Report of the Tiger Task Force - PRS

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TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE DOTS ■Francisco found that shops continued to sellproducts made from wild animals. However, insteadof tiger bones the products contained leopard parts.The leopard is also an endangered animal and hasbeen covered under the same restrictions. In the NewYork area, 41 per cent of the shops surveyed soldtiger bones and seven per cent sold rhino hornproducts (also banned). The report concluded thatthe Rhino and Tiger Product Labeling Act, passed in1998 in the US to ban the trade in these products (andeven their labelling), was having a nominal effect.The report then asked for more education and publicawareness. 11Therefore, what is clear is that illegal tradecontinues. It is the key reason for tiger poaching inrange countries like India and Indonesia. It is alsoapparent that the strategy to label the trade illegal hasonly made it more difficult to detect and contain. Inother words, as yet, international action on thiscritical issue has failed.But strangely, instead of focusing on the need forincreased global action to stop illegal trade, the focusof the international NGOs, governments and agencieshas been on putting the blame on range countries likeIndia. They want India to invest more in guns,guards and enforcement, which will deal with theproblem. 12 While it is clear that India needs to domuch more to improve its enforcement at home, it isequally clear that whatever it does will be inadequateif the international community cannot find answersto the tiger part riddle.CITES on tiger tradeThe Convention on International Trade inEndangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)is the international agreement that regulates thistrade. Since the early 1990s, CITES has been seeking tocontrol persistent illegal trade in tiger parts andderivates. In 1994, at its 9 th Conference of Parties(CoP), a resolution was adopted to control this trade.When almost all countries complied and tiger tradewas made illegal, in 1997, at CoP 10, the partiesstrengthened this resolution to include specific stepsto address the decline in tiger populations andmandated its standing committee to undertakepolitical and technical missions to tiger range andconsumer countries to improve enforcement.In early 2000, the CITES political and technicalmission visited India, China and Japan. In the case ofIndia, the mission was scathing in its denouncementof the government’s programme for tigerconservation. The team recommended that not onlymust all parties to the convention “refrain fromproviding financial support for tiger conservation inIndia”, it also directed the secretariat to report to the45 th meeting of the standing committee on theprogress India had made on its recommendations.In the case of Japan, the team was morecircumspect. It asked the secretariat to assess theeffectiveness of the measures introduced by Japan tocontrol tiger trade.But in the case of China, the team wasingratiatingly polite. It praised China for itscommitment to tiger conservation and said “it wassatisfied that there is genuine commitment byChinese officials to tiger conservation”. It alsorecognised the economic and cultural sacrifice thatChina had made in not using its stockpiled or captivebredtiger products in traditional medicine. Whilethis is undoubtedly the case, what is interestingis that the same mission did not find India’sconservation programme, done at enormous personalsacrifice by the poorest, worthy of mention.As far as the issue of illegal trade was concerned,the team noted that Chinese officials were clearlybemused that their country should still be viewed asa consuming nation, and felt that it was “perfectlyunderstandable that China should feel somefrustration at the lack of appreciation of its efforts”.However, while it went out of its way to appeasethese sentiments, “it noted the continuingintelligence and evidence that China remains aprimary destination for tiger parts and derivates”.What should then be done was not clear. 13In 2001, the first meeting of the CITES TigerEnforcement Task Force was held in Delhi. Later in2002, the task force organised a training programmeon illicit wildlife trade issues at the National PoliceAcademy.At the CoP 12, held in Santiago, Chile in 2002, itwas agreed that the standing committee wouldcontinue to review progress on these issues. Thereview prepared by the CITES secretariat reported thatthe National Board for Wildlife, chaired by the primeminister, was taking measures to improve tigerconservation. It also continued to applaud China’scommitment to combating illegal trade. 14In 2004, at CoP 13 in Bangkok, the secretariat’sreport identified India and Nepal as particularlygood examples of countries where local communitieswere being encouraged to play a part in, and benefitfrom, the conservation of Asian big cats and theirhabitats. At the same time, it noted that conflictsbetween cats, and humans and livestock, were acommon problem range states reported. But illegaltrade, it noted, was still rampant in the region. 15The decision taken at CoP 13 was to direct thesecretariat to convene a special meeting of theenforcement task force “to examine the issue of illicittrade in Asian big cat skins with a view to facilitatingand improving the exchange of enforcementinformation and coordination of investigation”.But things turned nasty around this time. At theThe way ahead 53
