and the world.

 

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has been investigating and

exposing the illegal trade in tigers and other Asian big cats for over 10

years. We have documented the changes in the markets and the increasing role

of organised criminal networks.

 

We have campaigned for more effective enforcement initiatives to disrupt

their operations, and know there is so much more that governments could do

if they wanted to.

 

*Hijacked conservation *

 

Looking to the future, it is essential to plug some of the gaps in

conservation strategies.

 

Many people living alongside tigers have yet to benefit from the millions of

tourist dollars that the " world's favourite animal " generates; but in India,

home to the largest remaining population of wild tigers, investment, policy

and practice are at least moving in the right direction.

 

The same cannot be said for other countries, where business interests are

hijacking the tiger conservation agenda, calling for the relaxation of trade

bans so they can flood the market with farmed tiger parts.

 

The logic behind such a move is that since tigers breed well in captivity,

farming them is an economical solution to satisfying demand whilst

alleviating pressure on wild populations.

 

It's a simplistic logic that rests on critical assumptions about the complex

nature and dynamics of the illegal trade in tigers and other Asian big cats.

 

 

Assumptions about the motivations of those involved in the

trade, the costs of the trade, the scale and type of consumer demand: all

plugged in to economic models and squirted out the other side as gospel.

 

What the followers of this faith have failed to acknowledge is that their

version of events does not hold true in the real world. The risk of

proceeding with this as an experiment is enormous, and the stake is no less

than the extinction of the wild tiger.

 

So who are these disciples and what is their motivation? There are tiger

farms in Thailand but by far the biggest ones are in China, where there are

reportedly around 5,000 animals in captivity.

 

Despite a 1993 ban prohibiting the sale and use of tigers in China, business

interests have continued to breed them, speculating that the ban would one

day be lifted and that they would be sitting on a valuable stockpile of body

parts.

 

*'Conflict of interest' *

 

Some argue that they want to sell tiger bone to save lives. Yet the Chinese

medicinal community has long since promoted alternatives to tiger bone,

which was never considered a life-saving ingredient in the first place.

 

Others just want to sell tiger bone wine. In fact, some businessmen are so

keen they have already been found in breach of Chinese law, illegally

selling the wine in tiger-shaped bottles and in one case, selling tiger

meat.

 

EIA and others have found tiger bone wine being marketed as a general tonic

and packaged as the gift that wins promotions and seals deals. Call it a

conflict of interest, but there has been no meaningful enforcement action by

the relevant authorities to stop this trade.

 

The very existence of these farms, and the persistent lobbying of the

business community, is a distraction which deflates and undermines real

tiger conservation efforts.

 

We're being asked to believe that those who have already dabbled in illegal

trade have a real interest in limiting their market, and that the

enforcement authorities who have failed to stop them so far will be able to

regulate a legal trade to prevent the laundering of poached tiger parts.

 

In June 2007, the international community spoke with one voice; it

declared that tigers should not be bred for any trade in their parts and

derivatives.

 

Delegates at the 14th meeting of the Conference of Parties to Cites voted by

consensus on a decision to phase out commercial tiger farms.

 

The move was championed by the governments of tiger range states such as

India, Nepal, Russia and Bhutan, all desperately appealing to the

international community to remove the farm threat once and for all.

 

Two years on however, those countries with tiger farms have failed to

provide any evidence of progress.

 

In fact, China's response to a notification from Cites seeking information

on what steps they have taken to fulfil the agreed decision was met with a

curt and derisive response that told us nothing. All eyes will be on China

once again during the Cites meeting in Geneva next week.

 

EIA firmly believes that if China is truly committed to saving the wild

tiger, it should close down the tiger farms and invest in more effective and

meaningful enforcement co-operation with range states.

 

Changes in attitudes and markets show that consumers are responsive to

targeted education and outreach, and indeed several markets in China have

declined dramatically in the last few years.

 

Now is not the time to abandon efforts but to reinvest, financially and

politically, in their continued success.

 

In so doing, we bring far greater benefits - not just to the survival of the

wild tiger, but also to other endangered species, to the fight against

corruption and organised crime and to a better world for all of us. Who

doesn't want that?

 

*Debbie Banks is a senior tiger investigator with the EIA. *

 

*The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics

running weekly on the BBC News website. *

 

*Do you agree with Debbie Banks? Is the international community

making headway into protection of endangered species in spite of a thriving

black market trade? Does farming of the animals ameliorate the pressure they

would otherwise face in the wild, or continue to feed a public appetite for

the animals dead, rather than alive? *

 

**

 

A weekly series of thought-provoking opinion pieces on environmental

topics

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/8124176.stm

 

Published: 2009/06/29 15:36:55 GMT

 

© BBC MMIX