dannee.co.uk

“Tiger Day” across the world!

2011-08-14T22:03:07Z

Tiger Day was celebrated across the world on the 29th of July.

Dawa, delegate of Bhutan, celebrates it here with high ranking officials of WWF Bhutan.

Vietnam delegates An and You celebrate it in style, by getting the kids to make some great tiger toys, masks and sets…

I wouldn’t have so many pictures, but all these activities were so damn cute!!

They also held a painting day at one of the schools:

The desperation of polar bears

2011-08-10T22:27:16Z

Oh no, I thought, as the headlines hit the UK: Polar bear kills young British adventurer in Norway.

The camp on Spitsbergen island were there to investigate the effects of climate change, when they ended up being attacked by the starkest sign of climate change they could possibly find.

I wondered how the general public would react to the news of this tragic incident.

For a long time, conservation organizations have spent a lot of time raising awareness of these animals in order to highlight the possibility of its extinction. Now, the same creature has ‘turned around’ and attacked. Would there be fury, I wondered? Would there be the usual comments that a man’s life is worth more than an animal’s, and that any sympathy for endangered animals and their cause should be spent on preserving the lives of humans instead? (Subjective nonsense that has no place in a world we wish to sustain and conserve…)

I was also worried how the media would go on to portray this. My hope was that the media would not portray polar bears and other desperate endangered animals as savage creatures who are encroaching on our rightful territory and dominion, and which need to be curbed and controlled.

Instead, I hoped that they would depict this news as a shocking reminder of the threat our planet is under, and the biocentric, equal-to-all-creatures view and approach we must take, now that we are self-appointed guardians of our planet.

There has been the usual media sensationalist approach, in the usual places. But thankfully, the vast majority of people have seen that we are intruders into a natural habitat where very little other humans live. I’m glad to hear this.

I believe the ‘RIP Svalbard Bear’ Facebook page, now taken down, has made conservationists look silly yet again. Perhaps a Facebook group demanding ‘Why were they allowed on the island in the first place?’ page would invite a more appropriate discussion, and would have been allowed to stay on the social media site. Instead, the media and anthropocentric commentors have launched this backlash, claiming the page has caused ‘outrage’ by insinuating that bears are more important than humans. I don’t believe this was the real reason behind the page’s creation. I do believe there should be healthy discussion of the safety of camping with polar bears and other wild animals, without any insinuation that one species is more important than another.

In my opinion? I simply disagree with the organization’s decision not to have an armed night guard or night flares, and to rely solely in the technology of some electric fence. As a result of this, we have lost both a young man and an animal on the brink of extinction as it is. I can only hope it creates more respect for the predators of the natural world, and not the ‘outrage’ that the media is determined to create in its daily readers.

Culling: Part 2 of Why Conservation’s Dirty Secrets is a farce

2011-10-28T17:28:03Z

Note: Through this blog post, I am merely supporting WWF-UK, and I am not a ‘voice’ of theirs in any way. I am merely aware that culling has been defined by them in the past as a last resort measure, and hunting, or ‘exploitation of the species’, can only be considered at sustainable population levels. WWF has not advocated this blog post prior to its publication.

In Dispatches: Conservation’s Dirty Little Secrets, the presenter examined how the overpopulation of elephants in Africa have led to the destruction of crops and of human-animal relations in Kenya. Despite finding out such facts, Steeds was gleefully shocked to find that, upon questioning WWF-UK on their process in such a situation, it was admitted that culling is sometimes the only solution. I’ve noticed a small uproar kicking up here and there on the internet. “CULLING??? What?? And WWF are supposed to be a conservation charity??! Well, as of this day I will withdraw all my support from conservation organisations! How can they be so hypocritcal?”

Stop a moment. Let’s look at WWF – its main goals are Sustainibility, Climate Change, and Conservation. All of these must work in a biocentric balance, working with both people and nature to improve conditions on our planet. So yes, I’m sorry, but sometimes, that does mean culling.

We have protected elephants for a long time. They’re no longer endangered, correct, but that doesn’t mean they’re out of the woods and that we can kill them off left right and center. The danger is that, if one elephant ruins crops in Kenya, the locals will be obviously angered, and a widescale hunting of elephants and backlash of conservation efforts will take place. But if there are too many elephants in that area, and one is culled to save human-animal relations, then this entire situation can be avoided.

