FROM A MONSTER

TO A

SOULLESS PRISONER

BY

SYLVIA VAN SWIETEN

Image: Enzo

Pérès-Labourdette

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From a monster to a soulless prisoner A criminological diagnosis of the problematic factors which hinder the fight

against the illegal tiger trade

Abstract The wild tiger population has declined from 100.000 individuals in the early 1990s to around 3.200 individuals today, which means that the wild tiger is on a path of extinction. There still exists a big black market for their skins, bones and many other parts and derivatives, mainly because of the rising economies in demand countries as China. A swift from health to wealth seems currently the trend on the demand side. The fight against the illegal tiger trade can be considered as one big transnational collaboration between many actors around the world. Actors, such as CITES, scientists, INTERPOL, but also NGOs, who increasingly take a central role in global governance, have made and still make huge efforts to contribute to the fight against the illegal tiger trade. But, even with all that international attention, the practical impact on the ground seems to be relatively ineffective, because the wild tiger population is still not increasing. Moreover, the field of green criminology has shown relatively little interest in the topic. This thesis concerns a criminological diagnosis of the problematic factors which hinder the fight against the illegal tiger trade. The following six main problematic issues are highlighted to give a possible explanation of why the fight against the trade is not that effective as it should be: The Ivory Tower: Rangers and International Bureaucrats; Confusion in a Culture; Different Justifications for Saving the Wild Tiger; Lack of Valuable Data on the Involvement of Organized Crime; Lack of Collaboration and Political Will; and Tiger Farming. These problematic factors are explained with various theories such as the ‘overlapping consensus’ from John Rawls (2001), the labeling theory of Howard Becker (1963) and the neutralization techniques from Sykes and Matza (1957). Keywords: illegal tiger trade, criminological diagnosis, problematic factors, green criminology.

By Sylvia van Swieten March 2015

Utrecht University – Master Criminology MASTER THESIS

Supervisor: dr. Tim Boekhout van Solinge

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Jane Goodall:

“As we learn more about the amazing world in which we all live, the interdependence of all life forms become increasingly clear. We are all connected in a great web of life. Yet today,

we are destroying that web. We face the greatest mass extinction since the era of the dinosaurs. Species are disappearing one by one. Including that most glorious of all the great

cats: the tiger. Many of the world’s great thinkers believe that the society is judged by the way it treats its weakest members; such as children, the elderly and animals. So, we must fight

cruelty and ignorance. No more drug tiger cubs, no more adults killed for their body parts and we must stop destroying the forests, where tigers have roamed for some two million years or we shall be ill judged by future generations. The time for action is now or it will be too late.”1

1 TRAFFIC International (2010, November 18). Closing a Deadly Gateway [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC9CATzZCO4

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ABBREVIATIONS AMLO Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Office

ASEAN-WEN Association of Southeast Asian Nations – Wildlife Enforcement

Network

CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

COP Conference of the Parties

ENV Education for Nature-Vietnam

EIA Environmental Investigation Agency

GTI Global Tiger Initiative

GTRP Global Tiger Recovery Program

ICCWC International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (i-quick)

IFAW International Fund for Animal Welfare

IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

SAWEN South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network

SSN Species Survival Network

TAN Transnational Advocacy Networks

TEC Transnational Environmental Crime

TETF Tiger Enforcement Task Force

TOC Transnational Organized Crime

TRAFFIC Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce

TX2 Double the number of wild tigers

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme

UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

UNOTC United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime

WCO World Customs Organization

WCS Wildlife Conservation Society

WPSI Wildlife Protection Society of India

WWF World Wildlife Fund

WFFT Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The first person I have to thank is my thesis supervisor, Tim Boekhout van Solinge. My passion for green criminology started with his lectures within the minor Criminology. His adventurous stories about the various types of crime with which I was previously unacquainted with, opened a new path for me. This path started with my research on illegal deforestation for my bachelor thesis in Law and this master thesis on the illegal tiger trade will definitely not mark the end of it. My thoughts and understanding about transnational environmental crime are not only shaped by Tim Boekhout van Solinge, but also by Daan van Uhm who was enthusiastically involved in my thesis process and helped me a lot by sharing his knowledge and ideas.

I had the opportunity to receive a Resource Assignment Agreement at INTERPOL at the Environmental Crime Programme for three months in Lyon and I would like to thank everybody who was involved for the great and educative experience. Special thanks goes to Cees van Duijn who, with his Dutch hospitable character, definitely made me feel like home in Lyon. Also a special thanks to Susan van den Brink, who had the same experience at INTERPOL a couple of years before me, for showing me the way around and helping me with a lot of things. I also want to thank Ioana Botezatu for her time, knowledge and open attitude.

I definitely owe a debt of gratitude to all my respondents who allowed me to interview them. Without the data they shared with me, this thesis would not have been possible.

A more personal thanks goes to my family and friends. My parents supported and encouraged me over the years, as did my parents in law. I really appreciate that. I owe my sister for her sweetness all these years and Samantha for her support, patience and laughs during the time of writing my thesis.

I owe my love and a debt of deep gratitude to Timmy, who is my best encourager for many years. His support, love and intelligence helped me to develop myself in many ways. Our exchanges of views helped me during the thesis process and I am sure that our interesting discussions will go on in the future. I hope that I may receive a lot more of your inspiring personality till the day that our paths will separate inevitably.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................................3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................7

1. RESEARCH DESIGN ........................................................................................................................ 11

1.1 Research Question .................................................................................................................. 12

1.2 Methodology........................................................................................................................... 13

1.3 Structure of the Thesis ............................................................................................................ 18

2. CRIMINOLOGICAL PYRAMID ......................................................................................................... 20

2.1 Green Criminology .................................................................................................................. 21

2.2 Transnational Environmental Crime......................................................................................... 23

2.3 Wildlife Crime ......................................................................................................................... 25

2.4 The Illegal Tiger Trade ............................................................................................................. 27

3. CITES AND THE ILLEGAL TIGER TRADE .......................................................................................... 28

3.1 The Tiger Trade and CITES ....................................................................................................... 30

3.2 China’s Domestic Tiger Trade and CITES .................................................................................. 31

3.3 The Effectiveness of CITES ....................................................................................................... 31

3.4 CITES Paternalistic? ................................................................................................................. 32

4. THE INTERNATIONAL FIGHT AGAINST TIGER CRIME ..................................................................... 34

4.1 Transnational Advocacy Networks (TANs)................................................................................ 35

4.2 The Increased Role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) ............................................. 36

4.3 Transnational Collaborations ................................................................................................... 36

4.4 Political Propaganda? .............................................................................................................. 39

5. NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE ILLEGAL TIGER TRADE .................................................................... 41

5.1 The ‘Walking Gold’ .................................................................................................................. 42

5.2 The Market ............................................................................................................................. 45

5.3 Actors Involved in the Trade Chain .......................................................................................... 51

5.4 Poaching and Transportation Methods .................................................................................... 54

6. PROBLEMATIC FACTORS ............................................................................................................... 56

6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 57

6.2 The Ivory Tower: Rangers and International Bureaucrats ......................................................... 57

6.3 Confusion in a Culture ............................................................................................................. 60

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6.4 Different Justifications for Saving the Wild Tiger ...................................................................... 67

6.5 Lack of Valuable Data on the Involvement of Organized Crime ................................................ 70

6.6 Lack of Collaboration and Political Will .................................................................................... 74

6.7 Tiger Farming .......................................................................................................................... 76

CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................... 88

REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 93

ANNEX I .......................................................................................................................................... 103

ANNEX II ......................................................................................................................................... 104

ANNEX III ........................................................................................................................................ 105

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INTRODUCTION

“Thai officials have raided a Buddhist temple that is home to more than 100 tigers and are

investigating suspected links to wildlife trafficking, authorities said on Thursday. Wat Pa

Luang Ta Bua, or Tiger Temple, in Thailand’s western Kanchanaburi province, is popular

with tourists who pet, cuddle and pose for selfies with the big cats. The temple has been

dogged for years by talk of links to wildlife trafficking and its maltreatment of tigers.”2

February 5 2015, the Guardian

The famous Tiger Temple in Thailand pretends to be an animal sanctuary and denies animal

cruelty and illegal trafficking. However, Edwin Wiek, Dutch founder of a Wildlife Rescue

Center in Thailand, states that: “The Tiger Temple is a ‘money maker’ and is easily able to

bribe people to stop the prosecution.”3 The trade in tiger, tiger parts and derivatives is

controlled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). With

180 member countries they aim to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals

and plants does not threaten their survival.4 The International Union for the Conservation of

Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species categorizes the tiger as endangered, and the

species is considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.5

In the 1950s, the government of China offered a bounty for killing tigers. However,

this came to an end in 1977 when the international community noticed a dramatic decrease in

wild tiger numbers. They became aware that the tiger was on a path to extinction.6 In the early

1900s, tiger species roamed through the forests of Asia with a population of around 100.000,

but the total global wild tiger population is currently around 3.200 individuals.7 This means

that the numbers of wild tigers have declined 97% since 1900.

2 Thailand's famous Tiger Temple raided for suspected wildlife trafficking. (2015, February 5). The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/05/thailands-famous-tiger-temple-raided-for-suspected-wildlife-trafficking 3 Interview E. Wiek, August 2014 4 CITES. (n.d.). What is CITES? [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.php 5 TRAFFIC. (2008). What’s Driving the Wildlife Trade? A Review of Expert Opinion on Economic and Social Drivers of the Wildlife Trade and Trade Control Efforts in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. World Bank: Washington, DC. 6 EIA (2013). Summary of Tiger Farming Timeline. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/EIA-Tiger-Farming-Timeline-Feb-27-20131.pdf 7 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Whittles: Dunbeath.

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According to Wyatt, the relationship with wildlife in this time is connected to the

overexploitation of species.8 Poaching is the number one concern for the illegal tiger trade.9

Poaching accounts for 78% of the deaths of Sumatran tigers.10 From the nine tiger sub-species

already three are extinct due human pressures: the Caspian, the Javan and the Bali tiger. Four

sub-species are endangered, which are the Bengal, the Indochinese, the Siberian and the

Malayan tiger. The most critically endangered tiger species are the South-China and the

Sumatran tiger.11 South-China tiger even belongs to the ten most endangered animals in the

world. There are only around thirty of them left in the wild.12

Sellar advocates that the tiger is perhaps, among all fauna, the most prominent species

in religion, art, literature and legend.13 People worship the tiger for his health and fertility and

is seen as the ultimate totem of power and sexuality.14 There still exists a big black market for

their skins, bones and many other parts and derivatives. Rising economies in demand

countries could be considered as currently one of the most important reasons for this

remaining market. Whereas tiger bones traditionally were being used for health issues, these

are now likely being used for wealth issues. There seems to be a swift from health to wealth.15

The incredible rise of markets created by globalization and the ease of smuggling,

advanced the trade in wildlife to a new and uncontrollable level. The wildlife trade is

estimated to be worth 50-150 billion dollars per year.16 Transnational environmental threats

such as species extinction are likewise felt way beyond the country of origin. Michalowski

and Kramer emphasize that such extinction can have “destructive environmental, economic,

8 Wyatt, T. (2013). Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims and the Offenders. London: Palgrave Macmillian. 9 Wellsmith, M. (2011). Wildlife Crime: The Problems of Enforcement. European Journal on Crime Policy and Research 17, 125-148. 10 EUR-Lex (2014). Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the EU Approach against Wildlife Trafficking. 52014DC0064. Retrieved from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52014DC0064 11 EIA (2014). Act to help end tiger farms on International Tiger Day. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/act-to-help-end-tiger-farms-on-international-tiger-day 12 World of Wildlife (n.d.). Soorten Tijgers. Retrieved from http://www.worldofwildlife.nl/soorten-tijgers.html 13 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Whittles: Dunbeath. 14 TRAFFIC International(2010, November 18). Closing a Deadly Gateway [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC9CATzZCO4 15 Carrington, D. (2014, July 15). Cheetah smuggling driving wild population to extinction, report says. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/15/cheetah-smuggling-wild-luxury-pets-gulf?CMP=twt_gu 16 UNEP (2014). Emerging Technologies: Smarter ways to fight wildlife crime. UNEP.

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aesthetic and cultural impacts on places far removed from the source of the problem.”17 This

also accounts for the extinction of the tiger species.

The fight against the illegal tiger trade can be considered as one big transnational

collaboration between many actors around the world. Actors, such as CITES, scientists,

INTERPOL, but also non-governmental organizations (NGOs), who increasingly take a

central role in global governance,18 have made and still make huge efforts to contribute in the

fight against the illegal tiger trade.

An absolute peak in global attention on the tiger species was the International Forum

for Tiger Conservation in St. Petersburg held on November 21-24 in 2010, hosted by Prime

Minister Vladimir Putin and the Government of the Russian Federation. Such a big event,

hosted by a president from an influential country, for one single species is unique. During this

Forum the international community agreed that the wild tiger population have to be doubled

by 2022 (TX2), the next Chinese Year of the Tiger. Meanwhile, it is already 2015; four and a

half years after the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg. The 2nd Stocktaking Conference of The

Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) is already held in 2014 with tiger range governments

who agreed that while progress has been made, critical areas of concern remained.19

However, the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC),

which is pronounced as i-quick, has called for a "new era where perpetrators of serious

wildlife crimes will face a formidable and coordinated response."20 But, even with the

international attention by all transnational collaborations, the practical impact on the ground

seems to be minimal. Many efforts seems simply ineffective.21 Alongside, there is still not

much scientific research on wildlife crime, so a lot of data are missing. This stands in stark

contrast to the issue of the illegal drug market which gets a high amount of attention in

research, and contains a huge amounts of data and case studies.22 It is therefore of great

17 Michalowski, R. & Kramer, R. (2014: p. 189/190). Transnational Environmental Crime. In: Reichel, P. & Albanese, J. (eds.), Handbook of Transnational Crime and Justice (189-213). SAGE Publications: United States. 18 Schouten, G. (2013). Tabling Sustainable Commodities through Private Governance (Doctoral dissertation), University of Utrecht. 19 WWF. (2014). Critical gaps need attention if wild tiger numbers are to double. Retrieved from http://wwf.panda.org/?229031/Critical-gaps-need-attention-if-wild-tiger-numbers-are-to-double 20 Elliot, L. (2012: p. 100). Fighting Transnational Environmental Crime. Journal of International Affairs 66 (1), 87-104. 21 Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. (2014). The Global Response to Transnational Organized Environmental Crime Key Messages and Core Recommendations. Retrieved from http://www.globalinitiative.net/download/global-initiative/Global%20Initiative%20-%20Organized%20Environmental%20Crime%20%20Key%20Messages%20and%20Core%20Recommendations%20-%20June%202014.pdf 22 South, N. & Wyatt, T. (2011). Comparing Illicit Trades in Wildlife and Drugs: An Exploratory Study. Deviant Behavior 32, 538-561.

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importance that a criminological study is done into the problematic factors which hinder the

fight against the illegal tiger trade. The international community needs to get informed of

what kind of problematic factors there consists, to improve their strategies. The new insights

given by this research will contribute to the scientific debate on the illegal tiger trade, with the

hope that the fight against this illegal trade would continuously be improved.

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1. RESEARCH DESIGN

RESEARCH QUESTION

METHODOLOGY

STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS

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1.1 Research Question

In this study, the inhibiting, problematic factors for an effective fight against the illegal tiger

trade will be explored. Wildlife crime still suffers from a lack of research, data and case

studies in comparison to other crimes. Also research on the illegal tiger trade is underexposed

in the field of criminology. As a result, there is little scientific material on this matter. This

current research therefore attempts to provide new material and especially new insights

surrounding the fight against the illegal tiger trade. Many transnational collaborations make

huge efforts to counter the illegal tiger trade, but it seems that some important factors throw a

spanner in the works. To guide this research the following research question will be central:

Which problematic factors hinder the fight against the illegal tiger trade?

During the three months of research at the headquarters (the General Secretariat) of

INTERPOL in Lyon France in 2014, and during the research afterwards, various problematic

factors in the fight against the illegal tiger trade became visible. In order to first get an idea of

the place of the illegal tiger trade in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species (CITES) , the first sub question to be dealt with is how the illegal tiger trade is

embedded in CITES. In addition, to acquire an insight in the worldwide collaborations that

contribute to the fight against the illegal tiger trade, the second sub question to be considered,

is what kind of transnational collaborations fight the illegal tiger trade. Since the illegal tiger

trade has a different nature and scope than other wildlife crime, it is also needful to ask what

the nature and extent of the illegal tiger trade is. Finally, after these three sub questions, the

thesis will confront the last sub question: which factors hinder the fight against the illegal

tiger trade? The following table gives an overview of all the asked questions in this research.

Research question: Which problematic factors hinder the fight against the illegal tiger trade? Sub question 1: How is the illegal tiger trade embedded in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)? Sub question 2: What kind of transnational collaborations are there to fight the illegal tiger trade? Sub question 3: What is the nature and extent of the illegal tiger trade? Sub question 4: Which factors hinder the fight against the illegal tiger trade?

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1.1.1 Definitions used in the research question

Problematic factors – problematic issues that throw a spanner in the works in the fight

against the illegal tiger trade.

Illegal tiger trade – taking, trading, exploiting or possessing of tigers in contravention

of national and international laws. But also harmful transgressions regarding the tiger

species.

The fight – the collaboration between state and non-state actors who together try to

make an effort to stop the illegal tiger trade. These actors are taking central positions

in terms of rule-making, standard-setting, monitoring compliance and enforcement.23

1.2 Methodology

1.2.1 Methods and Techniques In order to increase the credibility and the validity of the results, a triangulation of several

methodologies is being used. This to cross-check the results and comparing them. The used

qualitative methods in this research are: a literature study, semi-structured and structured

interviews, visual analysis and a RAA at INTERPOL. To continuously stay up-to-date during

the time of this research, popular media, such as influential newspapers as The New York

Times and The Times of India, related to the research topic are also being followed. In

addition, because many contacts on LinkedIn are actors in the fight against the illegal tiger

trade and posted messages about this subject, I also followed LinkedIn for new findings,

attitudes and opinions from influential actors.

Literature study

The method of literature study permeates the whole research. The subject of the research is

approached from a multidisciplinary perspective, which is common in green criminology.

This means that besides the use of criminological literature, literature from other disciplines

such as, philosophy, ecology, biology and public relations is being used. This approach helped

with redefine problems outside of normal boundaries. Because of the limited amount of

scientific literature surrounding the illegal tiger trade, other sources such as, newspaper

articles, reports from NGOs, law enforcement reports (inter alia from INTERPOL) and

reports from international organizations are consulted.

23 Schouten, G. (2013). Tabling Sustainable Commodities through Private Governance (Doctoral dissertation), University of Utrecht.

