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ACT: Call on CITES to end tiger farming

From TigerTime blog

Between July 7-11 the 65th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee gathers in Geneva – their role is to ensure that the international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Tigers are expected to be on the agenda on Thursday 10 July under the discussion on Asian Big Cats.
Tiger ‘consumer’ and ‘captive breeding’ countries (namely China, Thailand, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam) have been failing to comply with CITES recommendations to:

• limit breeding of captive tigers
• audit and destroy stockpiles of tiger parts and derivatives
• provide adequate reporting on breeding facilities (tiger farms) seizures or the status and outcome of court cases
• implement adequate legislation to prohibit the internal trade in parts of captive tiger specimens
  

The impact of this ongoing and largely unregulated trade is driving demand and having a devastating impact on wild tiger populations.
PLEASE call on your country’s representative at CITES to speak out against tiger farming and call upon China to destroy all stockpiles and end any domestic trade in the parts and derivatives of captive tigers by emailing them TODAY!
Suggested email: 
(please feel free to change it but do remember that offensive language is often counterproductive)
Dear Sir
As a supporter of TigerTime, which aims to conserve tigers in the wild and to end the trade in tiger parts from all sources, PLEASE speak out against tiger farming and call upon China to destroy all stockpiles and end any domestic trade in the parts and derivatives of captive tigers when you attend the CITES Standing Committee in Geneva this July. Without compliance from China, and other tiger breeding countries, the continuing illegal trade in tigers threatens the survival of the remaining 3,200 tigers in the wild. We have to act NOW or face the unpalatable truth that our generation failed to save the tiger.
Yours sincerely
Here is a list of email contacts for you to use:
India - Mr S S Garbyal   [email protected]
UK – DEFRA  [email protected]
USA – USFWS  [email protected]
Netherlands -  M van Nijnatten  [email protected]
Germany – Gerhard Adams  [email protected]
Canada – Canadian Wildlife Service  [email protected]
Australia - Department of the Environment  [email protected]
Thailand - Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation [email protected] / [email protected]
Vietnam –  Vietnam Administration of Forestry  [email protected] / [email protected]
Lao PDR - Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry  [email protected] / [email protected]
China - The Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office of the People's Republic of China  [email protected] / [email protected]
Myanmar - Nyi Nyi Kyaw, PhD  [email protected] / [email protected]
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More about CITES and the plight of the tiger
WHAT IS CITES?
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. 
CITES is an international agreement to which States (countries) adhere voluntarily. States that have agreed to be bound by the Convention ('joined' CITES) are known as Parties. Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties – in other words they have to implement the Convention – it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level. More at http://cites.org/eng/disc/what.php
It is an important global platform not only for conservation and anti-trade groups but for pro-trade groups too.
WHY DOES CITES MATTER TO TIGERS?
The trade in tigers – an endangered species - and their derivatives is illegal and the captive breeding of tigers represents a very real threat to the survival of the species in the wild.
CITES Declaration 14.69 states: “Parties with intensive operations breeding tigers on a commercial scale shall implement measures to restrict the captive population to a level supportive only to conserving wild tigers; tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts and derivatives.”
The problem is that some ‘Parties’, namely consumer countries such as China, Mynamar, Thailand, Lao PDR and Viet Nam who have breeding facilities*, have not complied with CITES recommendations to:

• limit breeding
• audit and destroy stockpiles
• provide adequate reporting on facilities, seizures or the status and outcome of court cases
• implement adequate legislation to prohibit internal trade in parts of captive tiger specimens
  

WHAT DOES TIGERTIME WANT TO DO ABOUT IT?
It’s time to get tough on the Parties that are failing to comply and along with other NGOs we want to:

• See China and other Parties with inadequate legislation to prohibit the internal trade in parts of captive tigers as a matter of urgency.
• Urge Parties implicated in commercial trade of captive tigers (Thailand, Lao PDR, Viet Nam and China) to:
  • Adopt urgent measures to prevent the expansion of existing commercial captive tiger breeding operations
  • Provide robust reporting on the number of captive tigers per facility with evidence of proactive monitoring of births, deaths and transfers
  • Submit strategic plans incorporating deadlines for the phasing-out of intensive tiger breeding operations on a commercial scale
    

For the full list of SSN proposed actions and recommendations see: http://www.ssn.org/Meetings/sc/SC65/SSN_...ing_EN.pdf
*illegal trade, including international trade, in tigers from captive facilities has been reported in Thailand, Lao PDR, Viet Nam and Malaysia. Since 2000, at least 260 tigers likely to have come from captive sources have been seized in these countries. There are at least 41 known facilities in Thailand, Lao PDR and Viet Nam that keep and breed an estimated 1,459 tigers. China licenses domestic trade in captive bred tiger skins, and reportedly has more than 5,000 tigers held in c.200 facilities. Reply