WWF is NOT an animal rights group, fighting for the lives of every chicken and goat and, yes, even elephant out there. WWF is a conservation charity, which works to improve human and animal relations. If there are too many elephants in one part of Africa, and it’s threatening the entire biosystem as well as human relations with conservation, then culling is inevitable.

Example number 1: I was incredibly lucky this April to work with WWF Russia in their Moscow office, and edit this document for them ready for publishing: Trophy hunting of species inhabiting Russia as listed in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation.

It’s a bit of a mouthful, but it goes into more details on this procedure in Russia. Let’s look at the most important paragraph:

The position of WWF-Russia has always been and continues to remain unchanged. We are against commercial trophy hunting of rare species listed in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation, as such hunting contradicts the current legislation. At present, all of the species listed in theRed Data Book of the Russian Federation have been derived from trade (with some reservations). Should the population return to sustainable levels as a result of conservation efforts and natural restoration, the species can be removed from the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation. Only after that can consideration of the species’ exploitation, including trophy hunting, take place.

Basically: WWF does NOT support hunting of endangered animals under any circumstances. BUT, if said animals are returned to completely sustainable levels, then only then can their exploitation be discussed.

Example number 2: Whilst in Vladivostok last year with the Youth Tiger Summit team, visiting an area of conservation which has about six Siberian tigers on their territory, we were a little disconcerted to be told that the park’s main area of income was through hunting. They allow a few licenses per year, for hunting of such-and-such amount of deer, and perhaps one or two bears. On further consideration, however, this made perfect sense. Conservation needs its income, and this is found through the usage of large amounts of a certain animal for the benefit of others. Plus, in some situations, there cannot be too many of a certain type of animal, such as deer or – as we’ve learnt from Dispatches – elephants. It disrupts the ecosystem, as well as human-animal relations.

In a world where humans are essentially the guardians of nature, if we want to keep our planet sustainable then we need to keep the balance. Sometimes this means some tough decisions. I don’t support the death of an elephant or of a few deer in East Russia, but if it means that we have more elephants and lions and rhinos as a result, or one more tiger living on the brinks of Siberia, then sustainable conservation has been truly achieved.

Why Dispatches Conservation’s Dirty Little Secrets is a farce

2011-10-28T17:28:14Z

This week, I watched ‘Conservation’s Dirty Secrets’. Fronted by Oliver Steeds, who takes it upon himself to travel the world to discover the dark secrets behind what is dubbed the ‘conservation movement’ (as if it’s the latest fashion to sweep the nation).

There are many organizations out there that could be called into question in such a programme, most notably of which is the – what I consider the wonderful – Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who make it their duty to attempt to sink whaling ships out on the seas. What I found disturbing was that, instead, Steeds scratches the surface on several issues he has a concern with, not really covering any of them in great detail. As a result, he accidentally or purposefully links them all to being as bad as one another, leading many comments online to express their shock that WWF is linked to the eradication of tribes in Africa (which they most certainly are not!).

I’m fearful of shows like this, which portray conservation as one big collected movement which doesn’t understand what it’s doing, and therefore mis-educate people on how conservation really works. Steeds takes great glee in declaring conservation to be a capitalist regime which is more interested with its relations with big businesses than locals projects in the countries concerned. It fails to recognize the hundreds of locals projects worldwide, in probably every country in the world, which WWF organizes and funds. Big business is just one part of conservation, and a necessary part at that, but Steeds pounces on the opportunity to suggest that conservation organizations are doing everything wrong, and have no idea what they’re doing. Thanks for your opinion, Oliver. With your background of expertise in conservation (wait, what was that? None?), you’ll be sure to be of great assistance to conservation efforts worldwide.

The most laughable instance of this is Steeds’ treatment of WWF ‘adopt an animal’ schemes. Cue dark mysterious music and spotlights, and the slow, sinister cinematography work over a line of WWF’s range of cuddly toys. He claims that the cuddly toy ‘adopt an animal movement’ has pretty animals like pandas, tigers and leopards plastered across its websites, pleading for attention and funding, but refuses to talk about the ugly reptiles and amphibians, and hence these animals are neglected and unfunded. Um, no, sir.