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Interviews

In total, eight interviews are conducted for this research. The list of all the interviews, with the

names of the respondents and the related dates, can be found in Annex I. Persons who are

involved in the fight against the illegal tiger trade are chosen for the interviews, since these

are the most related to the research question. Three of these eight interviews were face-to-face

and semi-structured. One in the Netherlands, one in France and one via Skype. From these

interviews, transcriptions were made. In addition to these ‘face-to-face’ interviews, five e-

mail-based interviews were held to provide more primary data. This were structured

interviews. There were three main reasons for using this e-mail based method. The first

reason is that all of the e-mail respondents do not live in the Netherlands, which made face-to-

face interactions more difficult. Second, email-based interviews allow respondents to take

their time and formulate a response to certain questions that may otherwise be off the cuff in

face-to-face interactions. Third, they provide an immediate and accurate transcript of the

discussion between the respondent and the researcher. This saved some cost and investment

of time and reduced the potential for errors that can develop during the transcription process.24

I would like to shortly introduce all of the respondents. First, I spoke with Daan van

Uhm, a PhD candidate in wildlife crime at the department of Criminology at the Utrecht

University. He is especially doing research on the illegal wildlife trade in Europe. This

interview was especially focused on his experience as a researcher of wildlife crime and on

in-depth information of the illegal tiger trade. Another respondent is Rinke Brussel, a

candidate for the European Parliament for D66. He is committed to support EU policies which

ensure that Europe’s use of natural resources stays within the limits. The emphasis in this

interview was on the role of Europe in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade. Two other

respondents are both leading green criminologists. Rob White is a professor of Criminology at

the University of Tasmania and Tanya Wyatt is a senior lecturer in Criminology at the

Northumbria University in Newcastle. In this two interviews the focus was on the perception

of a green criminologist on the fight against the illegal tiger trade and on some in-depth

information of this trade. The fifth respondent is the China Team from the World

Conservation Society (WCS). The focus of this interview was on the approach of the WCS, as

a NGO, of their fight against the illegal tiger trade. The sixth person that is interviewed is

Ioana Botezatu. She is project leader of Project PREDATOR at the environmental security 24 Holt, T.J. (2014). Exploring Strategies for Qualitative Criminological and Criminal Justice Inquire Using On-Line Data. In: Copes, H. (ed.), Advancing Qualitative Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice (79-101)

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department at INTERPOL. She has a lot of knowledge about the trade in Asian Big Cats and

the international response on this trade. The focus during the interview was especially on the

online trade and on the transnational collaboration. Another respondent is Edwin Wiek, the

Dutch founder of a Wildlife Rescue Center in Thailand. He was important for this research

because he was located at one of the tiger range countries and knew much about the Tiger

Temple in Thailand and the related tiger trade. This subject was also the focus of the

interview.

It was a conscious choice to conduct interviews with persons who are involved in the

fight against the illegal tiger trade. Scientists, a conservationists, an international enforcer, a

rescue worker and a politician gave insights in what is happening on a regional and

international scale. In addition to the questioning to the facts surrounding the fight against the

illegal tiger trade, the questioning to the opinions of the respondents were central. The aim

was to understand (verstehen) their attitudes towards the fight against the illegal tiger trade.

This new insights provided me interesting data and a guidance for identifying the problematic

factors which hinder the fight against the illegal tiger trade.

Visual analysis

This type of methodology has a long tradition in social anthropology and sociology.25

However, it is not uncommon in criminology that one borrows the methods of other sub

disciplines. I used the image as another tool to collect data. In this research, only the

documentary form is used as a visual method. The documentaries that are being analyzed are

from the NGOs, WWF and TRAFFIC who are strongly involved in the fight against the

illegal tiger trade. A documentary from National Geographic is also being analyzed. The

content of the documentaries is analyzed by producing objective descriptions. Besides the

literature study and the interviews these documentaries gave valuable information to check

the results from other sources and even provided new data and insights.

Resources Assignment Agreement (RAA) at INTERPOL, Lyon France

INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization with 190 member

countries. They work to prevent and investigate a wide range of crimes such as, drug crime,

25 Knoblauch, H., Baer, A., Laurier, E., Petschke, S., Schnettles, E. (2008). Visual Analysis. New Developments in the Interpretative Analysis of Video and Photography. Forum: Qualitative Social Research Sozialforschung, 9(3), art. 14.

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cybercrime, trafficking in human beings and environmental crime. INTERPOL’s response to

the last crime was especially of interest for my research. I worked at INTERPOL’s

environmental sub-directorate for three months in 2014 (April-June) to gain data for this

thesis and eventually also for INTERPOL and to experience how it is to work in an

international enforcement environment. I was especially involved in Project PREDATOR.

This Project supports and enhances the governance and law enforcement capacity for the

conservation of Asian big cats.26 Their objective is that tackling big cat crime requires an

enforcement response that employs advanced, intelligence-led investigations and the

engagement of the whole criminal justice system.27 In the short amount of time I worked

there, I witnessed successes (such as successful trainings) but also the struggles (such as

difficulties with obtaining reliable data) they had to deal with. Observations and conversations

with team members provided me an insight in how the international police organization

responds to the illegal tiger trade, implying their policy, attitude and regulations. Moreover, I

had the opportunity to attend various meetings, such as team meetings within the

environmental sub-directorate, but also meetings with persons from outside, such as Nicolas

Hulot.28 These meetings gave me insights in the working atmosphere of INTERPOL (such as

the intern hierarchy) and showed how they work together with other important persons and

organizations. Besides this I had the chance to take a look in various confidential documents,

which gave me information on offenders and penalties in various member countries for

example. All in all it was a special experience and it has absolutely contributed to the

development of this current research.

1.2.2 Reflections

The reflections on the methodology has as its task to lay bare the imperfections of the

conducted research. This will be useful for the researcher and for researchers who want to

conduct a similar study. The used data and research method, my role as a researcher and the

ethical issues will be reflected.

26 INTERPOL (2013). Project PREDATOR [Fact sheet]. Retrieved from http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Environmental-crime/Resources 27 Ibid. 28 Nicolas Hulot is a celebrity in France and has a passion for the nature and environment.

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Data and type of research

The lack of scientific material surrounding the current subject is the reason that this research

also received data from many other non-scientific sources. The impartiality of the studies of

these sources is always questionable. This applies in particular to news articles. Although the

data is cross-checked, this may have negatively affected the internal validity and credibility.

In addition, some data could be more valuable if field research was conducted. The subject of

the study primarily takes place in Southeast Asia, while the research is conducted behind the

desk in France and the Netherlands. This creates a great physical distance. Because of this,

this study might have overlooked some important data. For a real ‘thick description’ of the

situation, more fieldwork could be useful. During my stay at the Environmental Crime

Programme of INTERPOL, I had access to some criminal intelligence regarding the illegal

tiger trade. Though most of this intelligence cannot be published openly, it gave me an insight

into the way important information is gained and analyzed by influential NGOs and other

organizations such as INTERPOL itself.

My role as a researcher

This research is based on direct perception, which means that I, as a researcher, am the

research instrument. This means that the researcher is seen as an active respondent in the

research process.29 This is done by using “their sensory organs to grasp the study objects,

mirroring them in their consciousness, where they then are converted into phenomenological

representations to be interpreted”.30 By this I have the potential to influence the collection of

empirical materials.31This has an impact on the internal reliability. While the impact would

not be as great as in field research, I still have to take notice of it, in the sense of reflexivity.

The qualitative interview should be understood as a social interaction.32 By actually giving

enough space to the respondent, by keeping the interview questions as objective as possible,

the respondents have been able to express their own true attitudes towards the subject.

Further, I have deliberately chosen to analyze many different arguments, in order to expose

various sights on the current subject.

29 Pezalla, A.E., Pettigrew, J., Miller-Day, M. (2012). Researching the researcher-as-instrument: an exercise in interviewer self-reflexivity. Qualitative Research 12(2), 165-185. 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid.

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Ethical issues

This research is submitted and assessed in the context of ensuring integrity and quality. I hold

myself to the responsibilities that I have as a scientific researcher. All my respondents

cooperated voluntary and knew their role in this study.

1.3 Structure of the Thesis

This research will not start with specific theories which determine the matter that is sought,

namely the problematic factors which hinder the fight against the illegal tiger trade, but it are

these problematic factors themselves which determine with which theoretical approaches we

should explain them. This means that the theories in this research are constructed from the

data itself, which is called a ‘grounded theory method’.33 The reason for this is because there

is not a general theoretical framework which is applicable for all the problematic factors. The

following theories are used to explain the various problematic factors in chapter six: the

labeling theory of Howard Becker (1963), cultural imperialism theory, the notion

‘overlapping consensus’ of John Rawls (2001), the notion ‘successful failure’ of NASA

(1970) and the neutralization theory of Sykes and Matza (1957).

A part from the introduction, this thesis consists of the following chapters: research

design (chapter 1); criminological pyramid (chapter 2); CITES and the illegal tiger trade

(chapter 3); the fight: transnational collaborations (chapter 4); nature and extent of the illegal

tiger trade (chapter 5) and the problematic factors (chapter 6). Finally, this thesis ends with a

conclusion that will answer the research question. The following will provide an overview of

the chapters:

Chapter 1 provides a clear overview of the research design. It includes the proposed

questions, the used methodology, the reflections on the research and the structure of the

thesis.

Chapter 2 sets out the criminological pyramid to show how this research is criminological

embedded. It starts with the top, which is green criminology as a perspective for this study. It

continues with transnational environmental crime as the most general type of crime which

encompasses wildlife crime and the illegal tiger trade.

33 Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing Grounded Theory (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications: United States.

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Chapter 3 shortly describes how the illegal tiger trade is embedded in CITES. In addition, it

will discuss the effectiveness of CITES and there will be asked whether CITES could be

considered as paternalistic.

Chapter 4 shows the different transnational collaborations who together fight against the

illegal tiger trade. Transnational advocacy networks, the increased role of non-governmental

organizations and the various transnational collaborations will be discussed. At the end there

will be asked to what extent these transnational collaborations could be considered as political

propaganda.

Chapter 5 sketches an overview of the nature and extend of the illegal tiger trade. The

discussed subjects in this chapter are: the ‘walking gold’; the market; persons involved in the

trade and the poaching and transportation methods.

Chapter 6 sheds light on six problematic factors which hinder the fight against the illegal tiger

trade. The discussed factors are: The Ivory Tower; Confusion; Different Justifications for

Saving the Wild Tiger; Lack of Valuable Data on the Involvement of Organized Crime;

Lack of Collaboration and Political Will; and Tiger Farming.

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2. CRIMINOLOGICAL PYRAMID

GREEN CRIMINOLOGY

TRANSNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME

WILDLIFE CRIME

THE ILLEGAL TIGER TRADE

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This part provides an overview of the criminological pyramid in which the current research is

embedded. The current thesis is written from a green criminological perspective. This is an

perspective on inter alia transnational environmental crime, which is is the broadest crime

category within green criminology. Transnational environmental crime encompasses wildlife

crime as sub-category. Wildlife crime subsequently encompasses the illegal tiger trade as sub-

category. The following pyramid shows this criminological hierarchy.34

Figure 1 - Criminological Pyramid

2.1 Green Criminology

The role of consumption of wildlife and the use of natural resources as such were not

common subjects to talk about. However, these subjects currently become more presented as

serious and urgent issues.35 Critical study of environmental crimes and harms emerged in the

early 1990s, which is now called ‘green criminology’.36 A number of scholars around the

world started to teach, write and communicate about same environmental issues and concerns.

It is even assumed by Zahn in 1999 that as Sutherland’s white-collar crime expanded their

crime paradigm, environmental crime will change it in the future.37 Meanwhile, the future has

arrived since the calendar designates the year 2015 and he may be right.

34 The size of the form does not imply the size of the crime category. 35 South, N. & White, R. (2013). The Antecedents and Emergence of a ‘Green’ Criminology. In: Agnew, R. (ed.), Annual Meeting Presidential Papers – Selected Papers from the Presidential Panels: Expanding the Core: Neglected Crimes, Groups, Causes and Policy Approaches. American Society of Criminology. 36 Lynch, M.J. & Stretesky, P.B. (2003). The meaning of green: contrasting criminological perspectives. Theoretical Criminology 7(2), 217-238. 37 Ibid.

Green Criminology

Transnational Environmental Crime

Widllife Crime

The Illegal Tiger Trade

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This study is written from a green criminological perspective, but how can this field

exactly be defined? South and White (2013) state: “Green criminology can be defined as the

theoretical and empirical study of activities and actions that impact in a damaging way on the

natural environment, diverse species (human and non-human) and the planet.”38 However,

green criminology itself cannot be considered as a theory, but more as a perspective.

Important to add is that this perspective provides a broad and open framework, which means

that it encompasses all kinds of intellectual, empirical and political orientations towards

harms, offences and crimes related to the environment, the various species and the earth as a

whole.39 Lynch and Stretesky add that the perspective is more a guideline, than a set of rules

or axioms. There is no rigid theoretical structure to be found in green criminology.40

Since green criminology has grown as a own criminological field, it also has

developed sub-perspectives or sub-approaches. Rob White, explains that different sectors

within green criminology will respond in different ways to environmental harms and so also

to the illegal tiger trade.41 According to White, there are four kinds of green criminological

perspectives regarding wildlife crime.

First, he describes the ‘specieist’ perspective. This perspective rejects the idea of any

form of wildlife trade, whether legal or illegal. Those criminologists would call for the

complete banning of any kind of trade in non-human animals. They would advocate for the

rights of each animal, as well as for the species as a whole.42 An example of such a scholar is

Beirne (2009).43

Second, he points out the ‘biodiversity/environmental’ perspective. This implies the

believe that the role of green criminologists is to prevent illegal trade and poaching of

endangered animals. The problem would be defined in terms of ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’, rather

than harm to animals as such. These protectors of biodiversity will “take action to protect

38 South, N. & White, R. (2013: p. 9). The Antecedents and Emergence of a ‘Green’ Criminology. In: Agnew, R. (ed.), Annual Meeting Presidential Papers – Selected Papers from the Presidential Panels: Expanding the Core: Neglected Crimes, Groups, Causes and Policy Approaches. American Society of Criminology. 39 Ibid. p. 10 40 Lynch, M.J. & Stretesky, P.B. (2003). The meaning of green: contrasting criminological perspectives. Theoretical Criminology 7(2), 217-238. 41 Interview, Rob White, August 2014. 42 Ibid. 43 South, N. & White, R. (2013). The Antecedents and Emergence of a ‘Green’ Criminology. In: Agnew, R. (ed.), Annual Meeting Presidential Papers – Selected Papers from the Presidential Panels: Expanding the Core: Neglected Crimes, Groups, Causes and Policy Approaches. American Society of Criminology.

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animals regardless of the potential negative implications for any specific individual animal”,

explains White.44 An example of a scholar is Wellsmith (2010).45

Thirdly, White defines the ‘conservation criminologists’ who tend to focus on the

fauna itself and apply techniques from mainstream criminology, such as situation crime

prevention measures, in order to stop such trade.46 This perspective also prioritize the

intrinsic value of ecosystems over human interests.47 Moreover, human beings are seen as the

most important cause of environmental harm and need therefore to be controlled.48 An

example of a scholar is Gibbs et al. (2010).49

Finally, he describes the ‘critical green’ criminologists. These criminologists argue

that context is vital to understand how and why conservation and preservation occurs in the

form that it does. An example of a scholar may be Brisman (2012).50

These various sub-approaches will respond in different ways to the illegal tiger trade.

It is important to distinguish them in order to understand different approaches by

criminologists. This list of approaches, however, is not exhaustive; others may still be

developed.

2.2 Transnational Environmental Crime

The term ‘transnational crime’ got its entrance in the mid-1970s, when the fast going

transformation in transportation and communication technology became part of daily life.

Michalowski and Kramer emphasize that this does not mean that transnational crime did not

occur before, but criminal activity occurred mostly on local or regional level.51 White states

that one of the characteristics of the contemporary world is the interconnectedness of people,

systems and networks. This interconnectedness is also called the ‘butterfly effect’.52 This

means that when something happens in one part of the world, the other part of the world will

feel the impact. The local is part of a global system of networks and flows. This also applies

44 Interview, Rob White, August 2014. 45 South, N. & White, R. (2013). 46 Interview, Rob White, August 2014. 47 Gibbs, C., Gore, M.L., McGarrell, E.F., Rivers, L. (2009). Introducing Conservation Criminology: Towards Interdisciplinary Scholarship on Environmental Crimes and Risks. The British Journal of Criminology 50(1), 124-144. 48 Ibid. 49 South, N. & White, R. (2013). 50 Ibid. 51 Michalowski, R. & Kramer, R. (2014). Transnational Environmental Crime. In: Reichel, P. & Albanese, J. (eds.), Handbook of Transnational Crime and Justice (189-213). SAGE Publications: United States. 52 White, R. (2011). Transnational Environmental Crime: Toward an Eco-global Criminology. Routledge: New York.

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to transnational environmental crime (TEC). Transnational environmental threats such as

species extinction are likewise felt way beyond the country of origin. Such extinction can

have destructive environmental, economic, aesthetic and cultural impacts on places far

removed from the source of the problem, state Michalowski and Kramer.53 Also INTERPOL

addresses that environmental crime is not restricted by borders and can effect a nation’s

economy, security and even its existence.54

According to Elliot, TEC involves “the movement across borders of species,

resources, and pollutants in contravention of domestic law or in violations of prohibition or

regulation regimes established by multilateral environmental agreements”.55 However, White

shows that a more expansive definition includes transgressions that are harmful to humans,

environments and non-human animals, regardless of legality per se. He state that the

definition of transnational environmental crime is contentious and ambiguous.56

Michalowski and Kramer argue that the transnational dimensions of environmental

crime are shaped by three interrelated mechanisms (1) transborder ecosystem threats (2)

transborder flows of economic decisions (3) and transborder projections of power.57 Elliot

adds that a crime is transnational if it is committed (a) in more than one state (b) is committed

in one state but a substantial part of its preparation, planning, direction or control takes place

in another state (c) is committed in one state but involves an organized criminal group that

engages in criminal activities in more than one state (d) or is committed in one state but has

substantial effects in another state.58

TEC can broadly be divided in two categories: trafficking in natural resources and

trafficking in hazardous substances. Wright shows that the first includes the trade in

endangered species, illegal logging and illegal exploitation and trafficking of mineral

resources. The second involves the illegal trade in ozone depleting substances and the

dumping and trafficking of waste.59 Elliot states that transnational environmental crime is one

53 Michalowski, R. & Kramer, R. (2014). 54 INTERPOL. (n.d.). Environmental Crime. Retrieved from http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Environmental-crime/Environmental-crime 55 Elliot, L. (2012: p. 89). Fighting Transnational Environmental Crime. Journal of International Affairs 66(1), 87-104. 56 White, R. (2011). Transnational Environmental Crime: Toward an Eco-global Criminology. Routledge: New York. 57 Michalowski, R. & Kramer, R. (2014). Transnational Environmental Crime. In: Reichel, P. & Albanese, J. (eds.), Handbook of Transnational Crime and Justice (189-213). SAGE Publications: United States. 58 Elliot, L. (2007). Transnational Environmental Crime in the Asia Pacific: An 'Un(der)securitized' Security Problem?. Pacific Review, 20(4), 499-522. 59 Wright, G. (2011). Conceptualising and combating transnational environmental crime. Trends in Organized Crime 14, 332-346.

