Tiger breeders behind push to lift trade ban
HONG KONG/ HARBIN: At the Siberia Tiger Park in the frigid Chinese city of Harbin, visitors can learn about the facility’s successful breeding programme and buy chicken carcasses to toss to around 20 tigers pacing the snow flecked ground of their enclosure.
China has made significant strides in wildlife protection in recent years, including a total ban on ivory and plans to open one of the world’s largest reserves for wild tigers in northeast China in 2020.
But it also has formidable, profit-driven wildlife business interests that risk undermining progress on protecting the endangered big cats, conservationists say.
“The industry occupies a strategic position which concentrates in the country’s less developed regions where poverty reduction remains a top priority of the local authorities,” said Houston-based Peter Li, a China Policy Specialist at Humane Society International.
Operators of tiger-breeding farms have told state media that without the ability to sell bones, skins and meat they are not able to cover the costs of running their parks and key conservation plans endorsed by the national government.
After pressure from some breeders, China’s State Council said in October it would replace a 1993 ban on the trade of tiger bones and rhino horn, opening up exceptions under “special circumstances”, including medical research.
But in November, Beijing postponed the move following widespread protests from conservation groups who worry any resumption in the legal trade of tiger parts will be a death knell for the species by enabling the laundering of wild animal parts into farmed supplies.
Conservationists also argue that no captive Chinese bred tigers have been released into the wild and there is no scientific or medical need to use rhino horn and tiger bone in traditional Chinese medicine.
Still, lifting the ban is backed by China’s powerful State Forestry and Grassland Administration.
“If rhino horns and tiger bones can be used for medicinal purposes, and their use causes zero harm to the two endangered species in the wild, why should we oppose it?” Tang Xiaoping, an executive at the administration was quoted in the China Daily newspaper.