Kings of the jungle, an endangered species, are still trafficked for food, medicine and decoration
LIU CHUNG shakes her head: there are no more tiger zoos here, she insists. This is strange. The area around the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ), a band from northwest Laos where Ms. Liu, a taxi driver, practices her trade, is famous for her tigers. Not wild animals, which have almost all been killed in Laos, but captive animals, illegally trafficked and bred for their parts, which sell for thousands of dollars. Your correspondent points on his card to a place near the SEZ where a tiger farm is supposed to operate. Now, Ms. Liu remembers. It starts the engine.
A century ago, around 100,000 tigers roamed the jungles of the world. Due to habitat loss and poaching, there are fewer than 4,000 savages today. More than twice as many people are being held on at least 200 farms across East and Southeast Asia, says Leigh Henry of the World Wildlife Fund. These range from small backyard operations to paddocks that raise hundreds of them in a “farm battery style,” says the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international NGO focusing on wildlife crime.
Breeding tigers and their trade and parts are prohibited by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, but this treaty is widely flouted in Asia due to poor law enforcement and high demand for tigers . The belief in their medicinal properties has deep roots, especially in China. Wine, skins and tiger bone jewelry with claws and teeth are status symbols. In Laos, carcasses can sell for up to $ 30,000, authorities say.
Some criminals choose to operate in Laos because “there is really no rule of law,” said Debbie Banks of EIA. Indeed, the government of Laos would be an accomplice. The United States Department of State recently reported that Laos is one of three countries that have recently “actively participated in or knowingly profited from the trafficking of endangered or threatened species”. In 2016, a survey of Great Britain Guardian The newspaper discovered that the Lao government had authorized two tiger farms and made lucrative deals with wildlife traffickers who were passing millions of dollars in endangered animals – including tigers – through Laos.
Government holds 20% stake in the Golden Triangle SEZ, a resort run by Zhao Wei, a Chinese businessman accused by the US Treasury last year of illegal wildlife trade, as well as drug and people trafficking (he denies the allegations). With its flashy casino and hotels, the SEZ is designed to attract Chinese tourists (gambling is illegal in China). In 2014 and 2015, EIA investigators found that restaurants in the SEZ advertised “sautéed tiger meat” and tiger bone wine; stores sell tiger skins and ivory tusks. Near the casino, 26 tigers surveyed the length of their enclosure, intended for the slaughterhouse. Their bones were to infuse rice wine. Since EIAAccording to the report, these establishments have closed.
Laos promised in 2016 to phase out tiger breeding. But the EIA believes that their number has increased. After a ten-minute drive to the mountains, Ms. Liu, the taxi driver, turns on a dirt road to a complex where fences are installed. The guard at the door forbids entry. But a local with internal knowledge says that the establishment shelters from 10 to 20 tigers and some elephants. Tigers are there to be bred. ■
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the title “Law of the jungle”