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of the fastest growing cross-border crimes. It is worth between 31 billion and 40 billion dollar

a year or even more. Its involving high profits and low risks.60 This is why many TECs can be

considered as a transnational organized crime (TOC). TEC has many similarities with other

TOCs, such as taking advantages of the ‘upperworld’ of corrupt officials and politicians for

example61, but they also have many differences. TEC is many times neglected despite the

effects and scale in comparison with other TOCs. Moreover, TEC also has a legal market;

there is not a total prohibition on the product of activity. The nature and impacts of TEC is

also different than that of traditional TOCs. The effects of TEC are damaging, but most of all

definitive and long lasting. Narcotics know an unlimited supply, but endangered species will

extinct and never come back again.62

2.3 Wildlife Crime

In the past, according to a report of TRAFFIC, wildlife populations were only nominally

affected by small human populations.63 Weapons in that time were not yet efficient and the

access to this animals was difficult. However, the development of modern technology by the

WOII and the colonization of Asia by Europeans, which brought a massive increase in human

numbers, formed a threat to new wildlife.64 The incredible rise of markets created by

globalization and the ease of smuggling, advanced the trade in wildlife to a new and

uncontrollable level. The cost of this trade is now ranging from 10 billion dollar up to 20

billion dollar globally per year,65 while the trade is estimated to be worth 50-150 billion

dollars per year.66

INTERPOL’s definition of wildlife crime is the “taking, trading, exploiting or

possessing of the world's wild flora and fauna in contravention of national and international

laws".67 Trading includes collecting, harvesting, possessing, processing, acquiring, exporting,

selling, bartering or exchanging.68 However, in the framework of green criminology, harms to

60 Elliot, L. (2012). Fighting Transnational Environmental Crime. Journal of International Affairs 66(1), 87-104. 61 Ibid. 62 Wright, G. (2011). 63 Oswell, A. H. (2010). The Big Cat Trade in Myanmar and Thailand. TRAFFIC. 64 Ibid. 65 Wilson-Wilde, L. (2010). Wildlife Crime: a Global Problem. Forensic Science Medicine and Pathology 6, 221-222. 66 UNEP. (2014). Emerging Technologies: Smarter ways to fight wildlife crime. UNEP. 67 Pires, S.F. & Moreto, W.D. (2011: p. 103). Preventing Wildlife Crimes: Solutions That Can Overcome the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’. European Journal on Crime Policy and Research 17, 101-123. 68 Wyatt, T. (2013). Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims and the Offenders. London: Palgrave Macmillian.

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wild flora and fauna that are not in contravention with the law to humans, could also be

considered as wildlife crime.

Wellsmith is pointing out the three different levels where wildlife crime occurs. First,

the micro-level, which includes individual acts of cruelty, such as poaching. Second, the

meso-level, which includes domestic trade in vulnerable species and organized illegal hunts.

Third, the macro-level, which includes the import and export of endangered species for

international trade.69

According to Wyatt the illegal wildlife trade is a “pervasive and destructive crime that

is contributing to biodiversity loss and species extinction around the globe”.70 It can be

considered as an organized and widespread criminal activity, involving transnational networks

that are linked with other crimes such as drugs, arms and money.71 This undermines the rule

of law, good governance and encourages corruption.72

Protected areas contain the richest biodiversity and so suffering most from wildlife

crime. Rangers who protect these parks and the wildlife in these parks are often attacked and

even killed by strong armed poachers. Also their families are often intimidated. But the

impact reaches beyond individuals. Also local communities suffer from threats, disturbance

and loss of natural resources from community reserves. Moreover, there are consisting legally

difficulties. In many countries, protected areas are exposed by weak judicial processes that

fail to prosecute wildlife traders even if they are caught.73 Those with responsibilities in the

area of wildlife crime report that the attention on wildlife crime remains marginalized. This

means limited resources and the suffering from a lack of political will to push such problems

higher up the agenda.74 Wellsmith argues that most agencies such as the police, consider other

objectives, like drugs, as more pressing.75

The penalties for wildlife crime offenses are, in most countries, extremely minor

compared to what a wildlife product is worth on the black market. This means that

prosecutions will not serve as a deterrent. Sellar pointed out, during the Seminar on the Illegal

wildlife trade and enforcement in the European Union held on January 15th 2015 at Utrecht,

69 Wellsmith, M. (2011). Wildlife Crime: The Problems of Enforcement. European Journal on Crime Policy and Research 17, 125-148. 70 Wyatt, T. (2013: p. 129). 71 UNEP. (2014). 72 Wyatt, T. (2013). 73 Dudley, N., Stolton, S. & Elliot, W. (2013). Editorial: Wildlife Crime Poses Unique Challenges to Protected Areas. Parks 19(1), 7-12. 74 Wellsmith, M. (2011). Wildlife Crime: The Problems of Enforcement. European Journal on Crime Policy and Research 17, 125-148. 75 Ibid.

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that in Nigeria an offender pays around 10 dollar for a wildlife crime offense. These

insignificant penalties and high profits are the ingredients for wildlife crime to grow,

according to Miller.76

2.4 The Illegal Tiger Trade

The illegal tiger trade takes place on the bottom of the criminological pyramid and can be

considered as a sub-category of wildlife crime and more in general of transnational

environmental crime. This type of crime is the subject of the current research, and will be

explained in chapter 5, which encompasses the nature and extend of the illegal tiger trade.

Chapter six will discuss six problematic factors which hinder the fight against this trade.

76 Miller, K. (2014). The Role of Transnational Advocacy Networks in Combating Wildlife Crime: The Case of the Illegal Ivory Trade. (Master thesis), University of Massachusetts.

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3. CITES AND THE ILLEGAL TIGER TRADE

THE TIGER TRADE AND CITES

CHINA’S DOMESTIC TIGER TRADE AND CITES

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CITES

CITES PATERNALISTIC?

SUB QUESTION I:

HOW IS THE ILLEGAL TIGER TRADE EMBEDDED IN THE CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES (CITES)?

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One of the earliest environmental issues that became addressed were the concerns about

overexploitation of wildlife and plants. The killing of whales, elephants, rhinos, tigers and

other endangered species became the subject of increasingly powerful norms.77 According to

Nadelmann, international prohibition regimes, emerge for various reasons: “to protect the

interests of the state and other powerful members of society; to deter, suppress, and punish

undesirable activities to provide for order, security, and justice among members of a

community; and to give force and symbolic representation to the moral values, beliefs, and

prejudices of those who make the laws.” The first ideas for an international treaty to protect

endangered animals and plants dates back to the early 1960s.78 The United Nations

Conference on the Human Environment, which was held in 1972, gave rise to further

enhanced awareness of the need for environmental regulations.79

Nadelmann advocates that international efforts to limit the killing of endangered

animals was earlier motivated largely by industry concerns that overharvesting of endangered

animals was proving negative to the long-tern economic interests of the endangered animals

industry.80 However, during the following decades, the motivations to control the trade

changed. Environmental and ecological concerns began to play the most important role.81

In 1973, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) treaty

was formed in Washington, DC by eighty countries,82 and came into force at the first of July

1975.83 CITES is the only international convention who is specifically dealing with wildlife

crime and has currently 180 member countries as parties,84 which also includes all the thirteen

tiger range countries. Each member state is required to appoint a CITES Management

Authority and a Scientific Authority to supervise implementation in their country.85 All

member states aim to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants

does not threaten their survival.86 They work towards this goal by using a licensing system

that controls all import and export of species covered by the Convention. These covered

77 Nadelmann, E.A. (1990). Global Prohibition Regimes: The Evolution of Norms in International Society. International Organization 44(4), 479-526. 78 Miller, K. (2014). The Role of Transnational Advocacy Networks in Combating Wildlife Crime: The Case of the Illegal Ivory Trade. (Master thesis), University of Massachusetts. 79 Carrabine, P. Cox, M., Plummer, L.K., South, N. (2009). Criminology: a sociological introduction. New York: Routledge. 80 Nadelmann, E.A. (1990). 81 Ibid. 82 Miller, K. (2014). 83 CITES. (n.d.). What is CITES? [Format description] Retrieved from http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.php 84 Ibid. 85 Miller, K. (2014). 86 CITES. (n.d.). What is CITES? [Format description] Retrieved from http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.php

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species are listed in three appendices, according to the degree of protection they need.

Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade in specimens of these species is

permitted only in exceptional circumstances. Appendix II species not necessarily threatened

with extinction, but in which the trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization

incompatible with their survival. Appendix III contains species that are protected in at least

one country.87

3.1 The Tiger Trade and CITES

Since 1975, the tiger is listed in Appendix I (the Siberian tiger since 1987).88 CITES adopts its

first tiger resolution in 1994. This included the internal ban on trade in tigers and tiger parts,

including captive bred specimens.89 It called parties to voluntarily prohibit domestic trade in

tiger parts and derivatives to stop international poaching and illegal trade.90 In 1997, a CITES

COP decision made tigers a priority issue and provided technical and political missions to

tiger range and consumer countries.91

The Secretariat produced a report in 1999 with comments and recommendations

regarding the tiger trade. The most important weaknesses were: very poor communication

within and between range states and many range states had insufficient legislation to allow

proper implementation of CITES. A CITES enforcement strategy, The Tiger Enforcement

Task Force (TEFT) was launched at a meeting in India in 2001. With this force they brought

tiger and law enforcement experts together from around the world.92 It also established a

mechanism to monitor and evaluate the scale and nature of illegal trade in Asian Big Cats.93 In

2007, CITES COP approves a Decision stating tiger farming should be abolished and tigers

should not be bred for trade, including domestic trade, in their parts and products.94

87 CITES. (n.d.). How CITES Works [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/how.php 88 Reeve, R. (2002). Policing International Trade in Endangered Species: The CITES Treaty and Compliance. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs. 89 TRAFFIC. (2008). What’s Driving the Wildlife Trade? A Review of Expert Opinion on Economic and Social Drivers of the Wildlife Trade and Trade Control Efforts in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. World Bank: Washington, DC. 90 EIA. (2013). Summary of Tiger Farming Timeline. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/EIA-Tiger-Farming-Timeline-Feb-27-20131.pdf 91 Reeve, R. (2002). Policing International Trade in Endangered Species: The CITES Treaty and Compliance. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs. 92 Ibid. 93 CITES. (2008). Interpretation and implementation of the Convention Species trade and conservation Asian big cats. Report of the Secretariat. Retrieved from http://www.cites.org/eng/com/sc/57/E57-31-1.pdf 94 EIA. (2013).

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3.2 China’s Domestic Tiger Trade and CITES

China, as an important tiger range and consumer country, will be shortly highlighted here to

show an example of a collaboration between CITES and a tiger range country. China banned

its domestic trade in tiger parts and products in 1993 and prohibited tiger farms to use their

tiger for commercial purposes (other than tourism).95 However, China openly confessed for

the first time at a meeting of the International Convention to Protect Endangered Species in

2014, that they allowed the trade in tiger skins from captives. This was never reported to

CITES before. China stated that they still ban trade in tiger bones, but not the trade in tiger

skins.96 Important to note is that already in 2012 China did not report progress in phasing out

tiger farming, when CITES Standing Committee asked their relevant Parties to do so.97 The

allowance of China in trading skins originated from captive tigers, could be explained by the

fact that, several countries in Asia have undergone significant economic development since

CITES was adopted. For example, in China and Vietnam, the new middle and upper income

classes have become driving forces behind trade in endangered species, such as the tiger

species. This economic development opened a new market seeking derivatives of tigers and

other wildlife, as collectables to signal status and prestige.98

3.3 The Effectiveness of CITES

The results of 89 questionnaires among experts on the wildlife trade, from a study from

TRAFFIC indicate that there is little consensus regarding the effectiveness of CITES. The

responses representing a spread from considering CITES as being very effective to not

successful.99 The lack of effectiveness of CITES could have something to do with the limited

sanctioning mechanism regarding member countries. CITES is dependent on the will and

capacity of members to fully implement and enforce the decisions that are made.100 The

implementation process of this legislation is what really determines whether a commitment of 95 Nowell, K. & Ling, X. (2007). Lifting China’s Tiger Trade Ban Would Be a Catastrophe for Conservation. Cat News 46, 28-29. 96 Khadka, N.S. (2014, July 12). China 'admits' trading in tiger skins. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28258595 97 EIA. (2013). 98 Wu, F. & Wen, B. (2015). Nongovernmental organizations and environmental protests: impacts in Asia. In: Harris, P.G. & Lang, G. (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Environment and Society in Asia. New York: Routledge. 99 TRAFFIC. (2008). What’s Driving the Wildlife Trade? A Review of Expert Opinion on Economic and Social Drivers of the Wildlife Trade and Trade Control Efforts in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. World Bank: Washington, DC. 100 Miller, K. (2014). The Role of Transnational Advocacy Networks in Combating Wildlife Crime: The Case of the Illegal Ivory Trade. (Master thesis), University of Massachusetts.

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a member country has any practical influence.101 This is also what Reeve addresses. She states

that the success of initiatives from CITES depend on the continues political will of range and

consumer states. But moreover on their willingness to devote funds towards the fight against

the illegal trade in tigers.102

The questionnaires from TRAFFIC showed that national legislation was generally

considered to be more effective and thus more successful.103 But, TRAFFIC argues that

national or transnational legislation may also be too general and needs to be more specified on

tigers. They also seems to have not enough funding and resources to be really effective. For

example, the bilateral wildlife trade/conservation agreements between Vietnam, Lao PDR and

Indochina are not focused on Tigers specifically and are largely considered to be ineffective

because of a lack of funding and resources allocated to their implementation.104

John M. Sellar, former CITES chief of enforcement, drew the attention on the good

parts of CITES, during the Seminar on the Illegal wildlife trade and enforcement in the

European Union held on January 15th 2015 at Utrecht. He addressed that besides the

weaknesses, this treaty also provides many good efforts to decline the trade in wildlife around

the world. He stated that without this treaty, the status of wildlife would be much worse.

3.4 CITES Paternalistic?

Previously it is described how CITES works regarding the illegal tiger trade, and especially

how the illegal tiger trade is embedded in this convention. Here, a short critical question to be

dealt with is if CITES can be considered as paternalistic. According to Nadelmann,

international regimes tend to reflect the economic and political interests of the dominant states

of international society.105 But, besides these interests, moral and emotional factors related to

“religious beliefs, humanitarian sentiments, faith in universalism, compassion, conscience,

paternalism, fear, prejudice, and the compulsion to proselytize can and do play important roles

in the creation and the evolution of international regime.”106

101 Reeve, R. (2002). Policing International Trade in Endangered Species: The CITES Treaty and Compliance. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs. 102 Ibid. 103 TRAFFIC. (2008). 104 TRAFFIC. (2008). What’s Driving the Wildlife Trade? A Review of Expert Opinion on Economic and Social Drivers of the Wildlife Trade and Trade Control Efforts in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. World Bank: Washington, DC. 105 Nadelmann, E.A. (1990). Global Prohibition Regimes: The Evolution of Norms in International Society. International Organization 44(4), 479-526. 106 Nadelmann, E.A. (1990: p. 480).

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The question that needs attention is, which states are dominant in the case of CITES

and which interests and beliefs regarding the tiger trade are seen as the most true? Some

scholars, such Wu and Wen (2015), consider CITES as somewhat paternalistic. They argue

that CITES was implemented without considering how developing countries could maintain

their wildlife or how people who depend on wildlife for their livelihoods would fare.107

Michalowski and Kramer are even more radical by stating that the current international

environmental law is only a product of international geopolitics, instead of real concerns to

minimize the harmful consequences of environmental crime.108 However, Miller pose the

opposite by arguing that CITES, like other environmental regimes, “continually negotiates a

delicate balance between politics and science, between facilitating economic development and

protecting the environment, between reflecting the will of states and accounting for the

perspectives of non-state actors.”109

Not every scholar will agree on the idea that CITES can be considered as paternalistic.

Others claim that international environmental conventions reflect the economic and political

interests of dominant states, which are mostly Western states. In either way, it stays important

to be critical on powerful conventions that control the environment.

107 Wu, F. & Wen, B. (2015). Nongovernmental organizations and environmental protests: impacts in Asia. In: Harris, P.G. & Lang, G. (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Environment and Society in Asia. New York: Routledge. 108 Michalowski, R. & Kramer, R. (2014). Transnational Environmental Crime. In: Reichel, P. & Albanese, J. (eds.), Handbook of Transnational Crime and Justice (189-213). SAGE Publications: United States. 109 Miller, K. (2014: p. 18). The Role of Transnational Advocacy Networks in Combating Wildlife Crime: The Case of the Illegal Ivory Trade. (Master thesis), University of Massachusetts.

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4. THE INTERNATIONAL FIGHT AGAINST TIGER CRIME

TRANSNATIONAL ADVOCACY NETWORKS

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

TRANSNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

POLITICAL PROPOGANDA?

SUB QUESTION II:

WHAT KIND OF TRANSNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS ARE THERE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE ILLEGAL TIGER TRADE?

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Environmental and wildlife crime recently gained an increasing priority amongst transnational

organizations and criminological researches.110 Sellar states that it was early in the 1970s that

the conservation community became aware of the rapid loss of wild tigers and the fact that the

tiger was on a path to extinction.111 This awareness increased in the early 1990s and caused

investments in conservation of wild tiger populations, according to Nowell.112 An absolute

peak in global attention was the International Forum for Tiger Conservation in St. Petersburg

held on November 21-24 in 2010, hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the

Government of the Russian Federation. Such a big event for one single species is unique. The

fight against the illegal tiger trade can be considered as one big transnational collaboration

between many influential actors around the world. These collaborations could also be called,

‘transnational advocacy networks’. In what follows, this network, the growing role of non-

governmental organizations, the description of the concrete collaborations and a critical note

on these networks will be discussed.

4.1 Transnational Advocacy Networks (TANs)

Transnational advocacy networks (TANs) tend to form around issues in which there is a lack

of valuable information and where values and norms play a central role, states Miller.113

According to political scientists Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink TANs are: “… those

actors working internationally on an issue, who are bound together by shared values, a

common discourse, and dense exchanges of information and services.”114 TANs can be

composed of many actors, such as NGOs, local social movements, academics, the media,

private sector entities, foundations, international and intergovernmental organizations and

parts of governments. The uniqueness of TANs lies in the fact that they work within the

traditional structures of stated and the already existing international institutions. They even

encourage these institutions to become more involved. So does the TANs help to bring

attention to their issue and get it onto the agendas of decision makers.115 This tendency is

clearly visible in the fight against the illegal tiger trade. Many actors working internationally

together to stem the decrease of wild tiger populations by fighting the illegal trade. They share

110 Wellsmith, M. (2011). Wildlife Crime: The Problems of Enforcement. European Journal on Crime Policy and Research 17, 125-148. 111 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 112. Nowell, K. (2000). Far from a Cure: The Tiger Trade Revisited. TRAFFIC International. 113 Miller, K. (2014). The Role of Transnational Advocacy Networks in Combating Wildlife Crime: The Case of the Illegal Ivory Trade. (Master thesis), University of Massachusetts. 114 Miller, K. (2014: p. 3). 115 Miller, K. (2014).

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the same values, a common discourse and exchange information and services, in order to

achieve their same goal. However, this is the perfect theoretical picture. In practice, there are

many factors that throw a spanner in the works for an effective combat. This problematic

factors are discussed in chapter six of this research.

