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Key Messages

What the world must understand about tiger trade.

The Problem

• Wild tigers are in crisis. There are perhaps less than 5,000 left in isolated pockets in Asia, and tigers have begun disappearing from parts of their last strongholds. This is due in large part to increasing trade in skins for use as clothing and décor, and persistent demand for tiger bone in traditional Asian medicines.
• International trade in tigers and their parts is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which 169 countries are party. CITES parties have taken the additional step of asking all countries to pass laws banning domestic trade in tigers and their parts. While many countries have passed such laws, they are often poorly enforced.
• Wild tigers cannot withstand even limited trade in their parts. If tiger range and consuming countries do not act decisively and in concert now, the species in the wild will be lost forever.

Why Tigers Matter

• Majestic symbols for many cultures, tigers are important because their survival in Asia's forests depends on the same clean water, clean air, natural flood controls and other forest resources vital to human welfare and development.
• Tigers are poised at the top of the food chain and, therefore, measure the health of entire ecosystems. Saving tigers will save entire landscapes of life as well as human livelihoods.

Solutions

• Poachers and smugglers are well financed and organized. Only an organized response will stop this organized crime.
• Save The Tiger Fund has launched the Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking (CATT) to catalyze action. With its partners, CATT aims to build, inform and support alliances among civil society, governments and consuming groups to stop the illegal trade that is killing the world's last wild tigers and destroying their priceless forest habitats.
• CATT is the only global partnership initiative focused exclusively on stopping trade in tigers and their parts. A united front on tiger trade will be the 'Trojan horse' that takes wildlife trade to the top of policy and law enforcement agendas.
• CATT will convene leaders from governments, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and social and religious institutions to take immediate action together, including:
  • Joint international law enforcement operations to stop tiger smugglers;
  • Securing habitats from poachers and closely monitoring wild tiger populations; and,
  • Enlisting local communities and tiger-user groups to stop demand for and use of tiger parts.
• Coordinated action to implement these measures can end trade in tiger parts.

Ominous Threats

• Although illegal in most countries, medicines made from tiger bone are still in demand to treat arthritis and other rheumatic pain.
• Tiger bone is not used to treat life-threatening illnesses, yet use of tiger bone in medicine threatens the very survival of all wild tigers.
• While traditional medicines have their place in the world?s pharmacopeias, this practice should not jeopardize the survival of wild tigers.

• Increasing wealth is prompting an increase in the use of tiger skins for ceremonial costumes in parts of Asia. However, recent research shows that use of tiger-skin costumes is an old custom for only a small group of people. Today many people are wearing skins, which is a recent development in exhibiting affluence and status. There is no connection in the minds of most wearers between tiger poaching and their clothing. Once the connection is made, most no longer wish to wear tiger skin.
• There also has been an increased trade in tiger skins to make wall hangings and rugs. The world cannot allow wild tigers to go extinct so that people can decorate their homes and offices.

• Breeding of tigers to save their genetic integrity is the job of legitimate zoos. Farming of tigers to supply trade in skins and bones will only hasten the extinction of wild tigers.
• Trade of tiger parts from any source will be fatal to the last remaining wild tigers. Because bones from farmed tigers cannot be distinguished from bones of wild tigers, bones from poached tigers could easily be sold as farmed bones. Even limited legal trade will confuse consumers and expand opportunities for illegal trade.
• A stable, legal source of bones, skins and other parts from captive tigers would not eliminate poaching but instead would increase it. Experience has shown that parts from wild animals are preferred and, therefore, yield premium pricing that motivates poachers and smugglers.
• Production farming for tigers would be a step backward in wildlife conservation. Once tiger habitat is gone, it will be costly if not impossible to restore. Furthermore, tigers fed by humans are inclined to continue to seek food from humans, leading to grave danger for humans and tigers alike. True tiger conservation requires saving not just tigers, but the complex web of plant and animal life in the tiger's habitats.