Reduction of Tiger Skin Consumption in Tibet Final Report to Save the Tiger Fund, a special project of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Submitted by Conservation International March 29, 2007 Grantee: Conservation International Grant Number: 2005-0013-021 Project Title: Reduction of Tiger Skin Consumption in Tibet Grant Amount: $50,000 Awarded: July 31, 2005 Contact: Dr. Zhang Li (Aster), Senior Species Officer 011-86-62761034 Ext. 1061 lzhang@conservation.org.cn 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A disturbing trend in Tibetan communities is driving the illegal tiger and leopard skins trade. In recent years, Tibetans have been increasingly wearing traditional costumes at their local festivals that include tiger, leopard and otter skins. The minimal use of tiger and leopard skins on trims of clothing was once only found in eastern Tibet among a small fraction of the population, but has now become a fashionable practice among Tibetans from the Tibet Autonomous Region, western Sichuan, Qinghai, northwest Yunnan and southern Gansu provinces. In Lhasa and other towns in the Tibetan region, cat skins are openly sold in shops and the mass media is glamorizing Tibetans wearing wild animal furs in an effort to promote tourism to Tibetan areas. There actions in turn further driving up demand for skins in Tibetan areas of China. Image 1. Tibetan Ceremonial Costumes Using Tiger and Leopard Skins Nearly 200 tiger skins have been confiscated in China over the past 5 years, coinciding with a rise in wild tiger poaching in nature reserves in India, Nepal and Southeast Asian countries. Some experts now put the total number of individual tigers remaining in the wild at between 3,000 and 5,000 individuals. Through this project, which was generously funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Conservation International (CI) worked with Chinese NGO partners and government agencies to promote public awareness of the issues surrounding the tiger and leopard skin trade. CI is pleased to report that we have witnessed a reduction in the use and sale of tiger, leopard and other skins even within the short time frame that we have been monitoring. CI is one of the few environmental NGOs that has been working in this region, and our years of work have given us access to partner with local Tibetan NGOs who are keen to cooperate to reduce and one day eliminate this problem. CI also attempted to tackle this trade and consumption issue by increasing the capacity of local communities, NGOs and government agencies. The wildlife trade is an extremely complex issue; however, in this particular case, the source, transit routes and end markets are clear, and the Tibetan consumers, who are by nature religious and respectful of all 2
life, were found to be very amenable to stopping their consumption once they understood the repercussions of their use on wild populations and that purchasing such products was illegal. PROJECT ACHIEVEMENTS Create a Stakeholders Network for Long-Term Collaboration CI formed an alliance with international and local NGOs, community groups, and various government entities throughout the Tibetan region to tackle wildlife trade and consumption issues and coordinate including community engagement and training. A particularly successful workshop that brought together a variety of stakeholders was CI s Sacred Land Protection Workshop in Kangding, Sichuan Province in November 2005. More than 140 participants from government natural resource management departments, NGOs, researchers, religious leaders, cultural experts, and local Tibetan community leaders attended. Two workshop sessions which were organized with the Sichuan Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) office focused on wildlife trade and provided the first forum to openly discuss wildlife trade issue in the Tibetan region of China. Another one of our presentations provided information on laws governing the tiger/leopard skin trade. The lively discussions at the workshop served to greatly strengthen CI s strategy and influenced our communications efforts in the Tibetan regions. Another workshop was co-hosted by CI, WWF, and the Bridge Fund. The Tibetan Costumes Culture and Wildlife Conservation Seminar was held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in December 2005. The goal of the event was to ensure that organizations were taking a sensitive and sensible approach in our strategies to reduce wildlife consumption. The three sponsors brought together the top 20 Tibetan scholars and experts from the Tibet Autonomous Region, Sichuan, and Qinghai provinces, as well as the prestigious Tibet Research Center in Beijing to consult on Tibetan historical, cultural, and religious views of wildlife consumption and use. Image 2. Caravan Team Participants 3
