European MPs urged to help save wild tigers
Wednesday, 16 Apr 2008 13:09
There are about 3,000 tigers left in the wild, campaigners say
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European MPs are being urged to support tiger conservation measures today during the European parliament's first Tiger Day.
Campaigners say MEPs can play a vital role in saving the tiger, of which there are estimated to be 3,000 in the wild.
Tigers are under threat from poaching and trafficking but MEPs will be told that they could help to increase numbers of the animal to 10,000 in a decade.
MEPs are being encouraged to support India in efforts to curb poaching; to persuade the European Commission to provide additional funding to help save the tiger; and to urge China to enforce a 1993 ban on domestic and international trade in tiger parts for traditional medicine.
Campaigners also want Europe to encourage China to phase out its existing tiger farms.
"A few Chinese businessmen who invest in industrialised tiger farming are petitioning the government to lift a 15-year trade ban that has successfully reduced the market for tiger parts used in traditional Chinese medicine," said Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
"Overturning the trade ban would open the floodgate of consumption and stimulate more poaching of wild tigers."
Alasdair Cameron of the Environmental Investigation Agency added: "We need to tackle the demand by ensuring that China phases out its tiger farms and maintains its ban on the trade in tiger parts, while at the same time work to stem the supply through targeted, intelligence-led enforcement in India and other states where trafficking occurs.
"It is essential that all parties, including the European Parliament, do what they can to prevent the extinction of the wild tiger, and other Asian big cats."