FINALLY, there might be some good news out of the Chinese market for wildlife products.
Conservationists from around the world who attended a recent conference in Botswana are saying that although China is the world’s biggest market for illegal wildlife products, a fact driven by China’s huge and rapidly expanding consumer spending power, there are now cautious signs that public attitudes may be changing there.
A survey conducted by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) found that ignorance was one of the factors underpinning the demand, but that public awareness campaigns may be slowly making a cautious mark.
China is the biggest consumer of ivory in the world, for example, but it also fuels and leads the trade in rhino horn, tiger parts, shark fins and pangolins, among many other critically endangered species and products.
The conservationists are saying that whereas once the market was driven mainly by the traditional medicine trade, more and more is it about increasing calls for luxury items and just plain greed.
For example, bear bile and gall bladders were once used only in traditional medicines, but now they are increasingly being used in luxury cosmetics. There are thousands of bear farms in China.
The same goes for tiger bone. Once used only in traditional medicine, it is now increasingly being used as an additive to wine. There are also hundreds of tiger farms in China.
But back to that ignorance and the IFAW survey, which found that about 70 percent of people asked did not know that ivory could only come from dead elephants and over 80 percent of those said that had they known they would not have bought ivory.
It has been pointed out that there is a slight drop in the demand for ivory in China, as indeed there is in the demand for shark fins for traditional soup. Millions of sharks are killed every year just for their fins.
The Botswana conference was all about shifting the international focus on to policies other than pure anti-poaching activities, as important as these are and always will be.
New policies could concentrate on the final markets for the wildlife products being poached and doing something about those markets.
This is exactly what is happening with China. One conservationist said, ‘If there is no demand for these products then the markets are going to dry up and if the markets dry up, there is no need to poach.’ A noble thought and a most interesting one.
However, the conference also found that it is likely to take a generation or two to make any really significant impact on Chinese thinking. Meanwhile do species like the rhino have the time?
The conclusion is that while changing hearts and minds must become more and more of a priority, traditional law enforcement and anti-poaching programmes, particularly in Africa, will remain vital.
All very interesting and much food for thought. Cheers!
Source: savetheelephants.org News Service.
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