Wildcat and Tiger Trades Increasing

I haven't posted about nature in the news for what feels like forever but this story, just after I returned from Africa, really caught my attention.

It has been found that from a survey conducted over the past two decades, that the trade of tiger and wildcat parts from  Myanmar (Burma) into China in recent years is growing. The fact that the sale of these animals is still increasing is a dying shame because soon there really will be none of them left to sell.

Where Myanmar is in relation to China and Thailand.

The survey tells of how shops boarding China, especially Mong La, trading of animal parts have trebled in the past eight years and that parts were found from at least 200 tigers and 480 clouded leopards, the largest collection of one animal.

Whilst towns on the Thailand border have seen a fall in trade, most likely due to the greater enforcement seen in Thailand, this is not mirrored on the Chinese border.

Under the international convention against the buying and selling of endangered species, Burma has banned the trade of leopard and tiger parts but this doesn't prevent the animals being hunted, with wildlife conservation organisations saying that the wildlife meat and tiger bone wine are consumed instead by Chinese tourists.

The fact that there is still so much trade and therefore poaching of these rare animals is heartbreaking, what the bigger issue is, however is how can conservationists really hope to stop or even reduce the trade when this is the situation on the boarders of huge countries like China.

To read the full story check it out here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30556409
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Growing-illegal-tiger-and-wild-cat-trade-from-Myanmar-to-China-33029.html