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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 31 OctOber 2018

China reverses ban on trade

in tiger, rhino products

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN rhinos, but added that the and tacitly allows their
Associated Press central government "urged sale for alleged medicinal
BEIJING (AP) — China says governments at all levels to purposes, according to a
it will allow trading in prod- improve publicity activities study by the Environmen-
ucts made from endan- for protecting rhinos and tal Investigation Agency, a
gered tigers and rhinos un- tigers to help the public British nonprofit.
der "special circumstanc- actively boycott any illegal Operators are also be-
es," reversing a previous purchases." lieved to be investigating
ban and bringing condem- The World Wildlife Fund said the possibility of farming
nation from conservation the move to overturn the rhinos in the country, al-
groups. ban would have "devas- though, unlike tigers, those
A notice from the Cabinet tating consequences glob- are not native to China.
issued Monday avoided ally" by allowing poachers The EIA called the overturn-
mentioning any change in and smugglers to hide be- ing of the ban a "brazen
the law, saying instead that hind legalized trade. and regressive move which
it would "control" the trade "With wild tiger and rhino drastically undermines in-
and that rhino horns and populations at such low ternational efforts for tiger
tiger bones could only be levels and facing numer- and rhino conservation."
obtained from farmed ani- ous threats, legalized trade "At a single stroke, China
mals for use in "medical re- in their parts is simply too has shattered its reputa-
search or in healing.""Under great a gamble for China tion as a growing leader in
the special circumstances, to take," Margaret Kinnaird, conservation following its
regulation on the sales WWF wildlife practice lead- domestic ban on the sale
and use of these products er, was quoted as saying of ivory at the start of the In this May 7, 2009, file photo, a Siberian tiger crouches on top
will be strengthened, and in a statement from the year," the group said. of a tourist bus at a branch of Harbin Siberian Tigers Breeding
any related actions will be Washington-based organi- An estimated 3,890 tigers Center in Shenyang in northeast China's Liaoning province.
authorized, and the trade zation. remain alive in the wild, Associated Press
volume will be strictly con- "This decision seems to con- according to a report pre-
trolled," the statement said. tradict the leadership Chi- sented during the Third Asia for imperiled rhinos and ti- "It sets up what is essentially
Tiger bone and rhino horn na has shown recently in Ministerial Conference on gers in the wild who already a laundering scheme for il-
are used in traditional Chi- tackling the illegal wildlife Tiger Conservation in 2016. face myriad threats to their legal tiger bone and rhino
nese medicine, despite a trade," Kinnaird said. Thousands of tigers are also survival," Iris Ho, the group's horn to enter the market-
lack of evidence of their ef- Foreign Ministry spokesman believed to have been senior specialist for wildlife place and further perpetu-
fectiveness in treating illness Lu Kang said protecting en- bred on Chinese farms program and policy, was ate the demand for these
and the effect on wild pop- dangered species is China's where conditions for the quoted as saying in a state- animal parts," Ho said.q
ulations. Chinese demand "consistent position" and animals are often criticized ment.
for ivory is also blamed as that the changes aimed to as dire.
a driver behind the slaugh- fill gaps in previous regula- Studies put the population
ter of African elephants, tions while providing for of wild rhinos at less than
despite Beijing banning all beefed-up enforcement. 30,000, while poaching is
trade in ivory starting from "I've noticed the concerns reducing that number dras-
this year. of the relevant parties tically each year.
No reason was given for about this and we are will- Humane Society Interna-
the lifting of the ban, which ing to step-up exchanges tional also criticized China's
was implemented in 1993 with other countries in this move, saying that "the
amid a global push to pro- aspect," Lu told reporters at trade it engenders will in-
tect fast-disappearing en- a daily briefing. evitably increase pressure
dangered species. Despite the former ban, on animals in the wild."
The statement also said China has long allowed ti- "With this announcement,
nothing about regulating ger farms, which harvest the Chinese government
the farming of tigers and the bones of dead animals, has signed a death warrant