4.2 The Increased Role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Schouten explains in her PhD dissertation that non-state actors, such as non-governmental

organizations (NGO’s) and businesses increasingly take a central role in global governance.116

She argues that “although state actors and intergovernmental institutions still have a central

position in international policymaking, non-state actors and new types of governance

arrangements increasingly shape outcomes in global politics.” Miller agrees and states that

(NGOs) play a critical role in global governance. The reason for this is because they have the

expertise, infrastructure, resources and relationships to build and sustain networks across

borders, argues Miller.117 Princen and Finger advocate that NGOs are able to appropriate

those environmental issues unresolvable by traditional politics, by using their own unique

negotiation methods to work together with other international actors.118

NGOs, such as World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Environmental

Investigation Agency (EIA) are definitely playing an important role in the fight against the

illegal tiger trade. They are contributing in many ways, such as in providing valuable

information about the trade, financially supporting organizations and shaping new strategies.

4.3 Transnational Collaborations

Transnational collaborations are essential in the case of the illegal tiger trade, because

individual countries may not have the political power, skills or funding to fight the illegal

tiger trade totally on their own. Wyatt made a distinction between four different collaborations

which are formed as an effort to fight wildlife crime: species collaborations, regional

collaborations, global collaborations and INTERPOL119. In this part of the thesis, Wyatt’s

116 Schouten, G. (2013). Tabling Sustainable Commodities through Private Governance (Doctoral dissertation), University of Utrecht. 117 Miller, K. (2014). The Role of Transnational Advocacy Networks in Combating Wildlife Crime: The Case of the Illegal Ivory Trade. (Master thesis), University of Massachusetts. 118 Princen, T., Finger, M. (1994). Environmental NGOs in World Politics: Linking the Local and the Global. New York: Routledge. 119 Wyatt, T. (2013). Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims and the Offenders. London: Palgrave Macmillian.

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format will be used and the most significant organizations will be discussed briefly to give an

overview.

4.3.1 Species Collaborations

The Species Survival Network (SSN) is one of the most important species collaborations for

the fight against illegal tiger trade. This network takes an ecocentric and species justice

perspective, and coordinates the activities of conservation, environmental and animal

protection organizations around the world.120 92 involved NGOs form working groups on 15

species (including tigers) or topics.121 Through scientific and legal research, education and

advocacy, the SSN is working to prevent over-exploitation of animals and plants due to

international trade.122

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world’s oldest and

largest global environmental organisation. Its red list gives attention to endangered species in

the whole world.123 This organization sponsors research and assists governments in the

implementation of laws, policy and best practices.124

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) can been seen as one of the most notable

and recognizable agencies that provides information about endangered species around the

world for decades, including tigers. Moreover, just like IUCN, it sponsors research and

partners with other conservation agencies worldwide.125

Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) monitors illegal

trafficking in endangered species. They are specialized in investigating and analyzing wildlife

trade trends, patterns, impact and drivers to provide the leading knowledge.126 This makes

them the worldwide leader in providing information.127

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) provides undercover investigations on

the frontlines of environmental crime and sets up campaigns to raise awareness on global

level.128

120 SSN (n.d.). The Species Survival Network [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.ssn.org/aboutus_EN.htm 121 Wyatt, T. (2013). Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims and the Offenders. London: Palgrave Macmillian. 122 SSN (n.d.). SSN Statement of Purpose [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.ssn.org/aboutus_ourmission_EN.htm 123 IUCN (2014). About IUCN [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.iucn.org/about/ 124 Schneider, J.L. (2012). Sold Into Extinction: The Global Trade in Endangered Species. United States: ABC-CLIO. 125 Ibid. 126 TRAFFIC (2008). About TRAFFIC [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.traffic.org/overview/ 127 Schneider, J.L. (2012). Sold Into Extinction: The Global Trade in Endangered Species. United States: ABC-CLIO 128 EIA (2015). About EIA [Format description]. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/about-eia

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4.3.2 Regional Collaborations

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations – Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-

WEN) is the largest regional intergovernmental law-enforcement organization of its kind.129 It

is a network that involves police, customs and environment agencies of 10 countries, which

are: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,

Vietnam and Thailand.130 They work closely with CITES and INTERPOL and take a

proactive approach to combat wildlife trafficking in Southeast Asia.131 Moreover, they could

be seen as a mechanism by which countries can share information and learn from each other's

best practices.132

The South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) officially began in 2011,

followed from the ASEA–WEN model. It is a regional network of eight Asian countries:

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.133 Their

mission is to “strengthen, promote and co-ordinate regional co-operation for Curbing illegal

wildlife trade that threatens the wild flora and fauna of South Asia”.134 CITES, INTERPOL,

WWF and TRAFFIC provide technical assistance to SAWEN.135

4.3.3 Global Collaborations

The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), which is pronounced

as i-quick, is the biggest global collaborative effort. It consists of five intergovernmental

organizations: INTERPOL, CITES, World Bank, WCO and UNODC. They work together to

bring coordinated support to national wildlife law enforcement agencies and the sub-regional

and regional networks that act in defense of natural resources.136

The Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) is a global alliance of governments, international

organizations, civil society, the conservation and scientific community, and the private sector.

They are all committed to work together for the common agenda to save wild tigers from

129 Wyatt, T. (2013). 130 ASEAN-WEN (2013). What is ASEAN-WEN? [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.asean-wen.org/index.php/about-us/what-is-asean-wen 131 Wyatt, T. (2013). Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims and the Offenders. London: Palgrave Macmillian. 132 ASEAN-WEN (2013). 133 Wyatt, T. (2013). 134 SAWEN (n.d.). Mission [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.sawen.org/mission/ 135 Wyatt, T. (2013). 136 ICCWC (n.d.). ICCWC: An Overview [Brochure]. Retrieved from http://www.cites.org/eng/prog/iccwc.php

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extinction. It is launched in 2008 by different founding partners as the World Bank and it is

led by the 13 tiger range countries.137

4.3.4 INTERPOL

INTERPOL, the world’s largest international police organization, with 190 member countries,

can be considered as the key stakeholder in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade.138

However, it does not have any specific law enforcement power. In 1992, INTERPOL began to

work on wildlife crime with only one fill-time officer, but is now growing significantly with

over 40 full-time employees from all around the world. INTERPOL’s Environmental Crime

Programme is developed in 2009, as an externally funded unit which executes different

environmental projects and guides and assists operations that are targeted at specific regions

or at specific green crimes.139 The Wildlife Crime Working Group of INTERPOL focusses on

the poaching, trafficking and illegal possession of protected non-human animals and plants.140

Project PREDATOR is of utmost importance for this thesis. This project supports and

enhances the governance and law enforcement capacity for the conservation of Asian Big

Cats,141 which includes tigers. During my stay as an RAA at INTERPOL, I was part of this

project. I received valuable information for my research and witnessed the hard work they

provided to perform trainings and many other important activities regarding the combat

against the illegal trade in Asian Big Cats.

4.4 Political Propaganda?

All these different collaborations form a big transnational advocacy network, working to fight

the illegal tiger trade. People and organizations from very different backgrounds work

together in a global, political, social and economic environment, which is a complex task.142

Pakes states that different languages, and different organizational and hierarchical structures

can create difficulties for an efficient collaboration.143 Cultural differences are especially

137 GTI (2015). Who We Are [Format description]. Retrieved from http://globaltigerinitiative.org/who-we-are/ 138 Wyatt, T. (2013). 139 Wyatt, T. (2013). Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims and the Offenders. London: Palgrave Macmillian. 140 Ibid. 141 INTERPOL (2013). Project PREDATOR [Fact sheet]. Retrieved from http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Environmental-crime/Resources 142 Hemmati, M. (2002). Multi-stakeholder Processes for Governance and Sustainability: Beyond Deadlock and Conflict. London: Routledge. 143 Pakes, F. (2004). Comparative Criminal Justice. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.

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visible in the attitude towards the tiger trade. Some scholars, such as Stoett and Danaher,

argue that the international community must temper their demand for complete solutions to

popular environmental issues with trade bans. Stoett, for example, advocates that

transnational collaborations have to focus on providing as much scientific expertise on

wildlife populations as possible, instead of focusing on those complete solutions.144 Danaher

shows how some approaches from collaborations can be seen as political propaganda in the

case of the whaling debate.145 With this he means that Western collaborations, such as

Western NGOs come up with messages that produce an emotional rather than a rational

response to the whaling debate. The debate highlights the cultural biases that mediate Western

identities, according to Danaher.146 Danaher believes that science is far more reliable than

cultural approaches. According to him, the whaling debate highlights the complexity with

reconciling many various conservation attitudes. Asian cultures hold other conservation

values than the West does. That is why collaboration can cause conflict. Independent scientific

data is what should be the leading approach.147

Although this dilemma, showed by Danaher is about the whaling debate, this might

holds the same for approaches in the case of the illegal tiger trade. It is significant to research

if the approaches in the fight against the illegal tiger trade tend to be political propaganda or

providing as much scientific expertise on the wildlife trade as possible. In other words, are the

Western collaborations try to convince Asian cultures only with Western idealistic values, or

are they especially coming with strong scientific data?

144 Stoett, P. (2002). The International Regulation of Trade in Wildlife: Institutional and Normative Considerations. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 2, 195-210. 145 Danaher, M. (2010). Why Japan Will Not Give up Whaling. Pacifica Review: Peace, Security & Global Change: formerly Pacifica Review: Peace, Security & Global Change 14(2), 105-120. 146 Ibid. 147 Ibid.

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5. NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE ILLEGAL TIGER TRADE

THE ‘WALKING GOLD’

THE MARKET

ACTORS INVOLVED IN THE TRADE

POACHING AND TRANSPORTATION METHODS

SUB QUESTION III:

WHAT IS THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE ILLEGAL TIGER TRADE?

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The exact scope of the illegal tiger trade is uncertain since all wildlife trafficking has a high

dark number, states Wyatt.148 Wyatt explains that a reason for this dark number is inter alia

because of the remaining low priority in comparison with other transnational crimes, such as

drugs. Reporting and investigating wildlife trade is in many fields still not considered to be of

great importance. Wyatt emphasizes that green criminologists need to uncover the nature and

extent of crimes such as the illegal tiger trade.149 Accordingly, before we discuss the

problematic factors which hinder the illegal tiger trade, we will first analyse the available

information about the nature and extent of this illegal trade. The first focus is on the ‘walking

gold’, which is the tiger. But this chapter also sheds light on the market, the actors involved in

the trade and the poaching and transportation methods.

5.1 The ‘Walking Gold’

The species of the tiger started to live two million years ago in east Asia. From there they

spread out over the landscape in whole Asia. Over time, regional concentrations got isolated

which created distinct tiger populations.150 From the nine tiger sub-species already three are

extinct due human pressures: the Caspian, the Javan and the Bali tiger. Four sub-species are

endangered, which are the Bengal, the Indochinese, the Siberian and the Malayan tiger. The

most critically endangered tiger species are the South China and the Sumatran tiger.151 The

South-China tiger even belongs to the ten most endangered animals in the world. There are

only around thirty of them left in the wild.152 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

categorizes the Tiger in general as Endangered, and the species is considered to be facing a

very high risk of extinction in the wild.153

In the early 1900s, all these tiger species roamed through the forests of Asia with a

population of around 100.000. The total global wild tiger population nowadays is around

3.200 individuals. They only occupy seven per cent of their historic range.154 This area is

spread over thirteen different range states. A range state is the natural habitat or the country of

148 Interview, Tanya Wyatt, August 2014 149 Ibid. 150 Quammen, D. (2006). Monster van God. London: W.W. Norton & Company. 151 EIA. (2014). Act to help end tiger farms on International Tiger Day [Format description]. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/act-to-help-end-tiger-farms-on-international-tiger-day 152 World of Wildlife (n.d.). Soorten Tijgers [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.worldofwildlife.nl/soorten-tijgers.html 153 TRAFFIC (2008). What’s Driving the Wildlife Trade? A Review of Expert Opinion on Economic and Social Drivers of the Wildlife Trade and Trade Control Efforts in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. Washington, DC: World Bank. 154 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles.

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origin of a particular species.155 The wild tigers that are still alive, live in: Bangladesh,

Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia,

Vietnam and Thailand.156 The largest population lives now in India, which is around 70% of

all tigers.157

5.1.1 Short case regarding extinction

A short case study on the extinction of the Caspian tiger will show how fast a tiger species can

disappear from earth. The disappearing of the Caspian tiger began by the Russian army. In

1891, soldiers held a systematic campaign to exterminate tigers in Russian Central Asia. Their

reason was to make the area (which was the territory of the Caspian tiger) more attractive to

settlers. Once the landscape was good enough for the settlers they went after tigers with

poison and traps. People used fire to clear their land for agriculture, with which they

demolished huge stretches of forest and reed beds. In addition to this, unregulated hunting

destroyed some prey species of the tigers. The last tiger in this area was seen in 1947. Ironic

enough it was also in this year that the Soviet Union banned all tiger hunting.158 Unfortunately

too late for the Caspian tiger who was wiped out in only half a century.

5.1.2 The tiger as tradition and religion

The worship of animals can be considered as the oldest religion in the world. The tiger is one

of those animals that are still the subject of a long tradition. Sellar even advocates that the

tiger is perhaps, among all fauna, the most prominent species in religion, art, literature and

legend.159 People worship the tiger for his health and fertility and is seen as the ultimate totem

of power and sexuality.160 The Hindu goddess Durga is often depicted riding a tiger to reflect

her unlimited power.161 Some traditions believe that the tiger’s majesty is in line with the stars

and the Chinese Zodiac162 Moreover, tiger derivatives are seen as one of the most essential

155 Schneider, J.L. (2012). Sold Into Extinction: The Global Trade in Endangered Species. United States: ABC-CLIO. 156 INTERPOL Environmental Security Sub-Directorate (2014). Executive Summary: Assessment of Enforcement Responses to Tiger Crime. Retrieved from http://www.interpol.int/News-and-media/News/2014/N2014-055 157 WCS (2015). Tiger [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.wcs.org/saving-wildlife/big-cats/tiger.aspx 158 GTI (2015). A Plan to Return Tigers to a Long-lost Home [Format description]. Retrieved from http://globaltigerinitiative.org/2014/07/a-plan-to-return-tigers-to-a-long-lost-home/ 159 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 160 TRAFFIC International (2010, November 18). Closing a Deadly Gateway [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC9CATzZCO4 161 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 162TRAFFIC International (2010, November 18).

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elements in Chinese medicine.163 This worshipped animal, which has been highly prized for

centuries, is suffering enormous persecution. Even now, spiritual belief in tigers is very

strong. A female trader in China, gave Daan van Uhm all ins and outs about the illegal trade,

and told him that she always carried some tiger bones with her, because it protected her from

evil spirits.164

5.1.3 The relationship between tigers and humans

There seems to be a change in the relationship between tigers and humans over time. During

the whole human history, there was always something that reminded us on our earthly status,

namely that we, in certain times, are nothing than a link in the food chain.165 The teeth of such

a large predator as the tiger, their claws, their bloodthirstiness and their voracity were cruel

realities in a humans life. The self-consciousness of humans was imbued with the

consciousness that they were also flesh.166 Predators like the tiger made us think again about

our place in nature, our place on earth.167 This consciousness seems currently buried very

deep. The king of the forest, who arose around two million years ago and lived together with

humans for a long time in complex relationships, is currently facing a difficult time. This

monster that humans once feared, is now primarily considered as a material object on the

capitalistic market. The tiger is desired for basically all of its parts and therefore the victim of

a highly profitable global market.

163 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 164 Interview, Daan van Uhm, April 2014. 165 Quammen, D. (2006). Monster van God. London: W.W. Norton & Company. 166 Quammen, D. (2006). Monster van God. London: W.W. Norton & Company. 167 Ibid.

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5.2 The Market

TIGER Skin Decoration, traditional clothing and status symbol Bits of hairless skin Relief for fever Bones Traditional Chinese Medicine responding to

rheumatism and arthritis and as status symbols Whiskers Treat toothache Brain Cure laziness Eyeballs Dealing with epilepsy and malaria Nose Treat convulsion in children Fat Heal hemorrhoids or scalp conditions Collar Bones Regarded as good luck charms by gamblers Feet Mounted on the outside of a house, to ward off evil

spirits Claws Amulet against danger, sickness or bad luck Teeth Amulet against danger, sickness or bad luck Penis Dissolved in alcohol to be effective as aphrodisiac Tail Treatment for skin cancer Meat Human food consumption Urine Treat rheumatism Feces Treat alcoholism Fat Threat leprosy and rheumatism Live tiger Private collections, status symbol and entertainment Table 1: Information borrowed from Sellar 2014: 137; Nowell, 2000: 13; EIA Documentary 2012

According to a report from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in 2008, the

illegal wildlife trade is worth up to 19 billion dollars each year.168 However, a more recent

report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2014, states that this is

much higher, namely 50-150 billion per year.169 It is the world’s fifth most lucrative criminal

industry, after oil, human trafficking, counterfeiting and drugs.170 The tigers themselves ‘are

walking gold’, as stated in a documentary of National Geographic.171 They are worth a

fortune on the black market. At retail level, the sum of all tiger parts (taking a crude average)

is over 70.000 dollar.172 The Huffington Post even claims that a tiger once wild and now caged

168 IFAW (2013). The Global Security Implications of the Illegal Wildlife Trade. Retrieved from http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/resource-centre/criminal-nature-global-security-implications-illegal-wildlife-tra-0 169 UNEP (2014). Emerging Technologies: Smarter ways to fight wildlife crime. UNEP. 170 World Wildlife Fund (2013, September 1). Stop Wildlife Crime: The Series - It's Dead Serious (Video 1) WWF [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss58fP7qxEA 171 Guynup, S. (2014, February 12). Illegal Tiger Trade: Why Tigers Are Walking Gold. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/12/illegal-tiger-trade-why-tigers-are-walking-gold/ 172 Nowell, K. (2000). Far from a Cure: The Tiger Trade Revisited. TRAFFIC International.

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in a zoo enclosure, can be worth up to 250.000 dollar.173 Tiger bones sell for up to 900 dollar

per kilo.174

5.2.1 Bones and skin – From health to wealth

Virtually, every part of a tiger is desired, as is visible in table 1. Even the urine and feces of a

tiger are believed to be powerful medicines. However, the most valuable and most used parts

of a tiger are the bones and the skin. Skins in Russia, for example, are worth around 10.000

dollar. Derivatives, such as bones vary around 500-1500 dollar each.175

As is visible in table 1, skins are desired for decoration, traditional clothing or for

status symbolism. Bones are mainly used for traditional medicine, but increasingly as status

symbols. The first reference to the use of tiger bones in medicine dates back to more than

1500 years ago in China. Since then, medicinal practices from China spread out in whole Asia

and were adopted by other cultures.176

Wine and gelatin are the most used end-products of tiger bones. Tiger bone gelatin is

made by “cleaning the bones of meat and marrow and then boiling them in several changes of

water for several days. The bones pieces are filtered out and the remaining liquid is gradually

reduced to a glue-like consistency, which hardens as it cools into an odourless black cake”.177

Tiger bone wine consist of some quantity of powdered tiger bone.178 According to van Uhm, a

good tiger bone wine is worth around 80 till 1500 euros.179 Not long ago it was quite normal

that officials in China drunk tiger bone wine, states Van Uhm.180 This drinking of tiger bone

wine even happened after 1993, when China banned the trade in tiger bones, because of

international concern about on-going trade in tiger products.181 Van Uhm explains that tiger

bone wine is clearly visible for visitors of the tiger farm. It is absolutely no problem to buy

173 Claiborne, L. (2010). The Year of the Tiger - and Organized Crime [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-ortenberg/the-year-of-the-tiger---a_b_482039.html 174 EUR-Lex (2014). Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the EU Approach against Wildlife Trafficking. 52014DC0064. Retrieved from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52014DC0064 175 Questionnaire INTERPOL 176 Nowell, K. (2000). 177 Ibid. p. 12 178 Nowell, K. (2000). 179 Interview, Daan van Uhm, April 2014. 180 Ibid. 181 Kirkpatrick, R.C., Emerton, L. (2010). Killing Tigers to Save Them: Fallacies of the Farming Argument. Conservation Biology. Retrieved from http://www.globaltigerinitiative.org/download/ELF/session-papers-and-presentations/Kirkpatrick_2010_Killing-Tigers-to-Save-Them_Conservation-Biology.pdf

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one. Certificates are given by local governments, who are nevertheless allowing that tiger

bones are used for wine, states Van Uhm.182

In a documentary of TRAFFIC, the President of the American College of Traditional

Chinese Medicine confirmed that there are alternatives (which do not harm animals and the

environment) and that real tiger bones are not needed anymore for Traditional Medicine.183

Still with these alternatives, real tiger bone products are being sold in open and black markets.

