The “Wildlife Protection Law (Revised Draft)” seeks comments, of which Article 29 is concerned by an expert who believes that the revised draft may be the last step in classifying farmed tigers as domestic animals or tradable animals. China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) highly concerns about this.

Article 29 stipulates that for wild animals under special state protection whose artificial breeding techniques are mature and stable, after scientific demonstration, it shall be included in the list of wild animals under special state protection for captive-bred animals formulated by the department in charge of wildlife protection under the State Council. For wild animals and their products included in the list, special labels can be directly obtained with the artificial breeding license and the annual production quantity verified by the wildlife protection departments of the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and they can be sold and used with special labels, ensure traceability.

When adjusting the list of national key protected wild animals specified in Article 10 of this Law, based on the protection of the relevant wild populations, artificial populations of wild animals with mature and stable artificial breeding techniques specified in the preceding paragraph may no longer be included in the national key protected list of wild animals and implement management measures different from those in the wild, however, the artificial breeding license and special identification shall be obtained in accordance with the second paragraph of Article 26 of this law and the first paragraph of this Article.

For artificial breeding populations of terrestrial wild animals that have undergone domestication, have stable artificial selection economic traits, mature artificial breeding technology, and have formed a disease prevention and control system, after scientific demonstration and evaluation by the agricultural and rural authorities of the State Council in conjunction with relevant departments of the State Council, it can be included in the “National Catalogue of Animal Genetic Resources” in accordance with relevant regulations.

This expert is worried that if Article 29 is passed and the trade with tigers is liberalized, it will inevitably stimulate the global poaching of rare animals such as wild lions and tigers. Then, it will impact the economies of African countries that rely on wildlife tourism as the backbone, and the implementation of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative and the global situation will be even worse. All China’s efforts in ecological protection are likely to be ruined, and the consequences will not be covered by the profits of a mere billion-dollar tiger trade.

In order to make the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law achieve concrete results, CBCGDF will organize experts to discuss and make in-depth studies to propose systematic revisions to promote the legal protection of China’s wildlife protection.

By / Maggie

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http://www.cbcgdf.org/English/ConfirmDonaTion/0.html