Let’s look at how marketing for conservation organisations works for one quick minute. In a world today of mass, MASS media, and eye-catching adverts in every direction, conservation HAS to be marketed somehow. The question is, what is going to appeal to people to save their world? Unfortunately, what doesn’t appeal to people is ‘Let’s save these poisonous snakes and ugly reptiles from extinction across the world! Imagine our world without them!!!!’. Sorry, but that’s not the way our world today works.

Instead, we have to take an iconic animal, such as the tiger, the panda or the polar bear, and use that to raise awareness. One of the MAJOR factors that has made the Year of the Tiger, or 2 x Tiger, campaign so successful is the fact that WWF and other organisations reiterate time and time again that if we can save the tiger, we have saved its entire ecosystem, from the trees, to the forests, to – yup, you guessed it. All its little reptiles and amphibians.

Unfortunately, those animals just don’t market like a tiger does. WWF acknowledges this openly. In its latest issue of Action, its monthly magazine, it opens with the following page:

Fish aren’t glamorous. They never have been. Put an image of a cod next to one of a polar bear and the votes will probably come pouring in for the Arctic beasts. This captivating furry icon of the natural world needs every inch of our support, and inspires people to protect the environment around us. But at WWF we don’t just work on the icons. We care for every creature, including those that are less pleasing to the eye – or less well known. And that includes the cod and other species in European waters that currently face an uncertain future.

Hence why you go to the Adopt an Animal page and see elephants, orangutans, turtles and penguins. Animals that will appeal to you and me. In the process of saving these animals, we save their whole ecosystem, the entire balance of nature. And what Oliver Steeds and his ridiculous programme fail to realise or acknowledge is that the £3 a month I give to adopt a tiger does not go straight to the tigers in India and Russia. The £3 a month I give is most likely fairly distributed to the many projects and conservation efforts around the world, depending on what is in greatest urgency at the time. Funding is not restricted from any animal, just because its picture isn’t displayed on the website front page.

Not every conservation organization is perfect. Ridiculous programmes like this, which have been poorly researched and poorly executed, undermine the amazing work each and every organization goes through in the mission to help save our planet. What really took the biscuit was when Steeds flew to somewhere in America (I think this may have been about his 10th flight in the hour programme?) to get ninety seconds of footage from a woman who claimed she had been on a board who was trying to collaborate with BP. Her friend had stood up and said ‘why are we working with BP? they’re so evil!’, and, she claims, ‘the whole room fell silent’. Wow, Steeds, well done. You have footage of a woman who made an opinion, and the room was shocked. What a programme.

On the WWF discussion page for this programme [click here], Belcha fabulously said: “Maybe Oliver Steeds should have focussed his 1hr documentary on the plight of termites….I wonder how many people would have still been watching after 20 minutes.” Yes, Steeds, we did notice your 3 minute coverage of a mountain frog in your attempt to draw attention to the plight of amphibians, but how quickly this was dwarfed by your footage and coverage of tigers and lions throughout the programme. Thank you for proving that marketability of cute cuddly felines is what draws the crowds. It’s a shame you couldn’t use this same marketing to actually help the conservation ‘movement’, instead of projecting your poorly researched sensationalism onto our television screens.

Plant a forest for leopards!

2011-10-28T17:26:22Z

Picture copyright WWF-UK

A fabulously exciting project is underway in the deep forests of Russia.

WWF-RU has kicked off the ‘Plant a forest for leopards’ project, where 1 000 000 Korean pine seedlings will be planted in the southwest area of Primorye. According to my friend who’s volunteering over there, 150 000 trees have already been planted for the Amur leopard – only 40 of these big cats still exist in the wild. According to WWF-RU, this campaign will be the largest action taken on reforestation of forest habit of the rarest cat on the planet.

