BBC News, Navin
Singh Khadka, Environment reporter, 11 July 2014
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| Worldwide efforts - including tagging - are underway to protect tigers being killed and sold for their body parts |
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China has
for the first time admitted that it permits trade in skins from captive tigers,
participants and officials at a meeting of an international convention to
protect endangered species have said.
They say
Chinese authorities had never before reported this.
"We
don't not ban trade in tiger skins but we do ban trade in tiger bones," a
participant at the meeting said.
Between
5,000 and 6,000 tigers are believed to be in captivity in China.
The
admission was made by a member of the Chinese delegation at a Convention of
International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) meeting in Geneva.
 |
| It is estimated that about 1,600 tigers - in captivity and in the wild - have been traded globally since 2000 |
 |
| Critics say that China's experiment in licensing the domestic trade in skins of captive tigers has done nothing to alleviate pressure on wild tigers |
Chinese
officials have not responded to a BBC request as to the details of the
statement.
Officials
say a major report - with graphic details on how the Chinese government allows
commercial trade in skins from captive tigers - was presented during the
meeting.
Wildlife
experts believe "tiger farming" in China has hugely fuelled demand
for poaching and trafficking of the endangered species from elsewhere.
They say
that the Chinese admission about the tiger skin trade will help pile pressure
on the government to eradicate the practice.
Reports
also say that facilities where captive tigers are held are "leaking tiger
parts and live animals" for illegal international trade.
"The
report presented in the meeting created a situation that required China to
respond," said one participant, who did not want to be named.
"Basically
when the meeting focused on the findings of this report, the Chinese delegate
intervened and it was then when this admission came.
"It
was the first time they admitted officially that this trade exists in
China."
It is
estimated that about 1,600 tigers - in captivity and in the wild - have been
traded globally since 2000.
Reports say
that in the past two years, there have been seizures of nearly 90 tigers likely
to have been sourced from, or trafficked though, captive facilities across
South East Asia and China.
While China
has been a major market for tiger parts, wildlife experts say that Vietnam,
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia are also emerging as
"tiger farming" countries.
Skins of
tigers, leopards and snow leopards are valued among the political, military and
business elite as luxury home decor in China.
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