Wildlife On The Butcher’s Block: The Mekong Tiger Trade Trail 5 March, 2020 Wildlife ©tigersintheforest.co.uk ©EIAimage We would like to thank ABOUT EIA EIA UK Above: As indicators of the CONTENTS 62-63 Upper Street, health of the ecosystem Ximporae.EIA would Utlike aut to fugitisthank restithe ut atia We investigate and campaign against they live in, the forests that London N1 0NY UK secure water for millions of Introduction 4 nobitfollowing ium foralici their bla conesupport consequam for environmental crime and abuse. T: +44 (0) 20 7354 7960 people and mitigate climate cusresearch aci oditaquates and analysis dolorem on the volla tiger change, tigers are a symbol of Fighting extinction 5 Our undercover investigations E: [email protected] good governance. 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We work to Front cover: butchered tiger molor sin net fugitatur, qui int que Washington DC 20009 USA Laos 14 by the UK Government through safeguard global marine ecosystems offered for sale by Vietnamese nihic tem asped quei oditaquates T: +1 202 483 6621 traders on social media the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge by addressing the threats posed Vietnam 18 dolorem volla vendam, consuo molor E: [email protected] Fund, the EIA, Education for Nature by plastic pollution, bycatch sin net fugitatur, qui int que nihic eia-global.org China 20 Vietnam (ENV) and Wildlife Friends and commercial exploitation of tem asped que n nes ape verrovid Foundation Thailand (WFFT) have whales, dolphins and porpoises. Recommendations 24 maximolorera doles magni tet ea Environmental Investigation Agency been mapping and documenting Finally, we reduce the impact of voluptas enis as de evel ipsam (UK) Ltd. Company Number: 7752350 Appendix I 25 tiger farming and trade and briefing climate change by campaigning dolendit, voluptam endusci psunto VAT Number: 440569842. Registered law enforcement agencies. to eliminate powerful refrigerant Appendix II 26 quibusandit, sitaque enture inEnvironmental England and Investigation Wales Agency UK greenhouse gases, exposing related UK Charity Number: 1182208 Appendix III 26 illicit trade and improving energy Company Number: 07752350 efficiency in the cooling sector. References 28 Registered in England and Wales 2 Environmental Investigation Agency ON THE BUTCHER’S BLOCK 3 Introduction There is no escaping the fact that countries from which wild tigers have been wiped out or virtually wiped out in recent years – Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and China – are countries where the tiger has been valued solely for the sum of its body parts. Yet no-one’s survival is dependent on At present, despite repeated calls from tiger meat as a source of protein or their the international community for ‘tiger- body parts for medicine, trinkets and farming‘ countries to end the practice, ornamentation. There is no world in which licensed businesses and criminal lethal consumption of tigers, whether enterprises in China, Laos, Vietnam and of wild or captive-bred specimens, is Thailand continue to churn out tigers. essential to meet sustainable development These animals serve no conservation ©Kings Roman Group brochure goals or to combat the biodiversity and purpose. Whether they die of natural climate crisis. causes or are slaughtered, their skins, bones, teeth and claws are being traded There is no business or industry so critical for profit, perpetuating the desirability Background Above: to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of and acceptability of tiger and other big Tiger bone wine is made any nation which justifies the keeping cat parts and products. This culture of by soaking the skeleton in commodification has pervaded legislation a tank of wine with other and breeding of tigers so their skins can ingredients. Often purchased be sold as home décor, their bones used to and policy, facilitating the expansion of Fighting extinction as a prestigious gift or non- make non-essential tonics and medicine, captive tiger facilities, many of which financial bribe. their teeth and claws for jewellery and masquerade as “zoos”. Trade in parts of There are about 4,0001 tigers remaining their meat served to satisfy ego. captive tigers stimulates demand instead of eliminating it, undermines enforcement in the wild and poaching is a primary and If the world wants to save the wild tiger, efforts and threatens the survival of wild 2 we must learn lessons from countries tigers. immediate threat to their survival . Just in the such as India and Nepal where tiger past 10 years, the wild tiger has been wiped populations are surviving, breeding and The primary consumers are Chinese, showing signs of recovery; where there so the Government of China has a out