How to help

The project is still looking for volunteers, so if you’re Russian or planning a slightly different kind of volunteer trip this summer, visit WWF-RU [click here] and contact one of the following coordinators:

Denis Smirnov, Leading Forest Projects Coordinator (WWF Russia Far – Eastern Branch),
tel/fax: +7 (4232) 41-48-68, e-mail

Elena Starostina, Press-officer (WWF Russia Far – Eastern Branch),
tel/fax: +7 (4232) 41-48-68, e-mail

Citybank have already provided funds for the seedlings, but if you wish to contribute towards more seedlings, look no further than the Tigers Need Trees project [click here] at WWF-UK where a donation of £10 plants 330 trees – 3p per tree!

Russian Reality: In Search of the Tiger

2011-10-28T17:26:22Z

Update: Now featured in Razz My Berries University of Exeter arts magazine, yippee! [click here] (:

There was an eerie silence in the wintry Russian air as we slowly assembled on the side of the empty road, jostling and peering over each other’s heads at our Olga. She stood quietly, waiting for our whispers to die down. She was our translator for this second day journeying across eastern Russia. An hour prior to this, we had been exploring a nature reserve, where we had examined fir trees and snowy pawprints of leopards in the vain hope that they would convey to us the secrets of the mystical Siberian Tiger. Now, our coach had stopped here, in the most unimaginable of locations.

This road seemed no place for tigers and their prints. There was nowhere to go; no trodden pathways, no complicated Russian nature reserve signs. No birds were singing. The road stretched on into the never-ending distance. Someone leaned towards me and asked quietly, “why have we stopped here?”. Our police escorts on the other side of the road stopped talking, and watched us keenly.

Somehow, it felt colder here.

“This,” Olga began, “is a popular crossing for wildlife here in this area. The deer cross over here, and the wild cats, and the leopards. Tigers cross here too.” She paused to listen to the next part of our guide’s speech, and slowly I could see the expressions change on the faces of the few Russians gathered with us.

Slowly, they raised three black-and-white pictures, all of the same image. The photographs seemed to blend into the white of the landscape around us, yet none of us could look away. No Russian weather could match the coldness of what we were seeing.

“This tigress was hit by a car, and knocked to the side of the road, where we are standing now. She was very badly injured. The authorities and the WWF were contacted, but they could not save this tiger, and she died a few hours later.

“The punishments are very harsh here in Russia. If the driver had been found, he would have been faced with a $75,000 fine and a criminal record. A four-month investigation was launched, but we could not find who did this.”

She hesitated, before her final, reverberating sentence. “We cannot put signs up to warn motorists that this is a tiger crossing… it will attract the poachers to this area.” The brutality of this sentence hit home. For once, we could not help to save the tiger. Nothing would attract poachers more than a sign ‘warning’ them that tigers were near.

Somehow, it was all so poignant, so bleak. The tiger did not deserve this. No animal, no living creature, deserved this.

I still recall the biting cold as other delegates in the party began to raise their voices, to argue and question this, to ask whether surely some system could be put in place, some way of slowing down motorists, surely… but Olga and our guides shook their heads sadly. And still this lingering silence continued, relentless, unwielding.

Before we returned to the bus, she said three last words. These are the only words I noted down in my notepad, and yet I still can remember her entire speech on that dark day. One helpless shrug, and three words.

“That’s Russian reality.”

But as I returned to the bus with quiet and sombre thoughts, I knew inside me that these little moments of darkness were the reason for why we were there. We needed to see it, to experience it, in order to tell people, “This is what happened. This is what we will do, to stop it happening again.” We must change people’s minds and people’s hearts, from apathy to change, from helplessness to hope. “Russian reality” can, and will, be reversed, so that we can visit this country and know that, because of us, somewhere in the snowy pawprints and the fir trees, there is a tiger, roaming, breathing, living.

In November 2010, the St Petersburg Tiger Summit was held amongst world leaders, the first summit of its kind. At the same time, I travelled to the other side of the world, to Vladivostok in eastern Russia, in order to represent WWF-UK at the Youth Tiger Summit. WWF held this Summit for us, as youth ambassadors of the 13 tiger-range countries and of the United Kingdom, in order for us to discuss and implement plans of action for the youths of our respective countries. We passed our plans for saving the tiger through a video link to the St Petersburg Tiger Summit, speaking directly to Vladimir Putin (Prime Minister of Russia), Wen Jiabao (Premier of China) and the World Bank leader, Robert Zoellick.