CI also organized a four car caravan trip through three provinces from May 9 - June 6, 2006, to promote tiger and wildlife conservation in the Tibetan region. The caravan team included 18 representatives from the government which was primarily composed of staff from the CITES management authorities of Sichuan, Yunnan and the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR); NGOs including CI, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), and Snowland Great Rivers Environmental Association; and a reporter from the Xinhua News Agency. The caravan team covered a distance of 11,350 km and visited 25 counties throughout the three provinces. Throughout the trip, participants hosted lectures in schools and roundtable discussions with government officials, as well as various events to distribute materials on conservation and wildlife trade issues. In total, the team shared thousands of educational materials printed in both the Tibetan and Chinese languages. Equip Local Partners with Information and Capacity to Continue the Work In order to enable our local partners to continue work on the tiger/leopard skin trade and consumption issues and to ensure their efforts are truly sustainable, CI attempted to pass on knowledge, strategy setting skills, and management know-how through numerous seminars and workshops. In addition, during the last year, CI and local partner organizations conducted surveys of villages and markets in five provinces Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Tibet Autonomous Region to better understand the prevalence and reasons for animal skin use and determine baseline indicators for monitoring consumption and markets as well as how to address the trade issue. Qinghai Yushu Maqin Gansu Tongren Hezheng Zeku Xiahe Henan Maqu Luqu Ru egai Jiuzhaigou Songpan Sichuan Danba Tibet Mangkang Deqin Yunnan Litang Yajiang Kangding 4
Image 3. Survey area across 5 provinces and 21 counties conducted from September to November of 2005. Although our program hoped to conduct a consumer attitude survey on the use of tiger and leopard products, financial constraints resulted in our adapting this research into a smaller research project. Through community-based interviews and simple surveys that were designed to help evaluate the effectiveness of our public awareness activities in this region, we determined whether animal fur usage had in fact declined. This research was conducted in various communities throughout Sichuan Province. Comprehensive information from both activities will accompany this final report in a document entitled Reduction of Tiger Skin Consumption in the Tibetan Regions. In addition, all of the data compiled throughout the project period was consistently shared with relevant NGO partners and government agencies. Build Support for Reduction of Wildlife Trade and Consumption Issues Amongst Government Agencies and Other Influential Decision Makers CI supported local level NGOs and government agencies in building awareness and training them in trade monitoring techniques to promote relevant policy and standards to reduce and/or stop the tiger and leopard skin trade in China. Some of the specific activities to promote these efforts included: In November 2005, CI, WWF, and IFAW co-sponsored a workshop with CITES and customs offices to brief more than 40 participants on the status of the international trade in tiger/leopard skins and other illegal wildlife and discussed a joint strategy to combat the trade. CI co-sponsored a Greater Mekong Region Wildlife Trade Workshop, in Kunming and Yunnan province from July 4-6, 2006 with the CITES Management Authority of China and IFAW. The meeting included government representatives from China, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand and focused on how countries in the Mekong Sub-region could better collaborate to reduce illegal wildlife trade. Image 4. Kunming Trainings in 2006 In August 2006, CI met with Dr. Meng Xianlin, Deputy Director of China s CITES Management Authority (CNMA). Dr. Xianlin invited CI to sign an MOU with CITES CNMA to collaborate on various wildlife trade projects. CI and the CITES office is jointly developing a plan to implement trainings for customs officers on CITES regulations, and to build capacity for CITES implementation across southern China. CI provided wildlife enforcement training for airport staff and law enforcement officers at Kunming Airport in Yunnan Province in September 2006. Various experts instructed customs 5
officers from the Kunming Airport and other border checkpoints on the history of CITES, relevant CITES resolutions, China s wildlife protection laws, and newly issued legislation on the management of import and export of endangered fauna and flora. The training also featured several case studies and lessons learned from recent wildlife trade related confiscations. An exhibition booth and wildlife trade installation was set up inside the departure hall of Kunming Airport. On September 1, 2006, CI, Save the Tiger Fund, and other NGOs submitted a joint letter to China s premier, Wen Jiabao, and key governmental agencies including the State Forestry Administration, State Forest Police Administration, National People s Congress, and others to engage senior leadership on the tiger trade crisis. Unfortunately, there have been no further developments since the submission