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September 26, 2005

Tigers In Trouble

Remember what I said about the international agreement that protects endangered plants and wildlife (CITES)? Their policies are enforced by the individual countries that have signed the agreement. So right now, there's a problem.

Despite being on the critically endangered listings, tigers are being poached in India and then sold openly in the markets of China. However, investigators have found that the animals are coming from India - from wildlife refuges like the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan. Earlier this year, the entire tiger population of Sariska was found to be gone, just gone. According to the Wildlife Protection Society of India, they have recovered 83 tiger skins from poachers so far in the investigation of tiger poaching and sales. Now consider that tiger populations worldwide are in the hundreds or low thousands, depending on the subspecies. Below is a shortened account of wild tiger populations from Wikipedia:

The Bengal Tiger - Approximate 800 tigers are living in Sundarban area, also can be found in Nepal and Bhutan.

Indochinese Tiger - Estimates vary between 1,200 to 1,800.

The Sumatran Tiger - The wild population estimated between 400 and 500

The Siberian Tiger - There are less than 400 of these tigers in the wild, and many populations are likely to no longer be genetically viable, subject to potentially catastrophic inbreeding.

The South China Tiger - The last known wild South Chinese tiger was shot and killed in 1994, and no live tigers have been seen in their natural habitat for the last 20 years.

The Javan Tiger - The last specimen was sighted in 1979.

The Caspian Tiger - The last reliable sighting in 1968.

The Balinese Tiger - The last was killed in 1937.

More at: Wikipedia: Tigers

Now, back to that whole policing concept: Both India and China are members of CITES. In theory, they are supposed to handle the poaching problem with local enforcement officials. However, it looks like India has not been funding such initiatives adequately and poaching is a huge problem that has been left virtually unchecked.

Of Rs 1.2 crore sanctioned by Project Tiger this year, only Rs 20 lakh has been used. The forest department can’t access more unless the state government also releases an equal amount of funds. They have only five guns, two revolvers, three jeeps and four motorcyles to patrol this forest.

More at: Have you seen a tiger at Sariska since June? If yes, you’re the only one

Likewise, this isn't the first endangered species to show up on the Chinese and Tibetan markets. Traditional Chinese medicinal (TCM) ingredients are often comprised of animals considered endangered or threatened. Unfortunately, you may notice a bit of a pattern in some of the most popular medicinal qualities these endangered species share - they're often used as sex enhancers. This use likely makes it especially difficult to track and deal with - there's a lot of money there and people are not likely to admit usage.

Some Traditional "Cures"
Tigers: Impotence, arthritis, muscular atrophy
Rhinos: Aphrodisiac, Fever
Sharks: Anti-cancer, Poison cure, Sore throat, and just about every other ailment known

Other endangered animals sometimes used in TCM include many types of endangered bears, seals, turtles and leopards.

So perhaps you think this is Asia's problem. Well, the United States is also a big consumer. Remember that the smuggling of wildlife is a trade second only to drugs in the United States.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service import statistics show that between 1985 and 1992, nearly 2 million medicinal items containing wildlife parts or derivatives were known to be imported into the United States. Of these, thirty percent contained or purported to contain endangered or protected species, and were either confiscated or forfeited to the government...

In addition to possibly containing protected species, most of these medicines have not been approved for sale by the FDA. As a result of these and other restrictions, many medicines are not properly declared upon import to the United States and are instead smuggled into the country.

More at: Traditional Chinese Medicine Trade

Another very interesting site on the traffiking of endangered species is traffic.org, a CITES affiliate program whose mission is to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature.

If you're traveling out of the United States, you might want to check out the Buyer Beware Brochure.

Update!

The well-respected magazine Nature recently ran a column called Viagra helps out endangered species, which discussed how some people are switching from traditional Chinese-medicine based on animal products to standard pharmaceuticals. Unfortunately, animal parts like rhino horn are still used in other traditional medicines, but this is still good news since the "sex drug" market is the toughest one to crack, in my opinion.

Posted by sorsha at September 26, 2005 12:27 PM