For previously mentioned reasons, the location of this tiger crossing cannot be named. However, the WWF is currently raising funds for a designated project to stop crossings over this road, and to allow them to cross in another safer place. If you wish to help this project, please consider adopting a tiger at the WWF Website, or doubling your donation to tiger conservation by donating to http://new.thebiggive.org.uk/charity/view/5733, and help secure the future of these magnificent animals.

Youth Tiger Summit, Vladivostok 2010: Day 1 – Moscow and Arrival in Vladivostok

2011-06-07T22:25:16Z

Chilling out in Moscow, Russia before our 10 hour flight to Vladivostok.

Recapping my Tiger Journey

Blogging is really quite difficult when you’re out there, in the field, trying to show to people back at home what’s really going on.

When I went to Vladivostok in November 2010 to represent the U.K. at the Youth Tiger Summit, I found this rang extremely true. We were busy from 8 in the morning until 8 at night, and I found it difficult to express everything that happened and, what’s more, the consequence of what happened.

So now I’m back home in England, a month after the summit and a day after Christmas, I’m going to spend the next few days collating everything that happened and all the journal entries and notes that I made at the time, from the people we met to the pictures we took, and ultimately, to the great actions and decisions made on that memorable week, both in our summit and in the St Petersburg Tiger Summit.

18^th November 2010

I don’t really know what time it is anymore. I do know the last time I slept was on Monday night. It is now Thursday morning, and I am on the same longitude as the west coast of Australia. I think we’re ten hours ahead. It’s -5 outside.

Outside my new home - Vladivostok

Well, at least the temperature isn’t that much different from England.

We’ve had an intense couple of days from London to Moscow to Vladivostok, where I vaguely remember a mad 5-hour tour around Moscow and its Red Square, an Orthodox church service, a primary school, a cafe that sells melted chocolate and calls it ‘hot chocolate’, an elaborate ‘changing of the guard’ that could rival Buckingham Palace’s any day, and awful, awful red tea which I’m still sure was made out of beetroot.

Right now I’m covered in my luggage in a mini bus, scribbling down as many notes as I can before I fall asleep. We had an interesting introduction to Vladivostok when we met Olga, who greeted us with the rather nonchalant, happens-every-day ‘There is a film crew outside. Who would like to talk with them?’ where we all waved flags and pinned our eyes open in -12 conditions (the poor Indian delegates couldn’t stop shaking).

Conservation-wise? I’m actually quite impressed with Russia so far. So far on my journey, I’ve seen some pretty impressive billboards displaying

‘Save the Tiger 2010′ alongside the motorway. In Moscow, on the train between the airport and the city, I saw at least three different WWF adverts, where it appears that celebrities from Moscow have volunteered to ‘roar’ and pretend to be a tiger in order to promote the St Petersburg conference. I have been told by East Russians that Moscow coverage is ‘unfortunately very limited’ and that east Russian coverage is much superior, but I can’t actually remember a time when I saw WWF-UK advertised anywhere. Almost everyone I know actually knows what the WWF is – although 50% of the time I am greeted with the golden oldie, ‘Oh, the wrestling federation?’ – but how they know about it, I’m not actually sure. We don’t have television adverts, or billboards, or anything. It’s an omnipresent part of the U.K, which in one way is great, but in another way is not so helpful. How do we reach out to new audiences, and how do we spread the news on what the WWF is currently doing? I imagine this is why the U.K is here, and what we’re going to learn.

Youth Tiger Summit Youth Appeal

2011-10-28T17:26:48Z

An Appeal by Participants of the International Youth Tiger Forum

We, the youths participating in the International Youth Tiger Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, in this Year of the Tiger, appeal to the world to save the tiger. We represent all 13 tiger range countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam) and the United Kingdom.

During these past few days, we have learned more about the plight of the tiger, its decline and the threats facing the species. Not only is the tiger hunted, it is also losing much of its home – the forests.

We know for many of our countries, development is important. However, we do not want development that results in us losing many of the world’s natural wonders and wild species like the tiger. We want our children to be able to inherit a living planet full of the wonders of the natural world.