■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FORCE REPORTCaptive tigersChina has an active tiger breeding programme. In2000, the CITES technical mission reported thatthere were 50 South China, 100 Bengal and Indo-China and 400 Siberian tigers in captivity. It wasnot clear what the country intended to do with thispopulation, given the ban on tiger products trade.Thailand has a similar programme. The Sriachatiger zoo has over 400 tigers, which the governmentsays has microchips implanted on them to improvedetection. But little is known about the exactnumbers of tigers being bred in captivity in thecountry and this is providing opportunities forillicit trade. An Environmental InvestigationAgency (EIA) report in early 2000 said that therewere probably 1,000 tigers in captivity in Thailand;its investigations found that these tigers weremaking their way into the market for illicitproducts.However, international NGOs are stronglyagainst any move to promote the captive breedingof tigers for commercial purposes; they say thatlegalisation of the trade will only serve toperpetuate a market demand. They also say that theworldwide demand for tiger parts in traditionalChinese medicine and a booming demand for skinsis simply too vast to be catered to by farming; it willbe more economical to kill tigers in the wild. Theaverage cost of raising one tiger to maturity innon-professional husbandry conditions is overUS $2,000, they point out. 20But the fact remains that these tigers remain incages. They are worthless because legal trade is notallowed. What, then, is their future? And what istheir contribution to the illegal trade?51 st meeting of the standing committee, held inBangkok in October 2004, the secretariat reportedthat it had not received any written evidence of theprogress to enact adequate legislation to protect wildspecies from Gambia or India. The committeeinstructed the secretariat to issue a notificationrecommending a suspension of commercial trade inspecimens of CITES-listed species with these twoparties; the notification was issued in December2004. 16 In March 2005, this notification waswithdrawn, based on the revised CITES legislationplan received from India, which consisted of India’sproposal to set up its own wildlife crime bureau,among other things. The CITES secretariat said it has“determined that India has shown good progress inthe adoption of legislation for implementing theconvention”. 17However, things did not end here. On April 12,2005 the secretary general of CITES wrote to the Indianprime minister seeking an urgent appointment todiscuss issues of concern and “how CITES and theinternational community can come to India’s aid”. Hesaid he was concerned that a specialised wildlifecrime unit had not yet been established andthat Jammu and Kashmir continued to engage inprocessing shahtoosh wool. He went on to say thatthe fall in tiger population would be a strikingindictment upon all conservation efforts: “CITES is notwilling for such a charge to be laid against it”. 18Armed with this letter, the US governmentsubmitted a proposal to the 53 rd meeting of thestanding committee, held in June 2005, which askedfor strengthened efforts to halt the illegal trade. TheUS government wanted the secretary general to give areport on his request to the Indian prime ministerand if the meeting had not occurred, “a request toconvene the meeting at the earliest convenience”. 19In the meeting, the Indian delegation managed tostall the move.But what is clear is that the global community,working through CITES, has being ineffective inchecking international trade in tiger parts. Theagreement, which has been established as a legalframework for the regulation and restriction of trade inspecies of wild animals and plants, has unfortunatelybecome extremely malleable to petty country politics.CITES has often been criticised because of itsdependence on trade measures. In this case, it is clearthat the ban on tiger parts, however essential, haspushed the trade underground and made it evenmore difficult to detect. It is clear that trade ishappening. It is also clear that the markets existoutside India — in China, Tibet and even in the US.It is important at this stage, when the Indian tigeris being hunted mercilessly, that we review theeffectiveness and role of global institutions like CITES.Global governance, which needs the cooperationof all, desperately needs institutional reform tomake it more effective and meaningful in thisinterdependent world.54 The way ahead
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THE REPORT OF THE TIGER TASK FORCEJ
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ContentsIntroductionExecutive summa
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04Action plan for changeKey recomme
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05References
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