Photo Courtesy of

CKMC

  email: rebeccaxie@actcm.edu

 
Promoting 
Alternative Remedies

Due to

the ease of

concealment

of poached

goods,

the black market

can be

very difficult

to monitor.

Unlike a tiger

skin, tiger

bones can be

crushed and

made odorless and

can be disguised

as other types of

bones. 

No one

can positively

identify the

gall bladder

or bile

of a bear

by

sight, smell,

or taste.

Legislation

and

enforcement

alone cannot

save the tiger.

Marketplace

demand

must be curbed.

Photo by Brian Day

Consumer demand for tiger bone and other endangered species’ parts began in a previous era when these animal parts were used for a range of medicinal purposes. Fortunately, the medical community has developed several alternative remedies in treating a range of conditions. Many of these remedies are made predominately from herbs and do not contain any parts from endangered species. Because tiger bone, rhino horn, and other endangered species parts were used in past Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practices, there are people who seek this treatment approach as learned from past tradition. Consequently, outreach and education is needed to increase public awareness of available alternative remedies and the plight of endangered species.

DEMAND ON THE RISE
Although tiger bone, rhino horn, and bear gall bladder use goes back at least a 1,000 years, illegal trade and poaching of these endangered and threatened species have increased significantly in the last two decades. The booming economies and growing wealth in parts of Asia have caused demand and prices to rise for many wildlife products. 

The combined pressures of commercial demand, excessive hunting, and habitat destruction have depleted most of Asia's bear, tigers, and rhino populations. 

The trade in endangered species' body parts is not confined to their range countries. It is estimated that increased demand has occurred in major consuming countries and territories such as China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. 

WHY IS THERE DEMAND?
As China's economy has grown in recent years, along with global interest in natural health care products, so has the trade in medicine containing endangered and threatened species. Most experts now agree that the trade of tiger bone for medicinal purposes has been a major factor underpinning the tiger conservation crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. Although most TCM practitioners do not advocate nor prescribe tiger parts as a medicinal remedy, there is a long-established cultural tradition for using these as a curative modality. Consequently, the use of tiger parts has passed through numerous generations to the present to cure rheumatism, arthritis, malaria, ulcers, and burns. Some practitioners may not be aware of the conservation status of several endangered species in the wild. They may inadvently recommend remedies made from these animals' body parts or by-products.  This may contribut to the increase in the demand for endangered species. This is unfortunately coupled by inadequate government efforts to effectively enforce existing laws and regulations on illegal trade and low awareness of the plight of the tiger and other endangered species such as rhinos and musk deer.