The tiger knows no political boundaries. For example, tigers from Russia travel to China, and tigers from Nepal frequently cross into India. Likewise, tigers from Laos trespass the border into Vietnam, before wandering into Cambodia.

We therefore call on the governments of the countries that still have tigers in the wild, to urgently unite in efforts to save the tiger and double its numbers in the wild by 2022. Only by swiftly acting together across borders can we reverse the situation and stop the decline of tiger populations.

We also call on the governments of economically developed countries to support national and international programmes on tiger conservation through providing funding and technical support. The conservation of the biggest cat on the planet for future generations is a noble and essential investment. Tigers live in forests rich in biodiversity; therefore, tiger conservation will have immeasurable benefits for overall nature conservation, as well as for the many local communities who rely on these areas for basic needs and ecosystem services such as food, water and timber.

We invite the world’s youths to join us in supporting tiger conservation. Our youth action plans have a role for everybody keen to lend support to the youth tiger conservation movement – from increasing awareness to mobilizing youths to take action; from adopting a green lifestyle to actively volunteering in activities such as replanting of degraded forest areas.

We pledge to continue in our role as Tiger Ambassadors to actively promote activities and mobilize the youths of the world in doing our part to conserve one of the world’s most iconic symbols of biodiversity conservation.

Let us together make this year a turning point for the tiger.

Thank you.

Youth Tiger Summit, Day 3: Trip to Orlinoe Hunting Estate

2011-08-14T14:21:57Z

Our first sight of the hunting estate

Hello!

Part of our trip to Vladivostok is to visit real tiger habitats in the Russian Far East: to investigate the threats these predators are facing, and what WWF are doing about it.

We were split into two groups – half of us visit the Kedrovaya Pad state nature reserve today, and half visit the Orlinoe model hunting estate. We were Group 2, and will be visiting the Kedrovaya Pad tomorrow. But for now… a real hunting estate!

We collapsed off of the bus after an apparent 2-hour long bus trip (I wouldn’t know about that; I was half asleep, and only opened my eyes to the strange observation of a coach and two police cars awkwardly trying to get down a rock-mud-snow path to the remote habitation).

The feeder, filled with grain and covered in hay.

We were introduced to the estate by the director, Sergey Vobly, along with other local hunters in the province. I’ll portray to you their conversation about the hunting estate as accurately as I can, through the translation of WWF Russia’s Olga (and when she manages to translate words from Russian such as ‘calcium pholsphate’, the meaning of which I have no idea, you know you’re onto a good translator).

It is estimated that there are 450 cika deer on these grounds, along with other ungulates such as roe deer and red deer, black Asian bears, and up to 5-6 tigers. The density of prey-predator population in the relative size of the area was described as ‘just perfect’. In such a harsh territory, where snow can layer as thick as 50cm and more, the ungulates must be preserved in order to preserve the tiger during hard winter months. There are feeding stations throughout the reserve, which may be filled up to 2-3 times a week, and at each station, there are two places where the animals can feed (one contains grains and the other contains minerals), an outlook tower and a wet mineral soil area. The mineral feeding is described as a sort of ‘lollypop’ for the animals, containing a combination of clay, salt iodine, soda, and yes, calcium pholsphate. The grains are covered with hay, which stops birds from eating the food (although it doesn’t protect it from the rodents – I pointed out a small mouse nibbling under the hay!). Animals have learnt that they can come here for food during the winter, and so the survival rates have increased over the years. With these come the tigers: at the place where we were, tigers had killed around ten animals.

The wet mineral feeding soil. Gotta love the Russian media running about, following us around and interiewing us sporadically. They might just be more excited than we are.

As mentioned, there is also a wet mineral soil area, where there is salt buried. There are one hundred of these around the area. The reason for there being so many is to ensure protection from poachers, because there are so many places that deer, and therefore tigers, could be. Deer lick the clay under the trees, and so can get all the essential minerals during the cold months. Camera traps and observation towers allow rangers to catch good photographic evidence of what is happening in these areas.

As far as the rangers are aware, there have not been any incidents of illegal poaching, ever. WWF work very closely with the reserve, and they get a lot of help from the fund, who provide help with finance along with technical workshops.

How does this whole system work profit-wise for the rangers?