The superstition in real tiger bones remains strong. Educating people about the scientific facts,

to really eliminate this superstition, will take generations, which is far too long to prevent

extinction.184

Rising economies in demand countries could be considered as one of the important

reasons for the remaining market for tiger bones and skins. Whereas tiger bones were

traditionally being used for health issues, these are now often being used for wealth issues.

David Morgan, head of science of CITES, explains in The Guardian that the demand for

endangered species, including big cats, is showing a trend from health to wealth. There is a

growing emphasis on status symbols over traditional medicines. This means that medicinal

products, like tiger bone wine, are now more a show-off element.185 Tiger products are more

consumed as exotic, luxury products than as real medicine.186 According to National

Geographic, China´s elite wear tiger products, much like wearing a Rolex watch or serving a

high exclusive bottle of champagne.187 In addition, The New York Times states that wealthy

businessmen and government officials celebrate ‘visual feasts’ which are dinners where they

eat tiger meat and drink tiger blood and could be considered as a form of entertainment to

show off their wealth.”188 Evidence of this kind of practices came in March, when tiger killing

ceremonies in southern China were exposed. The Chinese press reported that businessmen

182 Interview, Daan van Uhm, April 2014. 183 TRAFFIC International (2010, November 18). Closing a Deadly Gateway [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC9CATzZCO4 184 Ibid. 185 Carrington, D. (2014, July 15). Cheetah smuggling driving wild population to extinction, report says. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/15/cheetah-smuggling-wild-luxury-pets-gulf?CMP=twt_gu 186 Guynup, S. (2014, June 28). China’s Threat to Wild Tigers. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/opinion/sunday/chinas-threat-to-wild-tigers.html?smid=tw-share&_r=3 187 Guynup, S. (2014, October 21). Industrial-Scale Tiger Farms: Feeding China’s Thirst for Luxury Tiger Products. National geographic. Retrieved from http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/21/industrial-scale-tiger-farms-feeding-chinas-thirst-for-luxury-tiger-products/ 188 Guynup, S. (2014, June 28). China’s Threat to Wild Tigers. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/opinion/sunday/chinas-threat-to-wild-tigers.html?smid=tw-share&_r=3

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were showing off by paying to have tigers killed at ‘slaughter parties’ before eating them.189

The campaign image from WWF (see Annex III) perfectly shows the ‘pyramid’ of the current

demand. At the top of the pyramid stands a rich man (military officer) proudly with his tiger

wine and tiger skins used as show-off elements, which reveals the ‘from health to wealth

trend’ as described above.

According to CITES, skins are at the moment the most commonly seized item from

tigers. The number of live animals and frozen bodies detected, reflects an increase in illegal

trade.190 Sellar confirms this by arguing that the illegal trade is going through dynamic

changes: “Whereas the demand had previously seemed to be driven by the need for tiger body

parts to be used in clandestine traditional medicine practices, it gradually emerged that the

tiger’s skins appeared to be the primary part of the animal now being traded.”191

5.2.2 Tiger Trade over the Internet

China is one of the major markets for tiger skins, bones and derivatives.192 Key towns in

China identified as retail hotspots by the EIA, are: Lhasa, Shigatse, Xining, Linxia, Litang,

Nagchu, Songpan, Kangding.193 But not only in China, there are markets where they sell tiger

products. Wildlife experts state that other South East Asian countries like Vietnam, Thailand,

Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia are also emerging as consuming countries. Tiger

farming plays an essential role in the rise of these markets.194

However, the internet is another point of sale of a totally different nature. But different

sources are contradicting each other on the issue of its importance. For example

questionnaires for member states of Interpol, revealed that in most range countries internet

does not play a significant role.195 Sellar advocates that it is too haphazard to make internet a

“reliable, commercial and profitable means of marketing illegal-origin items on a significant 189 Fullerton, J. (2014, July 29). Save the Tiger: The animals bred for bones on China’s tiger farms. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/save-the-tiger-the-animals-bred-for-bones-on-chinas-tiger-farms-9636537.html 190 CITES (n.d.). Press release: CITES meets as ‘wealth’ is replacing ‘health’ as a driver of wildlife consumption [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.cites.org/eng/CITES_SC65_wealth_replacing_health_as_driver_of_wildlife_consumption 191 Sellar, J.M. (2014: p. 147). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 192 EIA (2011). Increased activiy: illicit trade in wildlife including Asian Big Cats parts and derivatives Burang, PR China and other border areas [Report]. EIA. 193 EIA (2011). Key features of the Asian Big Cat (ABC) skin and bone trade in China in 2005-2011 [Report]. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/reports/key-features-of-asian-big-cat-skin-and-bone-trade-in-china-in-2005-2011 194 Khadka, N.S. (2014, July 12). China 'admits' trading in tiger skins. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28258595 195 Questionnaires INTERPOL

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scale.”196 Online money transfers are too easily traceable to make them attractive for

organized crime groups. Much of the illegal wildlife trade is clandestine in nature and occurs

on the black market, according to Sellar.197 However, Sellar points out that some areas of the

internet, such as some chat rooms and forums, deserve to be targeted and monitored.198

In contrast to this, Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for Environment pointed

out that internet plays a key role in environmental crime in facilitating communication and

exchanges, during an expert conference on April 10 2014 in Brussel on the EU approach

against wildlife trafficking. “Some groups even use sophisticated technology and sell their

contraband at very high prices, creating profits of up to 6 to 10 times their initial investment”,

states Janez Potočnik.199

Ioana Botezatu, project leader at INTERPOL, stated that the issue on online tiger trade

needs attention.200 This because the illegal tiger trade is, according to her, national as well

international, where the internet is a facilitator of this trade. In addition, Stoner advocates that

research on the internet is important, because it allows some understanding of what might be

in demand and what items are still popular.201 The level of importance has not been assessed

in depth because the information is still lacking in some areas, according to Botezatu.202

However, she states that there is evidence that advertisements and communication leading to

orders for such species is done via the Internet. For example, many popular Indonesian

websites have been known to tolerate or overlook users buying and selling endangered

species. In 2011 and 2012 wildlife authorities in Indonesia seized tiger products from at least

22 tigers from online traders.203 According to Botezatu, there is a lack of rules for the sale via

the internet, cause in many cases: there is no obligation on the seller to prove that the wildlife

item for sale complies with existing legislation; there is no obligation on the seller to inform

the buyer of existing regulation; there is no obligation on the website owner to comply with

existing legislation and there is no obligation on the website owner to develop policies

governing wildlife trade.204 “The problem is that when an order is placed over the internet,

then the poaching of an animal or a number of animals is already planned, unless these exist

196 Sellar, J.M. (2014: p. 61). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 197 Ibid. p. 62 198 Ibid. p. 63 199 Potočnik, J. (2014, April 10). Our fight against wildlife trafficking [Speech]. European Commission. Retrieved from http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-315_en.htm 200 Interview, Ioana Botezatu, INTERPOL, September 2014. 201 Stoner, S. (2014). Tigers: Exploring the Threat from Illegal Online Trade. TRAFFIC Bulletin 26(1), 26-30. 202 Ibid. 203 Stoner, S. (2014). 204 Interview, Ioana Botezatu, INTERPOL, September 2014.

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in illegal stocks. Therefore preventing this trade and spread via the internet should be an area

for further analysis and focus”205, argues Botezatu.

CITES tried to gain further analysis by requesting parties in 2007 to collect

information on illegal wildlife trade on the internet, because it wanted to anticipate the

potential threat from online trade. However, only one range country, China, responded to this

request. Since there are thirteen range states, this is not enough. More information is needed

to receive a better understanding of the online trade.

5.2.3 Fake products

A lot of the so called tiger bones in shops and those sold by street peddlers are from other

animals than tigers. According to Nowell, many manufactures use labels on products that

suggest the presence of tiger bone without having it really as an ingredient.206 Enforcement

has a hard time to distinguish the authentic from the fake tiger products. Moreover, by having

fake products on the market it is more difficult to judge the real impact of the trade on wild

tiger populations.207

Nowell notes that fake tiger skins are especially common in India, where fake skins

have been more often seized than real ones. This shows the big size of the ‘fake trade’ in

India.208 Van Uhm also saw Tibetans in China selling fake products. He is saying that there

are three lines of products in the tiger market: fake products, farm products and wild products.

To distinguish the fake products from the farmed and wild ones, they test, for example, wines

by checking if there is calcium in it, since calcium is a significant constituent of bone. Test

after test, products turned out to be calcium-free.209 This showed that fraud was taking place

on a massive scale. This also seemed to confirm that real trade in tiger bones was taking place

clandestinely.210

205 Ibid. 207 Ibid. 208 Ibid. 209 Interview, Daan van Uhm, April 2014. 210 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles.

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5.3 Actors Involved in the Trade Chain

In what follows, an image of the variety in actors involved in the illegal tiger trade will be

provided. Different type of actors can be distinguished: poachers, intermediate traders,

processors, retailers and consumers (this list is not exhaustive). Many of those actors live

thousands of miles away from the product source.211 Each actor will be shortly described, but

the poachers and the consumers could be considered as the most complex actors.

5.3.1 Poachers

Who the poachers in the illegal tiger trade are exactly, is still quite unclear. Different sources

are contradicting each other. According to TRAFFIC, poachers are mostly professional or

semi-professional male hunters. But there are also, to a lesser extent, opportunistic hunters

and local seeking revenge in response to a conflict with tigers.212

Sellar argues that poachers commonly live on or even below the poverty line. A reason

that he gives is that members of organized groups do not want to get their hands dirty.213

Organized groups, according to Sellar, exploit many rural communities that are living close

to, or below the poverty line.214 He spoke with a South African law enforcement official in

211 Ibid. 212 Ibid. 213 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 214 Ibid.

Figure 2 - Tiger Trade Flow Diagram (Nowell, 2000).

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Africa who told him that if there is a poacher killed, a queue of other potential recruits are

waiting to replace his job.215

Patrick Brown, a wildlife market photographer in Asia, expresses that he has quite a

lot of empathy for the poachers.216 According to him the majority of them is doing what their

ancestors have done and that is to hunt. Those poachers own very little money and most of

them do not know where the products are going.217 However, a documentary of National

Geographic, showed that only a minority of the tiger poachers consists of poor locals.218

National Geographic claims that the majority consists of organized gangs.

It is most likely, according to the sources above, that poachers consists of both, poor

poachers and professionals related to organized crime groups. However, to be certain about

this, more research has to be done.

5.3.2 Intermediate traders

The group of intermediate traders includes local middlemen, but is dominated by high-level

traders who deal directly to local, national or international processors and retailers, as noted

by TRAFFIC.219 However, Sellar argues that many of the intermediate traders are poor people

who want to earn some extra cash. They are mainly used for transportation.220 It seems that

traders in tiger parts are both male and female. Although male traders are more common. The

traders are in most cases arrested multiple times.221

5.3.3 Processors

Processors are not widespread and largely consist of small-scale family-owned and -operated

businesses who produce for the traditional medicine market.222 According to TRAFFIC, this is

215 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 216 VICE (2013, January 8). Documenting Asia's Illegal Animal Trade [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQC3jp1udUg 217 Ibid. 218 National Geographic (2014). Talking Tigers: Part 2 of a 12-part series [video file]. Retrieved from http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/tag/talking-tigers/ 219 TRAFFIC (2008). What’s Driving the Wildlife Trade? A Review of Expert Opinion on Economic and Social Drivers of the Wildlife Trade and Trade Control Efforts in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. Washington, DC: World bank. 220 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 221 TRAFFIC (2008). What’s Driving the Wildlife Trade? A Review of Expert Opinion on Economic and Social Drivers of the Wildlife Trade and Trade Control Efforts in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. Washington, DC: World bank. 222 Ibid.

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particularly the case in Vietnam, but in other countries processors and retailers are one and the

same.223

5.3.4 Retailers

Retailers are usually traditional medicine businesses or restaurants that supply a demand in

major urban centers. They serve demand for mostly Chinese and Vietnamese people. These

retailers also include black-market or underground dealers. They usually operate in centers

where enforcement is weak and in some places tiger parts are sold openly.224

5.3.5 Consumers

Consumers are maybe one of the most important actors in the whole trade, because they

provide the demand. According to TRAFFIC, consumers usually have a middle- to high-

income. In some cases, such as in Vietnam, consumption of wild meat generally is associated

with high-ranking government officials and the business community.225 If we keep in mind

that the business community, the government and the military, having authority and reputation

in a country, it is not odd that citizens will follow them. Some senior military officials in

China like to display tiger skins in their homes. Skins also have been discovered on the walls

in the homes of organized crime bosses in Moscow and other eastern European capital

cities.226

The demand of traditional medicine relies on the prescription from their practitioners

and they do not actively seek out tiger-bone medicine on their own, notes Nowell.227 Van

Uhm states that the dangerous part of the tiger market is that the youth of China is using it,

between the age of 16 till 30.228 They find it interesting to use a special wine, assumes van

Uhm.229

According to a survey of PLoS ONE, held under 1880 residents from six different

cities in China, 43% of the respondents had consumed some products alleged to contain tiger

223 Ibid. 224 TRAFFIC (2008). What’s Driving the Wildlife Trade? A Review of Expert Opinion on Economic and Social Drivers of the Wildlife Trade and Trade Control Efforts in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. Washington, DC: World bank. 225 Ibid. 226 Sellar, J.M. (2014, July 21). Have stripes become unfashionable? [LinkedIn]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140731123433-185378273-have-stripes-become-unfashionable?trk=mp-reader-card 227 Nowell, K. (2000). Far from a Cure: The Tiger Trade Revisited. TRAFFIC International. 228 Interview, Daan van Uhm, April 2014. 229 Ibid.

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parts. Within this group 71% said that rather used wild products than farmed products. 88%

knew that it was illegal to buy or sell tiger products. Even 93% agreed that the ban in trade of

tiger parts was necessary to conserve wild tigers.230 However, even with their knowledge of

the illegality and with their agreement of the ban, consumers are still using it. Nowell also

stated that while respondents of surveys expressed strong support for endangered species

conservation, a big group of them would will use tiger-bone medicine if they were ill.231

5.4 Poaching and Transportation Methods

Wire snares, steel traps and poisoned meat are popular poaching methods to kill a tiger,

because they do not damage the skin of the tiger.232 Many of the steel traps are made by

nomadic blacksmiths.233 These traps are so strong, that it is impossible for a tiger to escape.

They either kill or hold the tiger until it can be killed by a poacher.234 The poison is usually

placed in the carcasses of domestic buffaloes and cows. However, during dry, hot summers

months, poachers also poison small forest pools. It seems that there is a sophisticated and well

organized supply route operated by major traders. This in order to distribute poison and

collect tiger bones from the remotest villages.235

After a tiger is being poached in one of the range countries, they have to be transported

(alive or dead) to their next or final destination, which can be the processing place or market.

Transportation happens on three levels: national, transnational and international. It is on the

transnational and the international level where smuggling occurs. Different methods are used

to cross borders and avoid customs and border checking.236 Fraudulent documentation is one

of them.237 According to Sellar, the most commonly falsified documents are the CITES

permits and certificates that countries use to authorize trade in flora and fauna. In this case

tigers are transported openly, because the falsified document makes it seem that the tiger can

230 Gratwicke, B., Mills, J., Dutton, A., Gabriel, G., Long, B., Seidensticker, J., et al. (2008). Attitudes Toward Consumption and Conservation of Tigers in China. PLoS ONE 3(7), e2544. 231 Nowell, K. (2000). Far from a Cure: The Tiger Trade Revisited. TRAFFIC International. 232 Wildlife Conservation Society (2011, October 12). Hunt for the Tiger Slayers [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ffF2vS2iWo&list=PLOjpxTE0ozMXOE-T6AMbJik-9kfg4ofOx#t=50 233 WPSI (n.d.). India's Tiger Poaching Crisis [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.wpsi-india.org/tiger/poaching_crisis.php 234 Wyatt, T. (2013). Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims and the Offenders. London: Palgrave Macmillian. 235 WPSI (n.d.). India's Tiger Poaching Crisis [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.wpsi-india.org/tiger/poaching_crisis.php 236 Wyatt, T. (2013). 237 Ibid.

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be legally transported.238 However, for international trade this is difficult since in such cases

both an export and import documentation is needed.239 Most of the time, tiger parts are

transported with other legal or illegal products. An example is a wool truck that was checked

in Tibet by a customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau unit in Sangsang.240 Beneath the wool, 31 tigers

and hundreds of other big cat skins were concealed.241 In these cases they do not only find

tiger parts, but also other illegal wildlife parts.242 There are traders who use one specific

logistics company, which is China Post, to transport their illegal tiger products. The reason

they choose this company is because there is an absence of checks on cargo, as it is

government-owned.243 But also other vehicles like taxis are used as transportation.244

When tiger parts are traded on an international level, female passengers are commonly

used as smugglers. For example, foreign female students in America receive free air tickets

and pocket money to visit their home countries, with the requirement that they smuggle

wildlife in their luggage or under their dresses. Females are especially used for countries were

they have cultural norms around women which means they will be checked less.245

238 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 239 Wyatt, T. (2013). 240 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 241 Ibid. 242 EIA (2013). Tiger Crime Analysis: Likely Captive Breeding Cases [Report]. EIA 243 EIA (2012). Intelligence on the illegal Asian Big Cat trade. EIA. 244 EIA (2013). Tiger Crime Analysis: Likely Captive Breeding Cases [Report]. EIA 245 Sellar, J.M. (2013). Focusing on Wildlife Crime (part 1). FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Retrieved from http://leb.fbi.gov/2013/july/focusing-on-wildlife-crime-part-1

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6. PROBLEMATIC FACTORS

THE IVORY TOWER: RANGERS AND INTERNATIONAL BUREAUCRATS

CONFUSION IN A CULTURE

DIFFERENT JUSTIFICATIONS FOR SAVING THE WILD TIGER

LACK OF VALUABLE DATA ON THE INVOLVEMENT OF ORGANIZED CRIME

LACK OF COLLABORATION AND POLITICAL WILL

TIGER FARMING

SUB QUESTION IV:

WHICH FACTORS HINDER THE FIGHT AGAINST THE ILLEGAL TIGER TRADE?

