(MM) Myanmar a gateway for wildlife trade to China: report

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Myanmar a gateway for wildlife trade to China: report

(AFP)

 

DOHA — Demand in China is stoking a black market in neighbouring Myanmar in

tiger-bone wine, leopard skins, bear bile and other products made from

endangered species, a report released on Tuesday said.

 

" China's border areas have long been considered a hotbed for illegal trade, with

remote locations often making surveillance difficult in sparsely populated

areas, " Xu Hongfa, top China investigator for environmental group TRAFFIC, said

in the report.

 

Enforcement efforts within China appear to have curtailed the open sale of many

animal parts and products taken from species banned under the Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), he said.

 

Market surveys in 18 Western Chinese cities in 2008 found only two sites where

tiger and snow leopard skins were on sale, far less than in previous years, said

Xu.

 

But transactions may have simply moved underground and onto the Internet, and

Myanmar has emerged as a fast-growing supply node.

 

" There is clearly ongoing demand for leopard and tiger products, but the trade

appears to be becoming less visible year-on-year, " Xu said.

 

" The current trade is more covert, organised and insidious, making it harder to

detect and crack down on. "

 

TRAFFIC said that in December 2008, its investigators checked three markets on

the Chinese side of the border in Yunnan Province, and one in Mongla, a town in

Special Region 4 of Myanmar's Eastern Shan state.

 

Markets on the Chinese side were legal, but one and a half kilometres (a mile)

across the border they found a grim range of wildlife products sold by Chinese

merchants.

 

These included a clouded leopard skin, pieces of elephant skin, batches of bear

bile extracted from live animals, a dead silver pheasant, a monitor lizard and a

bear paw, which is considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.

 

Nearby, another shop specialised in " tiger-bone wine " costing 88 dollars (64

euros) for a small bottle.

 

The shop owner said buyers were mostly Chinese tourists, and customers could

order the supposedly health-boosting tonic by phone for delivery to Daluo, a

river-port town in China.

 

Like China, Myanmar also had national laws forbidding trade in endangered

species.

 

" But enforcement is non-existent in Special Region 4 as it is an autonomous

state... controlled by the National Democratic Alliance Army, " a rebel group,

said Xu Ling, the China programme officer for TRAFFIC, who did the survey.

 

The 175-member CITES, meeting in Qatar's capital Doha until March 25, will

review measures to boost enforcement of wildlife bans already in place, as well

as proposals to halt or limit commerce in species not yet covered by the

Convention

 

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Thank you for your compassion !

With best regards,

Debasis Chakrabarti

Compassionate Crusaders Trust

http://www.animalcrusaders.org