One of the first questions I had about the Global Tiger Recovery Project (GTRP) was how they were going to accomplish their mission statement goal to (ii) eradicate poaching, smuggling, and illegal trade of tigers, their parts, and derivatives.
My thoughts were (in that post):
3) I am really curious how the GTRP plans to 'eradicate poaching, smuggling and illegal trade of tigers, their parts and derivatives'. The illegal wildlife trade -which includes the trafficking of illegal tiger parts- is a multi-billion dollar business worldwide.
Ongoing efforts by many governments to curb this trade cannot exactly be considered 'successful' by any means. So what 'model' will the GTRP use in order to achieve this goal? Or are they creating a 'new' model to 'eradicate poaching, smuggling and illegal trade' of this endangered species.
If they have created a new model -which in fact proves to be successful- this would be very good news for all the other endangered species which are the subject of 'poaching, smuggling and illegal trade.
In researching the question of how large the problem of 'illegal trade of tigers parts' was, I came across a 2011 report by the Brookings Institute called The Disappearing Act: The Illicit Trade in Wildlife in Asia.
In the report it states:
"In Southeast Asia alone, where the illegal trade in wildlife is estimated to be worth $8-10 billion per year, wildlife is harvested at many times the sustainable level, decimating ecosystems and driving species to extinction."
And also:
"Although demand markets for wildlife, including illegally traded wildlife are present throughout the world, China ranks as the world’s largest market for illegal trade in wildlife, and wildlife products, followed by the United States."
It's curious how the United States could end up being the second largest market for 'illegal trade' in the world.
The report looks to be a fascinating (43 page) read.
And at the outset it does seem to re-enforce the question of how does the GTRP plan to (ii) eradicate poaching, smuggling, and illegal trade of tigers, their parts, and derivatives.
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For more information on endangered tigers go to www.TigersInCrisis.com
For more information on endangered species go to www.Bagheera.com