of this letter. At the moment it seems that there is an issue within the various agencies on which agency should take up this particular issue due to overlapping mandates. The second Tiger/Leopard Enforcement Training Workshop was hosted by the CITES office in November 2006 in Chengdu, Sichuan province. CI and TRAFFIC co-sponsored the training where enforcement officers from CITES, Forest Police, Customs, and Market Control attended. Dr. Aster Zhang, CI China s Wildlife Trade Senior Species Officer, and an enforcement and training consultant, Mr. Chun Li, conducted part of the training. Building Public Awareness in the Tibetan Regions Traditional Tibetan Buddhist beliefs espouse both a reverence for nature and stewardship of natural resources. CI s strategy focused on building public awareness to support these cultural values. Image 5. (Left) A poster in both Chinese and Tibetan citing the most commonly traded CITES species; (Right) a sticker in Tibetan that promotes the conservation of tigers. To inform the Tibetan communities about the various issues surrounding the tiger and leopard skin trade, CI produced 5,000 copies of brochures, posters, and stickers that featured endangered wildlife, including tigers and leopards. The posters were designed in consultation with renowned 6
scholars from Tibetan areas and disseminated to government officials, Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, and community residents. CI also produced 120,000 posters featuring the most commonly traded CITES species to distribute to law enforcement, other relevant officials and consumers along China s southern border. CI also took advantage of the July 1, 2006, opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which generated a great deal of local and international media attention to work with the Chinese Railway Transportation Ministry, State Environment Protection Administration, Lhasa Environment Protection Bureau, and other NGOs. This cooperative effort produced 300,000 copies of a Green Tourism Guide to educate tourists and encourage them to decrease their negative impact on the unique and fragile environment of the Tibetan Plateau. The tourism guide focuses on positive messages, emphasizing that tourists should not purchase any wildlife products, particularly products containing tiger, leopard, Tibetan Antelope, and other endangered species. With input from various NGOs, CI designed a 2007 calendar in Tibetan and Chinese languages to promote clothing and other products that do not use tiger/leopard skins. The calendars were produced and distributed in November 2006. CHALLENGES & CONCLUDING REMARKS Through dissemination of communication materials, interactions with various government agencies, data collection and surveys, cooperation with local media and fostering general collaboration between stakeholders, we find that our initiative has already had a significant impact on reducing both the trade and consumption of animal skins in the regions that the indigenous Tibetans inhabit. However, the groundwork that has been laid through increasing public awareness and knowledge within enforcement institutions must be nurtured through 7
continued awareness building activities and training opportunities for relevant government enforcement agencies. In addition, despite the success of our awareness work with certain Tibetan communities, a recent report by the Chinese Environmental Investigation Agency revealed that other non-tibetan consumers, such as tourists, continue to demand tiger skins. This was one of the reasons we will continue to engage China s senior leadership to address this issue. Although these efforts have not yet come to fruition, an alliance of conservation organizations intends to keep attempting to engage central leadership. Overall, to prevent the illegal wildlife trade, the participation of local communities is vital. Therefore we must continue to engage and involve local communities. Further publicizing relevant laws and statutes on illegal wildlife trade is also necessary, in conjunction with influencing local and central governments to execute laws more rigidly. Conservation organizations that are involved with the tiger and leopard trade should also continue to complement each other while working cooperatively. The continuation of scientific research and monitoring each others activities is also vital. In the meantime, CI hopes that these essential activities at both the grassroots and national levels will continue either through our partners or future CI projects. ATTACHMENT Final Progress Report Project Evaluation Form PARTNERS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS: Yunnan Province CITES Yunnan Kawagebo Culture Society Sichuan Province CITES Chengdu Danba County Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Bureau Yajiang City Forestry Bureau Snowland Cuckoo Muya Eco Culture Asosciation Yading Society Green Khampa Tibet Autonomous Region WWF Tibet CITES Tibet Autonomous Region Luobulin Monastery Institute Qinghai and Gansu Provinces Snowland Great Rivers Environmental Association 8