UN CITES TO REVISIT TIGERS IN GENEVA Jan 2016
Save Wild Tigers supports the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species’ 2007 agreement to phase out tiger breeding facilities and end the trade in tiger parts and derivatives.
Today in China and South East Asia, around 7,000 tigers are being bred in appalling conditions (often concrete cages) to fuel Chinese domestic market demand for tiger skins used as luxury home décor and tiger products like tiger bone wine (see Save Wild Tigers’ tiger bone wine film above).
With only 3,200 tigers left in the wild globally, and as little as a decade to save this iconic species from extinction in the wild, this ongoing lucrative trade in tigers is fuelling the illegal poaching of wild tigers and ultimately fast-tracking the extinction of the wild tiger.
As a result, in 2007 the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) agreed that tigers should not be bred for trade in the parts and derivatives, and that facilities breeding tigers for such purposes should be phased out. However, today, 7 years on, key countries with tiger farms (China, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam) have failed to fully implement this agreed mandate.
This week (w/c 11 Jan 2016) in Geneva, the UN CITES Standing Committee will reconvene where this appalling trade will be raised and debated once again. Save Wild Tigers urges the UN CITES Standing Committee to ensure that all member states immediately action the 2007 agreement and to impose penalties for failure to act. This is not the time to review agreed mandates from 2007, but rather the time to implement plans for the closing down of tiger farms and end all domestic and international trade in captive tiger parts and products.
The following measures should be actioned:
· Close tiger farms
· Amend laws to end tiger farming and trade
· Destroy stocks of tiger skins, parts and derivatives
Simon Clinton, founder of Save Wild Tigers, says, “The Clock is ticking fast and time is running out for the wild tiger. In a vicious cycle, the captive breeding of tigers in China and South East Asia fuels the domestic market for skins and products from wild tigers. Action is required now or it will be too late to prevent extinction of tigers in the wild.”
For more information, see the following links to reports from the Environmental Investigation Agency:
https://eia-international.org/report/caged-assets-tiger-farming-and-trade-2
https://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/EIA-Ending-Trade-in-Tiger-Parts-and-Products.pdf