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6.1 Introduction

The previous chapters have described the role of CITES in the fight against the illegal tiger

trade, the transnational collaborations which lead the fight and the nature and extent of the

trade. This chapter will discuss six main problematic issues to give a possible explanation of

why the fight against the illegal tiger trade is not that effective which is should be. The

following issues will be highlighted: The Ivory Tower: Rangers and International

Bureaucrats; Confusion in a Culture; Different Justifications for Saving the Wild Tiger; Lack

of Valuable Data on the Involvement of Organized Crime; Lack of Collaboration and Political

Will; and Tiger Farming. It becomes clear that these problematic factors hinder in one way or

another the fight against the illegal tiger trade. Different theories (criminological and

philosophical), such as the labeling theory of Howard Becker (1963), the neutralization theory

from Sykes and Matza(1957) and the notion of ‘overlapping consensus’ from John Rawls

(2001) are used as explainable weight. It is important to note that the disclosed problematic

factors are not exhaustive. More factors could hinder the fight against the illegal tiger.

6.2 The Ivory Tower: Rangers and International Bureaucrats

The following quote from Sellar’s book The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International

Wildlife Crime points out how people in a high position have no idea how their authority

influences people in the field and that they have no idea of the harsh conditions these people

are forced into: "Some of the people from higher off are talking about the trade but do not

know anything about what life was really like at the coal face, it really irritated me on

occasions. The fact that many of those people were white and enjoyed lifestyles unimaginable

to law enforcement staff in the Third World infuriated me."246

Boekhout van Solinge shows the same issue related to the combat against drug crime

in his book Drug and Decision-Making in the European Union. He mentions the problem that

the drug issue is too remote from the world of many bureaucrats, which enabling them to

come up with all sorts of ideas to tackle drug crime that have little to do with reality.247

The term ‘ivory tower’ is a well-known concept and used to designate a world where

bureaucrats are busy with bureau based work and the making of decisions which are often

disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life. This concept is useful in the

246 Ibid. p. 39 247 Boekhout van Solinge, T. (2002). Drug and Decision-Making in the European Union. Amsterdam: CEDRO/Mets en Schilt.

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context of the fight against the illegal tiger trade, because it addresses the disconnection

between the practical concerns of everyday life for a ranger and the international bureaucrats

in the fight against the illegal tiger trade.

The International Ranger Federation emphasizes that park rangers ensure that the

parks where they patrol, and the flora and fauna that live in these parks, are protected from

vandalism, poaching, theft, exploitation and destruction.248 These rangers are with a great

personal risk first on scene where this illegal exploitation of natural resources occurs.249 In

addition, the job of a ranger is accompanied by the dangers of wild animals, ironically even of

those they want to protect, and dehydration by hot weather conditions. Although most rangers

are able to handle the rigors of the job, nobody would like to work in these harsh conditions

without receiving any honor for it or with the knowledge that these conditions would not

improve.250

Unlike soldiers in combat, rangers pursue offenders not enemy combatants. Rangers

have to enforce national laws and have to work under specified rules. They are permitted to

fire only in self-defense and operate under hard physical conditions, often with inadequate

equipment, wage and support. For example, when a ranger kills a poacher in South Africa the

police investigation puts not only pressure on the ranger, but also on his family, even if the

case is dismissed. When rangers spot a poacher they have to decide in a split of a second

whether they have to shoot or not, with the knowledge of the enormous consequences for

themselves and their families.251 In Uttarakhand in India this major obstacle for a ranger has

been removed. The government of Uttarakhand granting immunity to the officials against the

poachers. This means that forest officials will not be immediately arrested if any poacher is

killed or injured during exchange of fire.252 Sean Willmore, president of the International

Ranger Federation, says that worldwide about two rangers are killed every week. According

to the International Ranger Federation, at least 1.000 rangers were killed in 35 different 248 International Ranger Federation (2013). What We Do [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.internationalrangers.org/what-we-do/ 249 Ibid. 250 Neme, L. (2014, June 27). For Rangers on the Front Lines of Anti-Poaching Wars, Daily Trauma: Unsung heroes face daunting challenges. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140627-congo-virunga-wildlife-rangers-elephants-rhinos-poaching/ 251 Neme, L. (2014, June 27). For Rangers on the Front Lines of Anti-Poaching Wars, Daily Trauma: Unsung heroes face daunting challenges. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140627-congo-virunga-wildlife-rangers-elephants-rhinos-poaching/ 252 Sharma, S. (2014, May 15). Uttarakhand all set to get Special Tiger Protection Force. The Times of India. Retrieved from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Uttarakhand-all-set-to-get-Special-Tiger-Protection-Force/articleshow/35138226.cms

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countries over the last decade and the real global figure may be between 3.000 and 5.000.253

Despite this high death toll many people are applying for the job, because they have to earn

money to keep their family alive.254The killing of rangers shows that in this trade, not only

tigers experience harm, but also human beings.

David Higgins, head of the Environmental Security Sub-Directorate at INTERPOL

pointed out at a meeting with Nicolas Hulot255 at INTERPOL on June 11 2014 that law

enforcement has to been seen as a profession. The same as a doctor or advocate for example.

In many countries this is not what happens. The training or education for a law enforcer is

according to Higgins way too short. Some bureaucrats think that rangers are ready in a few

months. “They give you a pistol and you can go into the field without any deep knowledge,”

states Higgins. Sellar noted that many anti-poaching staffs are grossly under-equipped and

that finances allocated to tiger conservation, finally end in state and provincial bureaucracies

and are not reaching the field level.256 This has to do, according to Sellar, with the existence

of corruption at all levels.257 WWF’s Zero Poaching is a call for all tiger countries to

professionalize their approach to anti-poaching in order to combat the critical rise in poaching

levels. Zero Poaching is, according to the WWF, only achievable if governments

professionalize their approach to anti-poaching and invest in rangers.258 There are dedicated

and committed individuals, but it is poorly supported by poor management and strangling

bureaucracies.259

The first good step to give more international support to rangers worldwide was the

World Range Day on the 31st of July. Through this day the international community is

showing that being a ranger is of great importance, but it also gives a moment to

commemorate many victims who are killed during their work of protecting nature. However,

this must not only be the case at one day in a year. Also within the combat community, high

officials have to be conscious about the harsh conditions of the field workers. Think about

what rangers may think if they put their lives on the line, but poachers get away with nothing 253 IFAW (2013). The Global Security Implications of the Illegal Wildlife Trade. Retrieved from http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/resource-centre/criminal-nature-global-security-implications-illegal-wildlife-tra-0 254 Sharma, S. (2014, May 15). Uttarakhand all set to get Special Tiger Protection Force. The Times of India. Retrieved from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Uttarakhand-all-set-to-get-Special-Tiger-Protection-Force/articleshow/35138226.cms 255 Nicolas Hulot is a celebrity in France and has a passion for the nature and environment. 256 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 257 Ibid. 258 WWF (n.d). Zero Poaching: What Does it Take to Stop Poaching? [Format description]. Retrieved from http://tigers.panda.org/zero-poaching/zero-poaching/ 259 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles.

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more than just a slap on the wrist, when they are being caught. Strong laws and meaningful

prosecutions with harsh penalties will send a message to rangers that their work counts.260

Rangers have to know how important and risky their work is and how thankful the community

is. This will make sure that their commitment will stay strong. Given that poachers are still

killing wild tigers, strong, involved rangers are necessary. Chanrantana Pin, a ranger himself

in Cambodia emphasizes this by saying: “Rangers are important everywhere in the world.

They do hard work to monitor wildlife and reduce wildlife crimes – If there were no rangers –

all wildlife would be gone immediately.”261

6.3 Confusion in a Culture

This problematic factor contains three elements: the change in labeling and cultural

imperialism, legal grey areas and the open display of tiger products.

6.3.1 Labeling Theory, the Criminalization Process and Cultural Imperialism

The tiger can be considered as perhaps, among all fauna, the most prominent species in

religion, art, literature and legend. Not long ago, the old tradition of using tiger parts for

medicinal uses, was being labeled as a precious, old tradition in Asia and especially in China.

As many tigers still roamed on our earth, nobody had concerns. But since we became

conscious about the impermanence of this species, the (Western) world decided to create a

law to protect the tiger species. China also banned its domestic trade in tiger bones and their

derivatives in 1993 in order to help implement the international tiger trade ban already in

place under CITES.262 By this change, this precious, old tradition became suddenly a criminal

act. But not only the act itself became criminal, also the people who were practicing this act

suddenly were seen as criminals. Since this act is not a new custom in the culture of China,

but a strong, long tradition which is inherited from generation to generation, the radical swift

in perspective from being labeled as 'conform’ to being 'a an offender’ or ‘being deviant',

causes confusion in a culture. Particularly because the labels are the opposite of each other.

Generally it will take generations before people will accept a new label, when it is attached to 260 Neme, L. (2014, June 27). For Rangers on the Front Lines of Anti-Poaching Wars, Daily Trauma: Unsung heroes face daunting challenges. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140627-congo-virunga-wildlife-rangers-elephants-rhinos-poaching/ 261 WWF (2014). Meet Our Wildlife Heroes: Meet the wild rangers who risk their lives every day to protect tigers and other wildlife [Format description]. Retrieved from http://tigers.panda.org/rangers/rangers-heroes/ 262 Gratwicke, B., Mills, J., Dutton, A., Gabriel, G., Long, B., Seidensticker, J., et al. (2008). Attitudes Toward Consumption and Conservation of Tigers in China. PLoS ONE 3(7), e2544

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a long tradition.263 For this problem in the combat against the illegal tiger trade the labeling

theory of Howard Becker (1973) is of explainable weight. The labeling theory shows that

being deviant is pure relative. According to Becker, people become deviant not because of the

act itself, which can be for example producing wine of tiger bones, but how people react to

the act, like the law that is made and the international fight against it. Normally, according to

the theory of Becker, this new label will change the persons self-concept and social identity in

the culture itself, and since it is an international trade also in the rest of the world. Because of

this, the delinquent will create a stigma on his or her self-image.264 However, this seems not

the case with actors in the illegal tiger trade, since the market is not declining.

The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has gone through a criminalization process

which constructed another social reality than it was before the process. Powerful relationships

determine who or what is being criminalized.265 This criminalization process regarding

wildlife crime contains a number of steps. These steps are borrowed from Hulsman (1986).

First, powerful relationships see the situation of the trade in tigers as undesirable. Second,

they link this undesirable situation to an individual,266which contain different levels of blame,

responsibility and ‘evil’, according to Wyatt, because of their differing motivations and levels

of engagement in committing wildlife crime.267 Third, they approach this particular kind of

individual behavior with a specific style of social control: the style in the case of the tiger

trade is punishment. Fourth, they apply a particular style of punishment which is developed in

a particular (legal) professional context and which is based on the dominant perspective on

the world.268

Stoett argues that the international wildlife trade regulation are often part of a Western

agenda, because they have the most dominant states.269 The question here is: could the

criminalization process of the Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is started by powerful

relationships, be seen as a form of cultural imperialism? The term ‘cultural imperialism’

refers to the “ideological infiltration that enables some dominant states, organizations, or

263 TRAFFIC International (2010, November 18). Closing a Deadly Gateway [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC9CATzZCO4 264 Becker, H. S. (1973). Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: The Free Press. 265 Rozenblit-Siegel, D. (2013, October 3). Lecture on Criminalization. University of Utrecht. 266 Hulsman, L.H.C. (1986). Critical Criminology and the Concept of Crime. In: McLaughlin, E., Muncie, J. Criminological Perspectives: Essential Readings (pp. 311-317). London: SAGE Publications ltd, 2013. 267 Wyatt, T. (2013). Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims and the Offenders. London: Palgrave Macmillian. 268 Hulsman, L.H.C. (1986). Critical Criminology and the Concept of Crime. In: McLaughlin, E., Muncie, J. Criminological Perspectives: Essential Readings (pp. 311-317). London: SAGE Publications ltd, 2013. 269 Stoett, P. (2002).

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groups to impose their worldview, values, attitudes, behaviors, linguistic patterns, and

lifestyle practices on others, sometimes by deliberate policy, sometimes by means of

economic or technological superiority and influences.”270 Our behavior, views, beliefs and

values are determined by the cultures and communities in which we live and by the

institutions and government policies that largely shape our societies.271

Some scholars, such as Stoett, argue that CITES has been the location of a virtual

battleground between participants with contrasting ideological perspectives.272 This may be

also true regarding the fight against the illegal tiger trade since some tiger range countries

have other ideological perspectives than Western countries. Stoett discusses two opponents

sides regarding wildlife. Preservationists argue that nature and wildlife should be preserved in

as pristine condition as possible and the utilization of species should be abandoned in favor of

a new environmental ethic.273 Conservationist have no problem with utilization, provided it is

not excessive and does not threaten the future of the species.274 In general, it seems that the

West holds the preservationists perspective with the believe that humans ends can and should

be compromised if that is necessary to preserve environmental goods. Asian countries hold

more the conservationists perspective which includes the principle to put people’s needs first,

where the consumption of wildlife is seen as fundamental to traditional medicine and

religion.275 Moreover the consumption of wildlife can give status to people in these societies.

For them tigers can be used, as long the tiger as a species continue to live, which will with

thousands of tigers in tiger farms. They value wildlife, not because it is wild or natural, but

because it is useful.276

An example of an Asian culture with another value of wildlife is Laos. Singh assumes

that Lao people in general do not regard the wildlife trade to be an immoral activity.277 The

citizens from Laos argue that it is a part of everyday life and a part of Lao identity. The

illegality of wildlife use is so far removed from the daily interests and practices of villagers,

270 Hodson, D. (2014: p. 1). Cultural Imperialism. Encyclopedia of Science Education, 1-2. 271 Wu, F., Wen, B. (2015). Nongovernmental organizations and environmental protests: impacts in Asia. In: Harris, P.G., Lang, G. (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Environment and Society in Asia. New York: Routledge. 272 Stoett, P. (2002). The International Regulation of Trade in Wildlife: Institutional and Normative Considerations. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 2, 195-210. 273 Stoett, P. (2002). The International Regulation of Trade in Wildlife: Institutional and Normative Considerations. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 2, 195-210. 274 Ibid. 275 Wu, F., Wen, B. (2015). Nongovernmental organizations and environmental protests: impacts in Asia. In: Harris, P.G., Lang, G. (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Environment and Society in Asia. New York: Routledge. 276 Ibid. 277 Singh, S. (2008). Contesting moralities: the politics of wildlife trade in Laos. Journal of Political Ecology 15, 1-20.

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according to Singh.278 The question here is if the villagers have any idea of the situation of the

tigers. They mostly are not able to receive the global picture of the situation, in contrast to the

international community.

Another example is the whaling issue in Japan. The whole whaling issue highlights the

cultural biases that mediate Western identities, states Danaher.279 Danaher argues that the

Western criticism on whaling implies that it is an unnecessary, cruel and archaic activity.280

The whaling issue for Japan maintains much more than whale meat. It is about “the

fundamental human and sovereign right to use natural resources responsibly; mutual respect

for divergent cultural and ethical values; national pride; respect for scientific practice; and

freedom from the tyranny of the majority.”281 This whaling debate highlight the difficulty in

managing wildlife because of the variations in conservation attitudes and the same is true for

the trade in tigers debate.

However, Peter Knights, executive director of WildAid, explains to the New York

Times that there is no other society in the history of the world that is changing hat quickly as

China is today.282 It is possible to change public perception, argues Knight. This because new

middle-class tastes are being created. In Chinese culture, nobody wants to look cheap. So

status symbols are very important. So was the serving of shark fish soup on a wedding about

impressing and honoring the guest. Even though status remains very important for the

Chinese culture, the symbol can change. It can be replaced by a French wine for example.

Since there is a swift from health to wealth, regarding the use of tiger products, it is only the

symbol that has to change, to achieve the same purpose which is a high status. A further step

is to even make the use of tiger products socially unacceptable. The killing of tigers should

lead to losing face, as is happened with serving and eating shark fin soup at the younger

generation, according to The New York Times.283

Still, the following questions, borrowed from White,284are very important in this tiger

trade debate: whose knowledge, whose perspectives and whose ideas dominate our

understanding of our environment? Whose ideas are excluded from discussions? Whose

278 Ibid. 279 Ibid. 280 Danaher, M. (2010). Why Japan Will Not Give up Whaling. Pacifica Review: Peace, Security & Global Change: formerly Pacifica Review: Peace, Security & Global Change 14(2), 105-120. 281 Ibid. p. 118. 282 Tsui, B. (2013, June 29). Souring on Shark Fin Soup. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/opinion/sunday/souring-on-shark-fin-soup.html?_r=0 283 Ibid. 284 White, R. (2011). Transnational Environmental Crime: Toward an Eco-global Criminology. New York: Routledge.

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perspectives are not addressed? Whose literature is actually read and acknowledged? Whose

voices are heard? Why is the knowledge which is most valued in global criminological

discourses is that what is primarily produced in and by the United Stated, the United Kingdom

and Europe? From what vantage point are we actually assess global environmental issues?

Moving beyond one’s own national border with known national beliefs, values and attitude, to

work with people in other countries from other cultures is easier said than done.285

6.3.2 Legal Grey Areas

Another important aspect that creates confusion for people are the still consisting 'legal grey

areas'. What is legal and what is illegal for a possible consumer or seller? In a country based

on the rule of law, it is law that empowers government officials to act. This places limits on

human actions and creates policy in relation to international wildlife trade. CITES as

international treaty is not self-executing, which means that legislation is needed to give effect

to them at national level.286 By acceding to CITES, parties, which are inter alia all the tiger

range countries, agree to prohibit international commercial trade in tigers.287 Nevertheless,

they still have to implement legislation in their own nation to create effect to this agreement.

This forms a problem for fighting the illegal trade in the sense that every range country is able

to maintain its own legislation, which makes an act in one country legal and in another

country illegal. Take for example the issue of tiger farms. A questionnaire from INTERPOL to

tiger range countries showed that different countries are having different legislation regarding

tiger farms. Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and China allow the legal existence

of tiger farms and other captive breeding’s, whereas Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bhutan,

Nepal and Bangladesh have forbidden this.288

In first instance, the trade in tiger products (also from captives) is illegal in all tiger

range countries. However, China created some legal confusion. The nation came with an

exception to this illegality in trading in captive tiger products. The trade in skins from captive

tigers were legal when persons had forestry administrations permits, supposedly issued for

educational or scientific purposes, as noted in an article of the New York Times.289 However,

285 Ibid. pp. 28-29. 286 CITES (2005). The importance of legislation to CITES. CITES World Official Newsletter of the Parties 15, 1-20. 287 Nowell, K. (2007). Asian big cat conservation and trade control in selected range States: evaluating implementation and effectiveness of CITES Recommendations. TRAFFIC Report. 288 Questionnaires INTERPOL 289 Guynup, S. (2014, June 28). China’s Threat to Wild Tigers. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/opinion/sunday/chinas-threat-to-wild-tigers.html?smid=tw-share&_r=3

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during a CITES meeting this year China admitted that it allows the sale of skins from captive

animals for 100%. Participants say this created quite a sensation during the CITES meeting.290

Dual streams, wild and captives ones, in this trade will create a greater burden for law

enforcement than they already had. Moreover, legalized tiger farming would send a mixed

message to consumers. Consumers would understandably be confused about whether it is

acceptable or not to use tiger products.291 How can people be aware of what is allowed and

what not, if laws change that quickly and contain many exceptions? And how should the

consumer get the idea that using tiger products is wrong because it is contributing to the

extinct of wild tigers, when a government is allowing it?

