The Chinese government has announced that they are overturning a 25-year-long ban on the trade of rhino and tiger parts. The ban allows for animal products to be bought and sold if the products are for research or medical purposes and if they come from farmed animals or are antiques. Due to the species’ threatened natures, this is alarming to conservationists.
Recently, the illegal international wildlife trade has been on the rise, partially because of the rise of a new middle class in China and southeast Asia. This has caused surges in poaching of many animals, including rhinos and tigers. Tiger farms have begun to open in China to satisfy this desire, and many non-governmental organizations believe that influence from these groups alongside the traditional medicine lobby has led to the repealing of the ban.
Though the Chinese government claims it will crack down harder on illegal wildlife parts as a result of legalization, many conservationists are skeptical. Groups such as the World Wildlife Fund believe legalization will only fuel demand on the black market, as it is already difficult and expensive to track individual animal parts. China’s current farms and reserves are estimated to not have enough tiger parts to meet demand.
Not all conservationists have the same view. Abdelwahab Sinnary, former professor of wildlife management at the School for Field Studies, and current director of St. Lawrence’s Kenya Semester Program says, “I think trade would help if it could be controlled. We’ve had [similar] situations in the past with crocodiles—they were going extinct because of conflict with humans, but crocodile farms saved them.” On the topic of price and desirability, Sinnary was quoted as saying “If you flood the market, the price of a rhino horn might go down in 5 to ten years.”
Of the five living rhinoceros species today, three—the Javan, the Black, and the Sumatran— are critically endangered. The Indian rhinoceros is currently listed as vulnerable. There are only two remaining members of the northern subspecies of White rhino, while the majority of the southern subspecies population lives on game ranches in South Africa.
All six surviving subspecies of tiger are listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Though the Black rhino and tiger populations are currently on the rise, poaching and hunting were key factors in driving these populations down in the first place.
In traditional Chinese medicine, both tiger bone and rhino horn are of immense value. Though no medical benefits have been proven in either substance, healers purport their benefits as cancer cures, virility enhancers, and pain relievers. Officially the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies does not recommend the use of either tiger or rhino products, but there is still a strong demand in the black market for these commodities.