(TH) Tiger-parts trade thriving

[Guest guest]

by WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok

South China Morning Post http://asia.scmp.com/ZZZ536WIWNC.html

 

Thai authorities are turning a blind eye to the rampant trade in

tiger products, an independent activist group claims.

 

A report by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)

said that despite a United Nations ban on the sale of tiger products, Thai

authorities were abetting a trade that threatens, in particular, the

endangered Indochina tiger.

 

" Any trade in tiger medicine or skins is bad because it encourages

poaching, " the EIA report read.

 

It claimed Thai officials' complacency rested on the incorrect

assumption that the trade involved mostly fake products, making action

pointless.

 

According to Debbie Banks, co-author of the EIA report, " Thailand's

Tiger Economy " , many tigers are being bred in captivity without the

intention of returning them to the wild.

 

" We were frankly shocked to find shops in [bangkok's] Chinatown

selling tiger products with 'Made in Thailand' stamped on the box, " she

said. " There is incredible complacency here. Thailand is alone in the

international community on this. "

 

The report noted that the world's tiger population had dropped by 95

per cent over the past 100 years and the number of sub-species had gone from

eight to five with rampant destruction of forests, inept conservation

efforts and blatant poaching.

 

The most recent Thai government survey in 1998 estimated there were

500-600 tigers left in the wild but even this appears to be a gross

overestimate. A more recent " camera-trap " study found evidence of only about

150.

 

Ms Banks said Bangkok's fairly open trade in tiger parts threatened

not only the Indochina tiger but fostered the demand for other animal parts.

 

Brightly coloured boxes of tiger bone, tiger compound, tiger pills and

tiger whisky are sold openly at shops in Bangkok's Chinatown and in the

famous Sri Racha Tiger Zoo outside the capital.

 

There also appears to be a growing international trade in tiger parts

from Thailand, with many seizures by Customs in Europe and North America in

recent years. The EIA report said there were a number of Thai-based

businesses producing tiger products both for the local and international

markets.

 

Unofficially there may be 1,000 tigers in captivity in Thailand, yet

in 1995 the Indochinese Tiger Masterplan for Thailand stated that there were

only 43 tigers in captivity in the country.

 

EIA investigators also found that live tiger cubs have been smuggled

up the Mekong River into China, the report said.

 

Staff at the Sri Racha Tiger Zoo told EIA investigators that 300 cubs

were born every year, yet reports have cited an animal population at the

centre of between only 180 and 400. " The numbers don't add up, " Ms Banks

said.

 

The report also argued that from a conservation angle Thailand's tiger

farms have little value beyond a dubious educational one.

 

In Sri Racha visitors are encouraged to photograph tigers next to a

black couple dressed in fake tiger furs - even though tigers do not come

from Africa.

 

Meanwhile, the EIA is to ask a standing committee on the Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) - signed by Thailand 28

years ago - to send technical and political missions to Thailand to assess

the situation.

 

Even China - after floating the idea of selling tiger products from a

breeding centre in 1992 - subsequently backed away and emphatically banned

the trade.

 

" Tiger populations are very fragile but conservationists in India have

shown that if the will is there they can be saved, " Ms Banks said. " The Thai

authorities have yet to show that will. "

 

Thailand failed to send a representative to the first meeting of the

Cites tiger enforcement taskforce held in New Delhi in April.