With less than an estimated 3,500 tigers still alive in the wild, a summit of thirteen nations recently met in Thailand for the first Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation to discuss how to save the dwindling tiger population. Tigers are under threat due to habitat erosion and illegal poaching to supply tiger body parts for Asian medicines.
An important step forward in tiger preservation efforts came from the World Bank when they unequivocally stated that Asian nations must shut down privately run tiger farms as they are inhumane and fuel the illegal trade in tiger parts.
Currently, China is home to the majority of the world’s tiger farms where tigers are reared in captivity to supply parts for traditional Chinese medicines. Tiger farming also exist in Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.
Tiger farms are often cited as a means to eliminate wild tiger poaching while still meeting the demand for tiger parts used in traditional Asian medicines. However, conservation groups strongly and unanimously disagree.
“Tiger farms were established and are managed primarily for commercial trade, not conservation, driven by profit from the sales of tiger-bone wine and skins. At present, all commercial trade in tigers and their products is illegal. But as long as there are tiger farms that promise a future reopening of tiger trade, the ban cannot be effective,” explains the End Tiger Trade alliance, a collation of more than 100 organizations.
“Poaching will always be too cost-competitive an option to ignore: consider the price of a bullet, trap or poison to kill a wild tiger against an estimated US$4,000 to US$10,000 (€2,885 to €7,200) to raise a farmed tiger to maturity.”
Representatives from the Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation have pledged to double wild tiger population figures by 2022.
Visit: http://www.amc-tiger.com/ and http://www.endtigertrade.org/
written by Tina , January 30, 2010
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written by naus3a , January 30, 2010