Euro-MP calls for action to stop tiger and leopard skin trade

3.57.25pm GMT Thu 16th Feb 2006

Liz Lynne, Lib Dem MEP for the West Midlands, is calling for China, Nepal and India to crack down on the illegal international trade in tiger and leopard skins, after she met yesterday with an independent investigator.

The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile, recently intervened by calling on his people to stop the trade in wild animal skins, other products and derivatives. He said that he was "ashamed" to see images of Tibetans decorated in animal furs, which has led to the burning of many tiger skins and a corresponding dramatic fall in their price and that of

other furs in Tibet.

Liz Lynne, who is a member of the European Parliament's South Asia delegation and the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), yesterday met with Debbie Banks from the Environmental Investigation Agency. After the meeting in Strasbourg, Liz said:

"The fall in price and the trend in burning tiger furs following the Dalai Lama's recent address are an indication of a growing realisation of the harmful impact of the trade."

"However, although this may mark a curb in the demand, the criminal gangs responsible for the killing of tigers and leopards and the trading of their furs will continue unless the Chinese, Nepalese and Indian governments make a concerted effort to prevent it."

In addition, a Written Declaration was put forward in the European Parliament in January in which MEPs expressed concern regarding the role of organised criminal networks engaged in trafficking tiger and leopard skins from India into China via Nepal. It also calls on EU Member States to offer assistance to these countries to facilitate improved enforcement.

"This is why the Written Declaration on the Illegal Trade in Tiger and Leopard Skins is such a positive step. Having already signed it I urge all other MEPs to do the same, for it is by working together and putting pressure on the governments in the region that we can put an end to this

terrible trade."

In the early 1900s there were an estimated 100,000 tigers roaming across Asia. Today there are fewer than 5,000, and poaching accounts for a significant proportion of this decline.

Investigators from the Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA) and the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) recently uncovered the huge market for skins in China and Tibet, which is now the main factor driving the poaching of tigers in the wild.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The declaration requires 372 MEP signatures by 27 April 2006 before it can be entered into the minutes of the European Parliament.