Prism Webcast News

Tigers: Worth More Dead than Alive?

Friday, June 13, 2008
Posted in Environment Wildlife | Tagged Environment, Wildlife

Washington, D.C.— Of the nine tiger subspecies known to science, poaching, conflict, and competition with humans have driven three to extinction and three others to near extinction within the past 50 years. The estimated 4,000 tigers that remain in the wild continue to be worth more dead than alive as demand persists for tiger skin, bones, organs, and meat, according to the July/August 2008 issue of World Watch magazine.

In “Tigers: Worth More Dead than Alive,” author Elizabeth O’Neill explains that conservation efforts to date have posed little obstacle to the sophisticated organized-crime rings that drive tiger trafficking. “The worldwide illegal forest and wildlife products market is second only to the illegal trade in arms and drugs, and is no less difficult to tackle,” writes O’Neill.

These black-market products—rumored to have a wide range of uses, including anti-convulsive effects, improved sexual capacity, pain relief, and adornment and home décor—command high prices. Despite laws like China’s trade ban and the listing of the tiger in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), as well as recent efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the International Tiger Coalition, and the World Bank, all six remaining tiger subpopulations are in decline, and the animals now roam across only 7 percent of their original range.

“Preventing organized crime rings from driving tigers and other threatened species to extinction will require targeted, proactive, intelligence-led enforcement similar to that used by the professional enforcement community to combat arms and narcotics,” according to O’Neill. “This means stronger commitment from the likes of Interpol, Scotland Yard, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s special agents, as well as by all of the major range- and consuming states—including China and India, in particular.”

ALSO IN THE JULY/AUGUST ISSUE:

Green Building Goes Mainstream, by Erica Gies

A few of the many options for making buildings cleaner, safer, and more energy efficient.

Ocean Motion Power, by Elisabeth Jeffries

New technologies seek to tap the energy of waves and tides.

Interview: James Hansen

NASA’s top climate scientist put climate warming on the map 20 years ago. Here he talks with Worldwatch staff writer Ben Block about science, censorship, climate policy, and money in politics.

Essay: A Visit to the Living Earth Café, by Erik Assadourian

Book Review: Environmentalists Take on the Economy, by Christopher Flavin

Vital Signs: Wind Power Continues Rapid Rise, by Janet Sawin

Vital Signs: Despite Obstacles, Biofuels Continue Surge, by Joe Monfort

Plus: From Readers, Eye on Earth, Talking Pictures, and Life-Cycle Studies: Burials

MATTERS OF SCALE: (Space)Ship of Fuels

Estimated annual global spending on pet food……………………………………..$42 billion

Estimated annual value of wasted food, U.S. households………………………..$43 billion

(for more Matters of Scale, see the July/August issue of World Watch.)

— END —