ANNOUNCEMENT

Tiger Experts Welcome World Bank’s Commitment to Tiger Conservation

Lixin Huang, President of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM) and Judy Mills, Board member of ACTCM and director of the International Tiger Coalition (ITC), joined members of the international conservation community and actors Harrison Ford and Bo Derek for an event at the National Zoo in Washington, DC on June 9th. The event, sponsored by the World Bank, was held to raise awareness about tiger conservation and to announce its plan to undertake a global joint venture to help reverse the decline wild tigers — the first-ever species initiative by the World Bank.

Both Ford and Derek, long time activists and conservationists, are working with the World Bank to develop a conservation initiative that will look at existing projects in tiger habitats, review existing efforts to combat the trade in illegal tiger parts, and develop alternative funding for saving tigers, among other strategies. The initiative will draw on the collective power of the world's nonprofits, governments, and local citizens to prevent tigers from extinction.

The World Bank has asked ITC and its members (of which ACTCM is an active member), representing some of the world's foremost tiger scientists, conservation groups, animal welfare advocates, traditional Chinese medicine specialists, and zoos, to provide expertise and strategic guidance to the initiative.

"Just as with many of the other challenges of sustainability - such as climate change, pandemic disease or poverty - the crisis facing tigers overwhelms local capabilities and transcends national boundaries," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said at the launching at the National Zoo in Washington. "This is a problem that cannot be handled by individual nations alone. It requires an alliance of strong local commitment backed by deep international support," he said.

During the next six months, the World Bank promises to hold open and frank dialogues with all stakeholders in tiger range countries about which tiger conservation methods have worked in the past and which have not. In 2010, the World Bank is planning to host a "Year of the Tiger" summit to provide a forum for those involved in tiger conservation to review the status of the wild tigers and their habitat.

The ITC is encouraged by the World Bank’s stated interest in ensuring that its future investments do no harm to wild tigers and hopes that other development agencies will follow suit. The ITC hopes that the Bank’s efforts will call worldwide attention to the need to stop all demand for tiger skins and bones.

Tiger numbers have declined from more than 100,000 a century ago to around 4,000 today. The decline has been driven by loss of prey and habitat due to uncontrolled development and poaching for the black market trade in tiger skins and bones. The demand for illegal tiger meat and parts for trophies and use in traditional Chinese has wiped out most of the tigers living in reserves. Once plentiful in most of Asia, tigers have already disappeared from Central Asia and almost all of China.

Privately run “tiger farms” across China have bred nearly 5,000 captive tigers and are putting enormous pressure on the Chinese government to allow legal trade in tiger parts within China. They argue that their captive tigers will meet the demand of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) users for tiger-bone tonic wines and medicines. But TCM practitioners worldwide have stopped using tiger bone and reject the argument that it is needed in legitimate medicines.

“The request for reopening trade does not come from TCM,” Lixin Huang, president of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, told the forum before the decision was made. “TCM does not wish to be responsible for the extinction of wild tigers.”

All international trade in tiger parts is banned by CITES Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), and China has banned domestic trade since 1993. The ban has proven successful in reducing demand for tiger bone and raising public awareness about tiger conservation, studies have found.

ACTCM’s Role In Conservation:

In 1998, ACTCM began its efforts to raise public awareness about endangered species when it partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to build public support for tiger, rhino and endangered species conservation. By combining the expertise of both institutions, the message of supporting healthy people and a healthy planet has reached thousands of people, bridging the communication gap between the conservation and TCM communities.

ACTCM's partnership with WWF has developed a public outreach initiative on endangered species used in traditional medicine, and represents an important conservation milestone. ACTCM and WWF have achieved great success in reaching key communities in a way that is culturally sensitive and scientifically sound. This is the first systematic effort to educate conservationists about traditional Chinese medicine in health care and to educate TCM users in North America about endangered species.

ACTCM and WWF have organized the "Save the Tiger" symposium held in San Francisco in 1998 and the "Healthy People, Healthy Planet Conference on TCM and Wildlife Conservation" in Beijing, People's Republic of China in 1999. The latter conference was supported by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the "Save the Tiger Fund" from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Johnson and Johnson, and other foundations. These events brought together TCM specialists, conservationists, law enforcement officials and CITES experts, and TCM retailers to address wildlife conservation.

On December 5, 2005, Save the Tiger Fund (STF), a program of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, entered into a three-year agreement with the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM) in San Francisco, to conduct a global campaign against the use of tiger bone as a medicine and tonic.

American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine has provided affordable, quality health care to the public and trained professionals in acupuncture, massage and Chinese medicine since 1980. In addition to its graduate curriculum, ACTCM offers continuing education, public education, community outreach and clinical services in acupuncture and herbal medicine. ACTCM has been the recipient of many awards for its curriculum, faculty and clinic, and has been voted “Best of the Bay” by both the San Francisco Weekly and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. ACTCM is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and is a private, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.