Tigers for China scandal - note CITES response

[Guest guest]

>China envoy defends Plodprasop

>

>One article published here today, two others as background (taken from

>5tigers). This is of interest

>to those tracking illegal trade. - Nirmal

>

>Published on Mar 3, 2004 (The Nation)

>

>China’s ambassador to Bangkok yesterday defended Plodprasop Suraswadi over

>an allegation that the Thai bureaucrat might have broken laws in approving

>the shipments of 100 tigers to China.

>

>“The allegation against Plodprasop is unfair,” said Ambassador Yan Ting’

>Ai after he showed up at the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry.

>

>Plodprasop and Maitree Temsiriphong, chairman of Sri Racha Tiger Zoo Co

>Ltd that exported the Bengal tigers in 2002, accompanied Yan yesterday.

>

>Deputy Prime Minister Suwit Khunkitti has ordered an investigation into

>Plodprasop over the allegation. Currently the permanent secretary for

>Natural Resources and Environment, Plodprasop approved the tiger shipments

>when he was the Royal Forestry Department’s director general.

>

>Yan yesterday said the tiger shipments were part of a joint project

>between China and Thailand. He said China’s former prime minister, Zhu

>Rongji, floated the idea about a joint project during his visit to

>Thailand in 2001.

>

>“It has enhanced the relationship between the two countries,” he said.

>

>The ambassador dismissed rumours that the tigers were delivered for

>culinary or commercial purposes. “All of them are living well,” he said.

>

>Maitree said his company and the governor of Hainan in China jointly

>established Sanya Maitree Concept Co Ltd hoping to build the world’s

>biggest tiger-breeding centre in Hainan.

>

>Besides tigers from Thailand, he said tigers from Indonesia, Germany and

>the United States were also sent to China for the same purpose.

>

>“The tiger is the symbol of Asia and that’s why China has been interested

>in this animal,” Maitree said. Yan said admission fees to see the imported

>tigers at Hainan were nothing unusual, citing Thailand’s practice of

>collecting fees from visitors wishing to glimpse pandas on loan from China.

>

>Plodprasop said he has explained his innocence to the charges in letters

>to Suwit, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Prapat

>Panyachatraksa, and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s secretary Yongyuth

>Tiyaparat.

>

>“So far, I have not yet received any response,” Plodprasop said.

>

>The top bureaucrat said he had done nothing wrong and would definitely

>file libel suits against Bangkok Senator Siri Wangboonkerd after a

>fact-finding committee clears his name.

>

>Siri chairs the House subcommittee on protecting plant and animal species.

>After an investigation, his subcommittee concluded that Plodprasop might

>have violated laws when he approved the tiger shipments.

>

>Sirinart Sirisunthorn

>

>COPYRIGHT: Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 4, 2003

>HEADLINE: Thai tigers sent to breeding centre, not Chinese cooking pots

>DATELINE: Bangkok

>

>A Thai official has denied media reports that 100 tigers exported to China

>last year ended up as meat dishes in restaurants specialising in exotic

>food, news reports said Tuesday.

>

>Plodprasop Suraswadi, permanent secretary to the Natural Resources and

>Environment Ministry, was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying he had been

>reassured by China's deputy forestry chief, Meng Xialin, that the Thai

>tigers had not been eaten.

>

> " If the tigers were sent to a restaurant, it would reflect very badly on

>China, " Plodprasop said on Monday.

>

>Chinese media reports said the tigers were sent to restaurants

>specialising in unusual dishes rather than their intended destination, the

>Sanya breeding centre in China's southern province of Hainan.

>

>The reports reached Thai Environment Minister Praphat Panyachartrak, who

>requested clarification. The tigers were raised at the Si Racha Tiger Zoo,

>70 kilometres southeast of Bangkok, and sent to China in December.

>

>They are alive and well at the breeding centre, the Chinese official was

>quoted as saying.

>

>Tigers are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangers

>Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which prohibits their export and

>import for commercial purposes but allows the animals to be kept for

>breeding, research and protection

>

>A Hundred Tigers Exported

>from Thailand to China

>

>A Thai organisation has exported 100 tigers and 2,000 crocodiles to a

>theme park on China’s Hainan Island amid uproar following media reports

>that they were to be bred for meat for Chinese restaurants.

>

>An official from Sanya Maitree Concept Corp Ltd, the Sino-Thai joint

>venture which arranged the move, was quoted as saying: “We will build

>restaurants to let people taste crocodile meat, pharmacies for crocodile

>medicine and build leather processing centres. After we have bred tigers

>for a few years, we might have over 1,000 of them. Tourists are likely to

>eat tiger meat at Sanya”, the official said.

>

>But an official in Sanya city, home of the “Love World” theme park, where

>the tigers arrived, denied that they would be used for meat: “This is a

>totally baseless rumour. Selling tiger meat is illegal, and we would never

>do it.”

>

>The Shanghai Youth Daily said China would try to get U.N. approval to sell

>the tigers as meat. The reports brought a shower of angry calls from

>central government officials in Beijing demanding an explanation.

>

>Conservationists queried the legality of the shipment, which would require

>permits from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

>of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) authorities in Thailand and China because

>tigers are on Appendix I, which ban international trade for commercial

>purposes.

>

>John Sellar, CITES Enforcement Officer at the Secretariat in Geneva, said

>in reply to questions: “The Secretariat has consulted the CITES Management

>Authorities of China and Thailand regarding this trade in tigers. China

>has assured the Secretariat that the import was not for a primarily

>commercial purpose.

>

>The Secretariat is of the opinion, however, that the import of the tigers

>does not comply with the guidance on captive breeding that is contained in

>Resolution Conf. 5.10 (Definition of ‘primarily commercial purposes’). The

>Secretariat has also reminded both Management Authorities that

>international trade in specimens of Appendix-I species for commercial

>purposes should only involve specimens from captive breeding operations

>that are registered with the Secretariat”.

>

>Sellars said that determination regarding the matter was “solely a matter

>for China”.

>

>“The Management Authority says the purpose of the trade was captive

>breeding, which is why we have referred to Resolution Conf. 5.10, which

>contains very clear guidance on captive breeding. Resolutions are not

>binding upon Parties. With regard to the question, ‘what will the

>Secretariat do?’ ­ we have made our position clear regarding the guidance

>to Parties. We await a response from China and Thailand”.