Every year, there are a certain amount of hunting licenses available, allowing Russians to come and hunt roe, red and sica deer, boar, and now and again even black Asian bear (hunting of females is prohibited). They need to pay a fee to initially get into the reserve, and then must pay for each animal they kill. Every hunt requires a supervising ranger to accompany them. With population growths annually of 15-18%, there is a stable ecosystem at work here.

A gloomy England day - or deep in Siberian forest?

As we walked through the forest and learnt more about the forest’s biodiversity, I understood suddenly my odd ‘deja vu’ feeling about it all; I felt like I was walking through Devon’s Eggesford Forest in the depths of winter. I could have been in England, for all I knew. Looking over at the hills in the distance, and squinting for a flash of orange, I felt disorientated to know that, within miles of where I was standing, there was a black Asian bear or a Siberian tiger, breathing, maybe even listening to our footsteps with caution.

This feeling only increased as we began our ascent into the steep hills, soaring above the human-made paths and into the footsteps of wild Russian animals, to visit a spot where a Siberian tiger had been seen only days ago. I felt slightly odd, to see the bones of a boar that had been torn apart at our feet, only the heels and the fur around it left to this world. Even odder to see the photographic evidence, from the camera trap next to us, that a Siberian tiger had been feasting right here.

The unfortunate boar...

...the photo of the tiger that was here, only earlier this week.

Youth Tiger Summit, Day 2: Thoughts on China

2011-08-09T23:24:28Z

(This post I actually wrote on the 26th November, because I wanted to wait until I was away from the tiger summit to write about it; you may be able to see why in a bit. I’ve backdated it to the 19th November.)

Earlier, I posted about the presentations made by the different tiger range countries about the situation of the tiger. I started to write about China:

China – They had a great little video about this huge wall mural they made about the conservation of tigers. They got loads of people to sign it with messages about tigers. We currently have it hanging up on the wall here – a tiger-striped mural covered in Chinese characters. In the presentation, China talked about the ‘rich and long historical tiger culture’. Interestingly, China have an incredibly positive presentation about increasing tiger numbers in their country, but no actual discussion of the problems currently facing China…

(Original post here)

Let’s continue from this point. Before I go on, I have to note that the two girls representing China were almost the only delegates who came with officials from their country’s WWF, and certainly the only delegates who came with two officials. They were a stern-looking man and woman who kind of tagged along with the girls wherever they went. We didn’t really know what they were doing there, but had a few suspicions.

Anyway. The two girls representing China had a short presentation headlined with the words ‘The Chinese government has attached great importance to tiger conservation and adopted measures in series.’ They continued to talk about the great things China had done for tiger conservation, and the usual recommendations on conserving the Amur tiger: building corridors, recovering habitats, etc. But for a country which traded in tiger parts as an integral part of Chinese medicine, they failed to address this point at all. It was inevitable what was going to happen when they smiled and asked, ‘Any questions?’

For the next thirty minutes, the room degenarated into a mass of, ‘What about Chinese medicine? What is your country going to do about it??’.

The atmosphere started to get very awkward. The two girls were not only angry, but baffled – ‘Chinese medicine has been banned for years!‘. The two officials stepped in. Even WWF Russia got slightly worried, and said ‘there would be plenty of opportunities to talk about this issue later’. It was eventually dropped.

What with the UK being so far removed from China and Asia, I’ve never really experienced the political sensitivity surrounding China. I find it important to blog about this though: political sensitivities must be considered, but cannot be an obstacle in international efforts like the one we are facing in doubling the amount of tigers.

We are all very aware of the work of the Communist Party of China. I won’t pretend to be an expert on such things, but it doesn’t take an expert to understand the ‘view’ that China want to put across to the rest of the world.