of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, while the are strong laws against possession, trade chance to bring transformative change. population has been decimated by poachers in and use, and where tigers are valued With the spotlight on China as host more alive and in the wild. There is to the forthcoming 15th meeting of Malaysia and Myanmar. the Conference of Parties to the UN knowledge, experience and good practice that can be learned from communities, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), This follows a lack of investment, Seizure data provides some insights into NGOs, academics and officials. There the Government has an opportunity to implementation and enforcement by the nature and dynamics of the trade, are challenges across South Asia too, no send a message that a sustainable future the leaders of Tiger Range Countries indicating that since 2000 a minimum doubt, but with a culture and philosophy of for humanity does not include killing the (TRCs), despite commitments made at of 2,3595 tigers have been seized in trade. protection as the foundation, there is hope. world’s most magnificent cat for luxury use, an act that is the very antithesis the International Tiger Forum, hosted by Available seizure data represents just a of “people and nature” or an “ecological Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2010. fraction of the contraband on the move, civilisation”. China’s wild tiger population remains however. An enriched picture of the trade perilously close to extinction and in draws on observations of trade in the Thailand they are clinging on in parts of physical and digital marketplaces, often their range. Even in the strongholds of indicating an absence of enforcement in south Asia, particularly India, home to persistent trade hubs such as Sanjiang more than 60 per cent of the world’s wild area of Vientiane in Laos, Nghe An tigers, there is no room for complacency Province of Vietnam, Mong La in as analysis of poaching and trafficking Myanmar, and Shigatse and Lhasa in data reflects a series of peaks and troughs the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. in detected tiger crime since 2000.3,4 A wealth of insights into the nature, dynamics and scale of the trade is also obtained from individuals involved in trading wild and captive-sourced tigers and other illegal wildlife. 4 Environmental Investigation Agency ON THE BUTCHER’S BLOCK 5 International trade in tiger parts and products At CITES CoP17 in 2016, Parties decided that has been prohibited under the Convention on a series of missions should be conducted to International Trade in Endangered Species countries with captive Asian big cat facilities (CITES) since 1973 when tigers were added to of concern and that the CITES Standing Appendix I (with the exception of the Siberian Committee would subsequently consider tiger, added in 1987). Consecutive iterations further time-bound, country-specific measures. of a Resolution on Tigers (and other Asian Big Despite the urgent situation facing tigers, these Cats) have called upon Parties to voluntarily missions did not take place, in part due to prohibit internal trade and eliminate demand, funding and the CITES Secretariat’s workload. culminating in more direct language to close At CITES CoP18 in 2019, the decisions were re- domestic markets at the 18th Conference of the adopted. Parties (CoP) to CITES in 2019. At the time of writing, the CITES Secretariat At the 14th CoP In 2007, Parties recognised intends, subject to funding, to conclude the the threat posed by tiger farming and adopted Missions in time to report to the 73rd meeting Decision 14.69, declaring that tigers should not of the CITES Standing Committee in October be bred for trade in their parts and derivatives6 2020 (SC73). and that commercial breeding operations should be phased out. The Parties very The various CITES Resolutions and Decisions specifically voted for this Decision to apply to since 1994 also call for, inter alia, more effective domestic as well as international trade. enforcement cooperation8. This includes the sharing of images of seized tiger skins with Offending Parties, in particular Thailand, Parties which have tiger stripe pattern profile Laos, Vietnam and China have failed to databases from camera-trap images of wild implement the 2007 Decision. On the contrary, tigers and/or captive tigers. The purpose is to the business of farming tigers has grown and facilitate law enforcement investigations and there are now more than 8,000 captive tigers the process involves relevant law enforcement ©EIAimage in 306 facilities7 throughout the four countries. agencies taking high resolution photographs of Witnessing how operations in these key tiger skins from above.