6.3.3 Open Display of Tiger Products

A third problematic issue regarding confusion, concerns the clearly visible tiger products in

shops, farms and other points of sale. “I have been on various legal markets and on every

market you could get tiger products,” states van Uhm.292 Even a seller at one of the markets

openly told him that she always wears tiger bones with her, because it protects her against evil

spirits. Moreover, van Uhm explained that in the farms he visited, tiger bone wine bottles

were immediately visible for the eye. He could easily have bought one if he wanted.

The newspaper The Independent also discussed an example of the open display of

wine in the world's biggest battery farm for rare animals, including 1,300 tigers, named

Xiongsen Tiger and Bear Mountain Village.293 They advertise wine in bottles shaped like

tigers but not explicitly identified as containing tiger bone. Mr. Xie, who works for the

company, confirmed to The Independent that the wine contained tiger bone but said it was not

visible, because it is banned by the government. According to Mr. Xie the company is acting

fully legal: “We use tigers that die of natural causes for wine producing, so we are not

breaking the law.”294 Regardless of whether this is true or not, because there is no national

database, no DNA files or even stripe pattern files of animals in captivity to check it, it is

important to point out the issue of confusion for tourist who are visiting these tiger farms.

290 Khadka, N.S. (2014, July 12). China 'admits' trading in tiger skins. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28258595 291 Nowell, K. (2000). Far from a Cure: The Tiger Trade Revisited. TRAFFIC International. 292 Interview, Daan van Uhm, April 2014. 293 Fullerton, J. (2014, July 29). Save the Tiger: The animals bred for bones on China’s tiger farms. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/save-the-tiger-the-animals-bred-for-bones-on-chinas-tiger-farms-9636537.html 294 Ibid.

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When tourists are not aware of the illegality of selling and using tiger products, the selling of

tiger bone wine appears as completely normal and legal in the country.

To make the situation more complex for a (possible) consumer, those farms still hang

large advertisements for tiger bone wine on places where a lot of people walking by (see

photo in Annex II). Additionally the EIA points out that tiger bone wine is sometimes

advertised openly in tiger breeding centers and ‘safari’ parks and that skins and bones of

captive-bred animals are being stockpiled.295 Also here arises a question, because how is it

possible to advertise this big and so openly, when the product is illegal? For example, this

could not be possible when tiger bone wine was replaced by drugs. Where is the difference

between the two?

Sellar also showed an example of the open display of illegal wildlife products.296 Ivory

was openly sold in souvenir shops in a lobby of a well-known hotel brand in a major city in

Central Africa. Several of these shops had large quantities of ivory carvings openly on display.

Sellar knew that the domestic sale of ivory was completely illegal in that country, but for

tourists who are staying in the hotel this gives out a signal that buying ivory is legal.297 So,

when illegal products such as tiger products, ivory and other wildlife products are not sold

clandestine, but clearly visible in open markets, farms and well-known hotels, how must

consumers be aware of the illegality of this products? Tourists (possible consumers) are not

getting conscious that their purchases contributing to the extinct of many wild animals.

The EIA even advocates that bans on the trade in parts and products from wild animals

such as tigers did work and would have continued working if “the dying demand for their

parts and products had not been revived and stimulated by legal trade that has confused

consumers, thwarted law enforcement and opened opportunities for criminals and wealthy

speculators who are banking on extinction.”298 On top of this the EIA addresses that if the ban

on the commercial trade in wildlife had been supported by sustained and unambiguous

enforcement, poaching activity would have continued to decrease. Demand-reduction

295 EIA (2011). Key features of the Asian Big Cat (ABC) skin and bone trade in China in 2005-2011 [Report]. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/reports/key-features-of-asian-big-cat-skin-and-bone-trade-in-china-in-2005-2011 296 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 297 Ibid. 298 EIA (2013: p. 1). Stop Stimulating Demand! [Briefing document]. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/reports/stop-stimulating-demand-report

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strategies and law enforcement all benefit from the clear messaging associated with a trade

ban.299

6.4 Different Justifications for Saving the Wild Tiger

Justifications, or normative frameworks, serve as a foundation for the approach on wildlife

trade. During the implementation of this current study, I have noticed that network actors who

engage in the fight against the illegal tiger trade maintain different justifications for saving the

wild tiger. However, the importance of these foundations are often forgotten in the

continuation of the struggle. These foundations could namely reinforce each other, but also

conflict. Miller addresses that “while the differences between some of these ethical

frameworks may seem subtle to those outside of environmental issue networks, they can

result in different and potentially conflicting understandings of problems and potential

solutions, which can inhibit meaningful action.”300 This issue also takes place in the combat to

save the wild tiger on earth and will be explained in what follows.

6.4.1 John Rawls’s ‘Overlapping Consensus’

We can use the notion of an ‘overlapping consensus’ from John Rawls (2001) to clarify the

problem of the differing normative frameworks in the case of the illegal tiger trade.

According to the theory of Rawls there would not be a problem when individuals are holding

different justifications when there is an overlapping consensus on what needs to be done.301

For example he emphasizes that: different religious groups can all agree on the right to

freedom of religion while differing in the justifications for it.302 In this chapter, it will be

explained why this reasoning of Rawls is problematic in the case of the illegal tiger trade.

At first sight it might be said that, as long there is an overlapping consensus in saving

the tiger species, actors in the combat against the trade can have different justifications for

this overlapping consensus. When we all agree on what to do, it does not matter in practice

why we do it. Although this reasoning seems clear and also suitable for the fight against the

illegal tiger trade, this is not always the case. On a closer look, we can recognize that the

overlapping consensus in the case of the fight against the illegal tiger trade is actually

299 SSN and ENV (2014). Caged Assets: Tiger Farming and Trade [Report]. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/Caged-Assets-revised.pdf 300 Miller, K. (2014: p. ). The Role of Transnational Advocacy Networks in Combating Wildlife Crime: The Case of the Illegal Ivory Trade. (Master thesis), University of Massachusetts. 301 Rawls, J. (2001). Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. United States: Harvard University Press. 302 Ibid.

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missing, by having many different justifications. Because, is it only the species, it’s DNA , or

the predator in its natural habitat that we want to save? It might be interesting to shortly

discuss some of the different justifications which are encountered during the research.

6.4.2 Different Justifications

According to White, the right to be is the most important justification to save the wild tiger.303

Wyatt mentions multiple justifications, namely: “the intrinsic value of a tiger beyond what is

given them by humans (…) the right to life for a tiger just as much as anyone or anything”

and the last one is that “tigers are crucial in maintaining healthy ecosystems in various parts

of the world since they are the apex predator keeping prey species in check.”304 Three types of

justifications can be identified here by these two green criminologists. First, it concerns the

right to be, second it concerns the intrinsic value of tigers (animal welfare ethic) and third it

concerns the conservation of healthy ecosystems (sustainable development frame).

There is not only a variety of normative frameworks among green criminologists; also

within the team of Project PREDATOR from the INTERPOL Environment Crime

Programme. Project leader Botezatu explained that “as it is a team, with different colleagues,

backgrounds, beliefs and perspectives, so does the justification of why we are doing is

different, it varies.”305 For example, an Indian team member wants to save the wild tiger,

because the tiger is an emblem of her country, with deep roots in the history and culture of

India. She is saying that, this is why her country is investing a lot of money in the protection

of this one species. Other team members feel naturally attached to the tiger as it is a species

that “generates strong emotions through what it represents as well as through looks and

strength.” Another member believes in the justification of environmental rights and

environmental justice coupled with our need as human beings to live in a healthy, sustainable

environment.306 So in one team of five people, four different justifications of why saving the

tiger is important are identified.

The mission of the Wildlife Conservation Society is dedicated to save wildlife around

the globe, so also the tiger species.307 The justification for this mission is that human beings

need a healthy eco-system, as is told in an interview with the WCS China Programme. Not

only the tiger has to be saved as one species, but they aim to conserve the entire ecosystem,

303 Interview, Rob White, August 2014. 304 Interview, Tanya Wyatt, August 2014. 305 Interview, Ioana Botezatu, September 2014. 306 Ibid. 307 WCS (2015). About Us [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.wcs.org/about-us.aspx

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where the tiger is only one part of it.308 The justification of the WCS China Programme can be

considered as an anthropocentric one.

6.4.3 The Consequences of the Different Justifications

These previous different justifications from green criminologists, INTERPOL and the Wildlife

Conservation Society show only the tip of the iceberg. For example, the control of wildlife

trade is also justified economically and scientifically.309 Such a variety, would not lead to

significant practical problems when combaters share an overlapping consensus. During

international meetings it seems that actors in the fight against the illegal tiger trade all share

the same general goal, namely saving the wild tiger. However, when we take more specific

issues as tiger farming into account, it is important to look again if different normative

frameworks really not throw a spanner in the works. For example, the justification of “the

right to be” will imply that breeding tigers in farms would not be a problem, since the

existence of tigers is also guaranteed in farms. The same reasoning might be equally

applicable to the justification of seeing the tiger as an emblem of a country or because it has

an intrinsic value (depending on what makes the tiger an emblem and what this intrinsic value

implies). If tigers would live in the wild or behind bars, these previous justifications might be

applied to both, wild or captives. On the other hand, some network actors gave the

maintaining of a healthy ecosystem or the protection of the environment as justification.

These grounds will not allow tiger farming as an approach to save tigers, because tigers would

not live anymore in their natural habitat, which could lead to a destabilization of a healthy

ecosystem. Wyatt states that “whilst all are well-meaning, different kinds of organisations

have different missions, so this diverse array of stakeholders may have approaches that come

into conflict with one another.”310

What kind of normative framework has the government of China for saving the tiger?

This given the fact that the government allows the trade in skins from captives, with which

many other combaters do not agree. The question is: do we want to save the DNA of the tiger,

the looks of a tiger, the environment for human beings or do we want to maintain the natural

life-cycle of the tiger? The answer to the question of why combaters want to save the tiger,

implies also which approaches are acceptable during the combat. The motivations behind a

308 Interview, China team: World Conservation Society, August/September 2014. 309 Reeve, R. (2002). Policing International Trade in Endangered Species: The CITES Treaty and Compliance. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs. 310 Wyatt, T. (2013: p. 105). Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims and the Offenders. London: Palgrave Macmillian.

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combat have to be clear and stay clear, so that the fight is heading in one direction, which

saves energy, time, money and hopefully the wild tigers on earth.

6.5 Lack of Valuable Data on the Involvement of Organized Crime

The illegal trade of wildlife has become one of the largest criminal activities in the world and

wildlife crime represents a serious transnational threat. According to White and Wyatt the

entrance of organized crime into the black market of wildlife is likely to occur because of the

opportunity for large profits and the low risk of detection.311 Organized crime “threatens

peace and human security, violates human rights and undermines economic, social, cultural,

political and civil development of societies around the world,” states the UNODC.312 The

CITES Secretariat, in close collaboration with the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime

(UNODC), identified key indicators in the early 2000s, that clearly illustrated the involvement

of organized crime in the illegal wildlife trade. These indicators include inter alia: detailed

planning, significant financial support, use of threat of violence, international management of

shipments and well-armed participants with the latest weapons and opportunity for massive

profits.313 There are many reports published for various wildlife crimes regarding organized

crime, such as the Born Free report314 about organized crime in the ivory trade, but it is very

hard to find good reports on organized crime regarding the illegal tiger trade. In what follows,

the definition of ‘transnational organized criminal syndicates’ and the existing problems will

be explained and there will be shown that good information on organized crime regarding the

illegal tiger trade is lacking.

6.5.1 Transnational Organized Criminal Syndicates

According to the UNTOC (Organized Crime Convention), the notion ‘transnational organized

criminal syndicates’ (1) covers the activities of a group of three or more individuals (2)

existing for a period of time and working beyond borders (3) with the aim of committing one

or more serious crimes (4 years or more imprisonment) (4) with a common objective to obtain

311 South, N., Wyatt, T. (2011). Comparing Illicit Trades in Wildlife and Drugs: An Exploratory Study. Deviant Behavior 32(6), 538-561. 312 UNODC (2015). Organized Crime [Format description]. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/it/organized-crime/index.html 313 Sinha, S. (2013). The Wildlife Crime Nexus. Sanctuary Asia 33(3). Retrieved from http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/magazines/conservation/9393-the-wildlife-crime-nexus.html 314 DeFazio, P. (2015). Out of Africa: Mapping the Global Trade in Illicit Elephant Ivory [Report]. Born Free USA. Retrieved from http://www.bornfreeusa.org/a9_out_of_africa.php

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financial or other material benefit.315 Given the number of people that are usually needed to

carry out a cross-border wildlife crime, the first element of the definition would appear to be

easily fulfilled, according to Sellar.316 However, this element excludes important cooperation

between two individuals, which can be valuable in the case of the illegal tiger trade.317 The

third element of the definition from UNTOC causes considerable problems for some

countries, because domestic legislation may be too weak to support the four years or more

imprisonment. Sellar even noted that in some tiger range countries, wildlife ‘crime’, is not

even considered a crime, but purely an administrative matter.318 On the Seminar on the Illegal

wildlife trade and enforcement in the European Union held on January 15th 2015 at Utrecht,

he gave an example of this penalty differences: for trading in wildlife there are already done

28 executions in China and an offender in Nigeria only has to pay 10 dollar.

6.5.2 Lack of Valuable Data

The occurrence of contradictory statements about the significance of organized crime in the

illegal tiger trade and the vagueness in the information that is given about organized groups

throws a spanner in the works.

Stoner and Pervushina state, for example, that ten percent of the suspect base from

their seizure records may be part of an organized crime group, in accordance to the above

described UNTOC definition.319 However, they also noted that the number of individuals

operating as part of an organized crime group is expected to be much greater.320 But the

reasons for this expectation are not given. They advocated that some elements of serious and

organized crime has been identified in Russia and Nepal.321 An online nature and

conservation portal of India, Sanctuary Asia, stated in one of their articles about wildlife

crime that “Criminals engaged in the illicit trade in tiger and bear products between the

Russian Federation and China are known to collaborate with the Russian mafia to smuggle

contraband across the border.”322 However, a representative of Russia states that in their

315 EIA (2013). Tiger Crime Analysis: Likely Captive Breeding Cases [Report]. EIA. 316 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 317 EIA (2013). Tiger Crime Analysis: Likely Captive Breeding Cases [Report]. EIA. 318 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 319 Stoner, S., Pervushina, N. (2013). Reduced to Skin and Bones Revisited: An Updated Analysis of Tiger Seizures from 12 Tiger Range Countries (2000-2012). A TRAFFIC Report. Retrieved from http://www.trafficj.org/publication/13_Reduced_to_Skin_and_Bones_Revisited.pdf 320 Ibid. 321 Ibid. 322 Sinha, S. (2013). The Wildlife Crime Nexus. Sanctuary Asia 33(3). Retrieved from http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/magazines/conservation/9393-the-wildlife-crime-nexus.html

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country especially individuals and opportunistic traders are involved in the trade, not

organized groups.323 Which of the one is true?

Sellar states that “although several enforcement agencies justify suspicions that

organized criminal gangs, including the Russian Mafia and Chinese Triads, may be involved

in wildlife crime, little appears to have been done to research or infiltrate illicit criminal

activity at that level.”324 He even mentions that tiger skins have been discovered on the walls

of organized crime bosses’ homes in Moscow and other Eastern European capital cities.325

This seems a good indication that some part of the illegal tiger trade is organized.

Another indicator of organized crime is the use of a government-owned cars by traders

of tigers, namely China’s Post, to transport tigers and tiger parts and derivatives. The reason

they choose this company is because there is an absence of checks on cargo, as it is

government-owned.326 This way of transportation shows a form of corruption, which is an

indicator for organized crime.

However, Pires and Moreto argue that much of wildlife poaching committed globally

is not the product of organized crime and professional poachers but of poor, opportunistic

locals.327 The following tiger range countries, advocated that in their country no organized

groups are involved in the illegal tiger trade: Russia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia,

Malaysia, Bhutan and Bangladesh.328 Only Nepal and Cambodia answered that organized

crime groups are involved. This means that only two of all tiger range countries believe that

organized crime groups play a significant role in the illegal tiger trade. The question arises:

possesses countries enough information and are they certain about their answer that organized

crime groups do not play a significant role?

Sellar makes clear that worldwide very few cases had been brought to court where the

circumstances illustrated an organized nature.329 Those cases often ended up with

prosecutions of people who were minor links in the long chain of criminality that stretches

from one end, where the tiger is poached, to the other, where it is sold to the consumer. The

323 Questionnaires INTERPOL 324 Sellar, J.M. (2014, December 30). Time for a New Year Resolution [LinkedIn]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/time-new-year-resolution-john-m-sellar-obe-frgs?trk=prof-post 325 Sellar, J.M. (2014, July 21). Have stripes become unfashionable? [LinkedIn]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140731123433-185378273-have-stripes-become-unfashionable?trk=mp-reader-card 326 EIA (2012). Intelligence on the illegal Asian Big Cat trade. EIA. 327 Pires, S.F., Moreto, W.D. (2011). Preventing Wildlife Crimes: Solutions That Can Overcome the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’. European Journal on Crime Policy and Research 17, 101-123. 328 Questionnaires INTERPOL. 329 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles.

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Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime agrees with Sellar on the point that

there have been few arrests and convictions of known environmental crime controllers.330

According to them, this group of criminals exists at the heart of environmental crime,

functioning as pivots within networks of individuals around the globe who commit individual

criminal acts at various nodes in the chain.331 But, since arrests are scarce, the information of

those groups also remains scarce.

According to SSN and ENV, serious organized criminal networks are profiting from

the international and domestic trade in tigers from the licensed and, in some cases, unlicensed

facilities breeding tigers.332 They argue that the trade in captive tigers involves repeat

offenders and networks operating across borders.333 This seems reasonable, because the

continuation of the supply from those farms allows repetition of criminal behavior. There was

a trial, in China in 2014, of members from a domestic tiger-trading network operating in

Leizhou city of Zhanjiang, Guangdong. The organized group consisted of repeat offenders.

Another case reported in May 2014 about Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO)

who had confiscated over 36.5 million dollar from a longstanding criminal syndicate linked to

the illegal tiger trade and other wildlife. One individual who has been arrested was Chaimas, a

female who owns the Star Tiger Zoo in Chaiyaphum in Thailand. She has been arrested for

trafficking tigers from Malaysia and Thailand to Vietnam and Lao PDR. Despite DNA

evidence proving laundering and despite the testimony of her assistants against her, she had

never been prosecuted.334 This exemplifies the fact described by Sellar and the Global

Initiative that conviction of kingpins are scarce.

