A step in the right direction for the wild tiger

Progress has been made! Having delivered our www.bantigertrade.com petition by hand to the Chinese Embassy in London; news from the recent meeting of officials at the 62nd Meeting of the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) has meant putting pressure on governments to act NOW is incredibly relevant.

This recent CITES meeting produced an uproar when China rejected the call for the closure of tiger farms and asked for “evidence that tiger farms encourage poaching of wild tigers”. Although China banned the trade of tiger bone in 1993, the illegal trade continues and large-scale commercial breeding of tigers is booming with over 5,000 tigers in 20 farms in China.

The UK (representing the EU) and India pushed for countries to report on the phasing out of tiger farms and their stocks of tiger products. This was eagerly debated with the final decision agreeing that countries with intensive tiger breeding operations must report on the number of tigers and tiger farms. They must also declare the stockpiles of captive-bred or confiscated tiger parts and propose an action on how these will be secured or destroyed.

TigerTime hope that this decision is one small step for man, but one giant leap for the wild tiger.

Over 123,000 of you have now put your name to our petition where you have URGED the Chinese government to END the trade in tiger parts. What we want to see is a ban on ALL trade of ALL tiger parts from ANY source with a ZERO tolerance policy.

Please continue to help us put further pressure on governments to END the tiger trade and enforce this CITES ruling. Please share www.bantigertrade.com with all your family and friends.

People power is building and causing a stir – Let’s keep it growing! Thanks to your generous donations, we were able to fund undercover operations and send Debbie Banks (EIA) to the CITES convention to put pressure on the Chinese government. Please help us continue to keep these investigations and our tiger protection programmes running by donating here.

As ever, thank you for your continued support and generosity,

Chantelle Henderson
TigerTime Campaign Coordinator

Photo Credit: Belinda Wright