Saturday, May 2, 2009

Poaching expert studies roaring trade
in illegal tiger products

Wildlife economist Brendan Moyle has been on a secret mission to explode myths about the illegal trade of tiger products in China.

He has been working covertly in border regions and has gained access to arrest and interception data that is helping him build up a model of the black market.

The College of Business lecturer has made three visits to China and he hopes his work will help find a solution to a problem that has put the species in jeopardy.

Tiger bones are highly prized by Chinese people for perceived medicinal qualities and a whole tiger can fetch up to 340,000 yuan (about $NZ90,000). There are only an estimated 4000 wild tigers left in the world.

Dr Moyle, a senior lecturer in economics in the Department of Commerce, has interviewed rangers and local people to learn how the black market operates. His paper detailing the research has been published in the criminology journal Global Crime.

Dr Moyle, who has two zoology degrees, says there are many misconceptions about the trade of tiger parts, which leads to a confused picture. “You cannot fight the black market unless you know how it operates,” he says. “The fact that no-one has looked at this in China is very surprising – we need to look at what drives demand.

“Conservationists are failing to get to grips with the market drivers. The issue is about markets, not about zoology. This is the way to save the species.

"The markets are geographically separate with different product mixes and subspecies. The research shows that within China the conspiracies are very small and secretive, which is at odds with their structure outside China. And there is no standard way smuggling occurs –- truck, train, boat plane."

He says the market for fakes has been confused with the market for real tiger parts by other researchers and the availability of tiger products is misunderstood. “Fakes are widely available, real stuff is not."

He says it is a myth that tiger bone is marketed through traditional Chinese medicine shops. His research indicates it is driven by small conspiracies operating outside formal markets.

Dr Moyle says it is clear the ban imposed by the Chinese authorities, with a death penalty for anyone caught in the illegal trade of tigers, is not sufficient to stop smuggling. “If you are a lonely hunter in Burma and someone offers you $US1500 – a hundred times your annual income – to shoot a tiger, you would find it hard to resist.

“The poachers are from hunting cultures in range states and they resent government restrictions on hunting. The black market operates on networks that started long before the ban. Neither has the ban reduced demand, the high prices show that demand has been sustained while supply has been constrained.”

Detecting poachers in reserves is difficult because of terrain, corruption and lack of resources. Most of the smugglers’ costs are not in the procurement side but on the distribution side and avoiding detection. “It is very difficult to operate and tigers are caught to order.”

But shrinking world population of wild tigers means each is increasingly precious.

“The use of tiger farms is a controversial proposal,” he says. “The potential benefit is that it may cause some consumers to leave the black market and switch to the legally sourced bone.

“Conservation policy towards tigers remains poorly informed because knowledge of the black market is incomplete. We need to better understand this complex market to find solutions.”

ends

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