Let me quote from a couple of sources: firstly, the July 2010 draft of the Global Tiger Recovery Program:

590 Using tiger parts in medicine has a very long history in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) but the 591 World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WCMS) declared that tiger parts are not necessary for 592 human health care and that alternatives are plentiful, affordable, and effective. Tiger bone was removed 593 from the TCM pharmacopeia in 1993 and the Chinese government banned domestic trade in tiger parts 594 that same year. Since then, sale and use of products containing tiger parts is believed to have declined.39 595 Nonetheless, use of medicines and tonic containing or purporting to contain tiger bone continues. In a 596 survey conducted in seven Chinese cities in 2007, 43 percent of respondents had consumed some product 597 alleged to contain tiger parts (primarily tiger bone plasters and tiger bone wine), most of them since the 598 ban was put in place. Yet 88 percent of respondents knew that it was illegal to buy or sell tiger products, 599 93 percent agreed that a ban in trade of tiger parts was necessary to conserve wild tigers, and 96 percent, 600 believed it was important to protect wild tigers. Translating this positive attitude about tiger conservation 601 into behavior change is the challenge.

Secondly, from a news article from as long ago as 2007, but which I believe still remains essentially valid today (NATURE|Vol 449|6 September 2007 | p16-18):

Another pickle for Siberian tigers
On a nondescript street near downtown Harbin, the Double Mountain Local Products Wholesale Centre offers the usual array of kitsch items stripped from the wilderness: deer antlers, pelts and dried starfish. A request for tiger wine, a traditional brew of corpse-steeped cheap liquor with dozens of reputed medical benefits, raises a stern eyebrow from an employee who informs a customer that as such concoctions are illegal, they are not available at the store. But at the mention of American money, a store manager intervenes — $100 would buy two bottles, and true to the employee’s words they are not at the store; they will be delivered via courier. Doubts about the brew’s authenticity are shooed away.
The manager is certain the bottles are the genuine article because, she says, “they came from over at that tiger park”. She is referring to the Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding Centre on the outskirts of the city. And whether or not she is speaking the truth, the manager is highlighting a looming international stand-off between conservationists and the Chinese government.
China banned domestic trade of tiger parts in 1993, but that did not arrest the desire for their use in wine or traditional Chinese medicine. A black market fills the demand and goods can often be traced back to breeding centres. In August 2006, a tiger farm in Guangxi province was caught with 400 vats of wine, each stewing a whole tiger carcass. This June at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) conference in The Hague, the Netherlands, wildlife officials used DNA evidence to accuse the same farm of serving tiger meat.
In a walk-in fridge at Hengdaohezi — off-limits to tourists and journalists — 200 frozen tiger carcasses lie scattered, waiting to be turned into tiger wine and medicine, according to Xu Yanchun, a breeding consultant for the park at neighbouring Northeast Forestry University. Whether Hengdaohezi benefits tiger conservation is questionable, but one thing is certain — if the government lifts the ban on the tiger trade, places such as Hengdaohezi will profit.
Liu Dan, the park’s chief scientist, doesn’t see a problem. “We can use dead tigers to save live tigers,” he explains, promising to use profits for the centre’s genetic and reintroduction projects. And the government seems to agree. “It’s very hard to go against these pressures to open the trade,” says Wang Weisheng, manager of wildlife resources at the State Forestry Administration.
Wang says a decision on the ban could be made as early as October. As of 2006, all tigers have been required to wear a microchip, and Wang says such tracking abilities combined with a certification process — a system that met with success with China’s ivory, crocodile and ginseng trade — could lead to a win–win situation for everybody. But lifting the ban may be illegal. Craig Hoover, chief US CITES enforcement officer, says China would be flaunting an existing international ban on tiger parts — and noncompliance could lead to sanctions.
Although several Western economists suggest harvesting captive tigers would relieve poaching pressures, and ultimately funnel money to conservation efforts, most conservationists disagree. “You can’t possibly saturate the market with just parts from tiger farms,” says John Goodrich, a conservationist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, New York. “It’ll be devastating for wild tigers.” J.G.

There is obviously still a booming, underground business for tiger parts; that much is clear. Yet Chinese people are certainly not ignorant of the facts; as seen in the first source, 43% of respondants consumed a product containing tiger parts, but 88% knew it was illegal, and 96% believed it should be illegal.

Problems like this should not be shielded from discussion, or considered as political sensitivities. With the great territory of China containing a huge proportion of the world’s tigers, the cards must be laid on the table, so that Chinese people are free to turn to their own government, without any secrecy or worry, and ask: ‘Yeah, what about Chinese medicine? What is our country going to do about it?’