It seems that there is not enough information available to determine if organized crime

occurs in the illegal tiger trade and to which extent this may occur. Levi argues that although

there have been Mafia type criminal associations in some countries, the majority of crimes,

also transnational crimes, are differently organized. 335 Most of the criminal associations are

330 Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (2014). The Global Response to Transnational Organized Environmental Crime Key Messages and Core Recommendations. Retrieved from http://www.globalinitiative.net/download/global-initiative/Global%20Initiative%20-%20Organized%20Environmental%20Crime%20%20Key%20Messages%20and%20Core%20Recommendations%20-%20June%202014.pdf 331 Ibid. 332 SSN and ENV (2014). Caged Assets: Tiger Farming and Trade [Report]. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/Caged-Assets-revised.pdf 333 Ibid. 334 Ibid. p.6. 335 Levi, M. (2003). Organising Financial Crimes: Breaking The Economic Power of Organized Crime Groups. In: Siegel, D., Van de Bunt, H., Zaitch, D. (eds), Global Organized Crime (pp.117-126). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publisher.

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more subtle organized by looser network structures.336 So, in the case of the illegal tiger trade,

it is important to be aware of possible subtle, looser networks.

Research regarding organized crime in the illegal tiger trade seems to be especially

paper-based, consists of contradictions and remains somewhat superficial. Moreover, it is

caught in bureaucratic wrangling on definitions. There is an urgent need for a rationalized and

reinvigorated approach to address the challenge of environmental crime more

comprehensively. Corruption at all levels facilitates and enables organized environmental

crime, and undermines the majority of our instruments for response.337 In addition, if

combaters do not know whether organized crime plays a significant role in the illegal tiger

trade, then how could they determine which strategy they have to use?

6.6 Lack of Collaboration and Political Will

Sellar addresses in his book The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime

the: “lack of awareness of the problem or its gravity, insufficient appreciation on the part of

potential stakeholders of how they might contribute, inadequate communication, coordination

and collaboration at national, regional and international levels.”338 Further Sellar mentions on

LinkedIn the little attention that was given to the International Tiger Day July 29 2014.339

INTERPOL issued a press release on this important day, but the media in general seemed to

give little attention to tigers. According to Sellar this is a shame, as some countries, such as

Nepal, achieved successes in not only protecting their tiger population but also in increasing

it.340 Besides Nepal, India also had a success at the end of 2014 with a rise of 30% of their

wild tiger population.341 Efforts like these deserve acknowledgement, says Sellar.342

336 Ibid. 337 Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (2014). The Global Response to Transnational Organized Environmental Crime Key Messages and Core Recommendations. Retrieved from http://www.globalinitiative.net/download/global-initiative/Global%20Initiative%20-%20Organized%20Environmental%20Crime%20%20Key%20Messages%20and%20Core%20Recommendations%20-%20June%202014.pdf 338 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 339 Sellar, J.M. (2014, July 21). Have stripes become unfashionable? [LinkedIn]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140731123433-185378273-have-stripes-become-unfashionable?trk=mp-reader-card 340 Ibid. 341 India's tiger population sees 30% increase (2015, January 15). BBC News Asia. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30896028 342 Sellar, J.M. (2014, July 21). Have stripes become unfashionable? [LinkedIn]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140731123433-185378273-have-stripes-become-unfashionable?trk=mp-reader-card

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Collaboration and political will are one of the most important factors for an effective

combat. Wellsmith pointed out that environmental and wildlife crimes receive more attention

from law enforcement and criminological researches, but despite this, it remains

marginalized.343 It receives limited resources and suffers from a lack of a strong political will

to push such problems higher up the agenda.

David Higgins, the head of the Environmental Sub Directorate at INTERPOL,

explained during a meeting at INTERPOL in Lyon with Nicolas Hulot on June 11 2014, that

there is not enough efficient cooperation. “There is a need for greater communication and

information exchange, it is fragmented.”, states Higgins. INTERPOL tries to counter this

fragmentation with the ICCWC (International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime),

which is a collaboration between five inter-governmental organizations dedicated to bring

coordinated support to the national wildlife law enforcement agencies and to the sub-regional

and regional networks that act in defense of natural resources.344 These partnerships between

multiple agencies are very effective, for example, in identifying contraband and perpetrators

and deterring other offenders.345 Another problem which Higgins mentioned during the

meeting with Nicolas Hulot on June 11 2014, is that too many countries hide their failures

because of political issues. “By learning about our failures and improve our strategies, is

exactly how we grow,” states Higgins. Moreover, he is telling that: “Too many countries say:

Yes, we are going to support. But then you hear nothing of them again. Or they just invest

money and think that, that is enough.”

Wyatt and White share the idea that there are existing problems regarding

collaboration and information exchange.346 As they told in the interview, many important

international actors are busy and often do not have time to answer questions, but it is also a

matter of building trust. Further they mention the fact that much crime data cannot be shared

with academics, because of the confidentiality level.

I also interviewed Rinke Brussel, Policy Advisor at the European Parliament, about the

weak spots in the European approach against the illegal wildlife trade. He emphasized that

343 Wellsmith, M. (2011). Wildlife Crime: The Problems of Enforcement. European Journal on Crime Policy and Research 17, 125-148 344 CITES (n.d.). The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.cites.org/eng/prog/iccwc.php 345 Wilson-Wilde, L. (2010). Wildlife Crime: a Global Problem. Forensic Science Medicine and Pathology 6, 221-222. 346 Interview, Tanya Wyatt, August 2014 and Interview, Rob White, August 2014.

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there is a lack of political will in certain European States, like the Netherlands, to really do

something about the illegal wildlife trade.347

Ioana Botezatu, project leader of Project PREDATOR at INTERPOL, mentioned that

since the illegal tiger trade is a transnational trade, countries have to cooperate and take their

own responsibility.348 “Some countries try to move guilt to China for example, since they

have the largest demand. But there is also a responsibility for border countries,” says

Botezatu. Another important issue is that environmentalists and NGO’s are trying to build

more and more little organizations, which is according to Botezatu not practical at all.349

Activities will overlap each other and so will the funding for these activities. Due to the lack

of resources allocated to combating wildlife crime, NGO’s are becoming involved in law

enforcement which should be of concern at the international level, states Wilson-Wilde.350

This will lead to fragmentation and a lost in control of the international community. Sellar is

moreover pointing out the endless and often pointless debates which are held by the

combaters.351 They definitely will not help and are just other waste of time and efforts, says

Sellar.352 Good collaboration and a strong political will are for sure necessary elements for a

successful combat.

6.7 Tiger Farming

In discussions surrounding the illegal tiger trade, the subject of tiger farming is prominent. It

can be considered as one of the main problematic issues that hinder the fight against the

illegal tiger trade.

Tiger farming is a booming business, which is shown by the massive increase of

captive tigers in China in the last thirty years. Captives have skyrocketed from 20 captives in

1986 to 6.000353 in captivity across South-East Asia and China today.354 This compared with

347 Interview, Rinke Brussel, May 2014. 348 Interview, Ioana Botezatu, May 2014. 349 Ibid. 350 Wilson-Wilde, L. (2010). Wildlife Crime: a Global Problem. Forensic Science Medicine and Pathology 6, 221-222. 351 Sellar, J.M. (2014, July 21). Have stripes become unfashionable? [LinkedIn]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140731123433-185378273-have-stripes-become-unfashionable?trk=mp-reader-card 352 Ibid. 353 Due to a lack of consistent and adequate reporting by relevant parties of CITES, is it difficult to provide a more accurate figure. 354 Guynup, S. (2014, October 21). Industrial-Scale Tiger Farms: Feeding China’s Thirst for Luxury Tiger Products. National geographic. Retrieved from http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/21/industrial-scale-tiger-farms-feeding-chinas-thirst-for-luxury-tiger-products/

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the relative small number of around 3.200 individuals in the wild. This means that there are

more tigers in tiger farms than there exist in the wild in the rest of the world.355 The problem

of tiger farming contains various elements. First the notion ‘successful failure’ will be

presented and explained why this notion is applicable to the problem of tiger farming, second

the situation of tiger farming will be outlined, third the purpose of tiger farming will be

discussed, fourth the essence of a tiger is taken into account, fourth the relevance of the

neutralization theory in this case will be shown and finally a possible future perspective will

be sketched.

6.7.1 Successful failure The Apollo 13 mission to the moon in April 1970 went down in history as a ‘successful

failure’. The failure in this story was the aborted flight to the moon as due to an explosion on

board. However, the safe return of the three crew members under unbearable stress was seen

as a great success.356 NASA gave the term ‘successful failure’ a positive connotation to

celebrate and highlight the survival of the astronauts and the importance of humans in space

exploration.357

This story inspired me to apply the notion of a successful failure to the issue of tiger

farming. But, contrary to the NASA story, the notion ‘successful failure’ receives in this case a

negative connotation. The combat against the illicit trade in wild tigers is facing a failure,

since the population of wild tigers is still declining and standing on the brink of extinction. On

the other hand, there are enough tiger farms with thousands of tigers to keep the DNA of the

tigers alive. This can be seen as the success part. If it is the case that the fight against the

illegal tiger trade is going to fail and wild tigers become extinct, the earth still owns captive

tigers. This story could be seen as a successful failure. Wild tigers are declining or will be

extinct but the captive tiger survived. This is a picture that many people may have. But is this

a desirable situation? What are the consequences of seeing tiger farming as an successful

failure? In what follows, the current debate will be shown by explaining the situation, the

essence of the tiger, the neutralization techniques and by giving a future perspective.

355 Fullerton, J. (2014, July 29). Save the Tiger: The animals bred for bones on China’s tiger farms. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/save-the-tiger-the-animals-bred-for-bones-on-chinas-tiger-farms-9636537.html 356 Kauffman, J. (2001). A successful failure: NASA’s crisis communications regarding Apollo 13. Public Relations Review 27, 437-448. 357 Kauffman, J. (2001). A successful failure: NASA’s crisis communications regarding Apollo 13. Public Relations Review 27, 437-448.

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6.7.2 The Current State of Tiger Farms When one visits Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and especially China, as a tourist, one can go to the

many tiger facilities (private zoo’s and farms),358 which these countries possess. There are

approximately 240 facilities keeping and breeding tigers in total in these countries.359 This

number is still increasing. In Thailand one can visit the Tiger Temple for example where a

tourist has the ability to go on a photo with a tiger or hold and feed cuddly tiger cubs. But

those who visit these tiger attractions and farms have no idea of “the suffering behind the

scenes or the dark commerce that keeps them afloat.”360

In 2010, the Chinese Year of the Tiger, the conditions in China’s commercial breeding

facilities came under observation from various conservation groups and media. Images

showed up from tigers in cramped and dirty enclosures. Many were emaciated, which made

the tigers nothing more than a ‘striped bags of bones’. Some of them were deformed by

inbreeding.361

Many farms had been established with the aim of breeding tigers for commercial

purposes, primarily by supplying the bones of dead animals for traditional medicine.

However, after the ban on the use of tiger parts in 1993, many companies had no market

anymore for their products. The farm became, because of this, a place of public interest and

entertainment and relied upon the income from visitors.362 This change in purpose also applies

to the Tiger Temple Thailand.

I interviewed Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation in Thailand

(WFFT), about the situation of the Tiger Temple in Thailand.363 He spoke about the monks

who bought two tigers from an elephant camp who could not keep them anymore. According

to Wiek, many people believe that all the tigers in the Temple are rescued from poachers.364

However, this is not the truth, he says. From the moment they bought the two tigers they

began to breed. This breeding is illegal since the Tiger Temple is not registered with the Thai

Government and so has no legal grounds to hold or breed tigers in captivity.365 However,

358 EIA (2013). Hidden in Plain Sight: China’s Clandestine Tiger Trade [Report]. EIA. 359 SSN and ENV (2014). Caged Assets: Tiger Farming and Trade [Report]. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/Caged-Assets-revised.pdf 360 Guynup, S. (2014, October 21). Industrial-Scale Tiger Farms: Feeding China’s Thirst for Luxury Tiger Products. National geographic. Retrieved from http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/21/industrial-scale-tiger-farms-feeding-chinas-thirst-for-luxury-tiger-products/ 361 Guynup, S. (2014, June 28). China’s Threat to Wild Tigers. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/opinion/sunday/chinas-threat-to-wild-tigers.html?smid=tw-share&_r=3 362 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 363 Interview, Edwin Wiek, August 2014. 364 Ibid. 365 Ibid.

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since there was no government facility to house any tigers, the Temple was allowed to

continue caring for them, but on the condition that there would not occur any breeding.366 In

addition, there is also reported that they once illegally traded with a tiger breeding center in

Laos.367 They exchanged tigers with each other to prevent inbreeding. Wiek told that they

were never convicted for that.368 He thinks that it is just a matter of corruption. “The Tiger

Temple is a ‘money maker’ and is easily able to bribe people to stop the prosecution,” states

Wiek.369 And if you take a look on the website of this Tiger Temple,370 it is immediately clear

that this is not a rescue place anymore, if it ever was, but a big commercial center. According

to the Tiger Temple Report, are the enclosures way too small, are tigers showing stress signals

and frustration behavior and is staff using violence in order to subordinate the animals.371

However, in many other farms the conditions are much worse and do they have the

purpose to contribute to the market of tiger products. Huge numbers of tigers are “crammed

into barred, concrete quarters or packed into dusty, treeless compounds behind chain link

fences”, as is stated in an article in National Geographic.372 Some tigers are deformed by

inbreeding or poor nutrition. Some of them are blind. These farms pretend that there are

conservation initiatives, but mainly run as public attractions.373 Moreover, the public display

of the bottles of tiger bone wine, makes it quite clear that these facilities are, in essence,

factories that breed tigers for commercial sale of their parts.

6.7.3 The Purpose of Tiger Farming: Conservation or Entertainment and Slaughter?

In debates surrounding tiger farms, some people claim that those farms serve for conservation

of the tiger species, and other people, such as Shruti Suresh, a wildlife campaigner with the

Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) argue that those farms are nothing more than a

shadowy underground trade which serves only to stimulate consumer demand.374 Other

366 Care for the Wild International (2008). Exploiting the Tiger Illegal Trade, Animal Cruelty and Tourists at Risk at the Tiger Temple: An investigation at Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery, Kanchanaburi, Thailand [Report]. Retrieved from http://www.careforthewild.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/tigertemplereport08_final_v11.pdf 367 Ibid. 368 Interview, Edwin Wiek, August 2014. 369 Ibid. 370 http://www.tigertemplethailand.com/ 371 Care for the Wild International (2008). 372 Guynup, S. (2014, October 21). Industrial-Scale Tiger Farms: Feeding China’s Thirst for Luxury Tiger Products. National geographic. Retrieved from http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/21/industrial-scale-tiger-farms-feeding-chinas-thirst-for-luxury-tiger-products/ 373 Ibid. 374 Ibid.

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opponents of tiger farms assume that tiger farms are only kept to perform for paying

audiences and in the case of death, they are only used to fortify wine.375

Kirkpatrick gives an overview of this debate on tiger farms in his article Killing Tigers

to Save Them: Fallacies of the Farming Argument.376 The lucrative, illegal trade in tigers

remains a major threat to the survival of tigers in general and tiger farming has been proposed

as a potential solution. According to Kirkpatrick, most proponents of wildlife farming take a

simple supply-side approach.377 With this he means that they use a basic model which

considers the variables of supply and price, and posits an inverse relationship between them.

An increase in supply leads to a decrease in price and the other way around. The hypothesis of

the proponents is that the price will decrease as farmed animals increase the supply. The

profits of poachers will then decrease. Subsequently, the pressure on wild tigers is reduced

because poachers have less economic stimulation to kill them.378 However, Kirkpatrick argues

that the real world is not that simple.379 There are many factors other than supply and price

that influence markets. Tiger poachers will have a strong incentive to go along with the new,

legal markets in tigers. The legal trade could serve as cover for the illegal trade.380 Some

reports indicate that the tiger breeding centers have increased, rather than decreased pressure

on wild tiger populations.381 This is visible in other wildlife markets. Take for example the

trade in parrots. Illegal poaching of parrots in South America was significantly higher when

trade in parrots was still legal. Legal trade in parrots increased poaching, it did not decrease it,

which was the prediction of the supply-side conservation.382 Van Uhm states that this was also

the case with ivory.383

Another argument for the claim that farmed tigers will not replace the trade in wild

tigers, is the fact that many consumers still prefer wild animal products to those from farms.

Sellar states that consumers continue to believe that only ‘the real thing’ works because the

375 Fullerton, J. (2014, July 29). Save the Tiger: The animals bred for bones on China’s tiger farms. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/save-the-tiger-the-animals-bred-for-bones-on-chinas-tiger-farms-9636537.html 376 Kirkpatrick, R.C., Emerton, L. (2010). Killing Tigers to Save Them: Fallacies of the Farming Argument. Conservation Biology. Retrieved from http://www.globaltigerinitiative.org/download/ELF/session-papers-and-presentations/Kirkpatrick_2010_Killing-Tigers-to-Save-Them_Conservation-Biology.pdf 377 Ibid. 378 Ibid. 379 Ibid. 380 Kirkpatrick, R.C., Emerton, L. (2010). Killing Tigers to Save Them: Fallacies of the Farming Argument. Conservation Biology. Retrieved from http://www.globaltigerinitiative.org/download/ELF/session-papers-and-presentations/Kirkpatrick_2010_Killing-Tigers-to-Save-Them_Conservation-Biology.pdf 381 Nowell, K. (2000). Far from a Cure: The Tiger Trade Revisited. TRAFFIC International. 382 Kirkpatrick, R.C., Emerton, L. (2010). 383 Interview, Daan van Uhm, April 2014.

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wild tiger is potent.384 Wyatt also emphasizes that there is still a widespread believe that

animals taken from the wild are superior in terms of genes or behaviour than any individual

tiger that comes from a farm.385 This argument may not be hold for every species, but does so

for the tiger species. As Brisman and South mention: “there is no one size fits all

approach.”386 The killings of wild animals continues, despite the existence of captive breeding

and farming of tigers.

Another problem covers law enforcement. Farming is creating a massive enforcement

challenge, because tiger farms supply a shadowy underground trade.387 Moreover, undermine

those farms the efforts of the whole international community to protect wild tigers, as is stated

in an article from National Geographic.388 Conservation policy cannot be removed from the

social and political environment. Farmed and wild stocks represent dual streams of supply and

therefore require separate regulatory structures.389 Wild trade alone is already a heavy task for

law enforcement, dual streams will increase the burden even more. The absence of completed

DNA and stripe-pattern databases and rigorous monitoring and enforcement, increased the

scope for laundering illegal tiger specimens through the captive trade. Even if a facility claims

to have the same number of tigers from one year to another, there is no information to confirm

these are the same individuals.

Reports to CITES are too inconsistent for an accurate assessment of what is

happening. This represents a major gap in ensuring compliance and enforcement of CITES.390

As a response, CITES came in 2007 with decision 14.69391 to make clear that it will not

tolerate the breeding for commercial purpose.392 However, since CITES has no authority over

384 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles. 385 Wyatt, T. (2009). The nature of illicit activity and the involvement of criminal groups in the transnational smuggling of wildlife [Concept paper]. Australian National University. 386 Brisman, A., South, N. (2013). Resource Wealth, Power, Crime, and Conflict. In: Walters, R., Westerhuis, D.S., Wyatt, T. Emerging Issues in Green Criminology (pp. 57-72). London: Palgrave McMillan. 387 Guynup, S. (2014, October 21). Industrial-Scale Tiger Farms: Feeding China’s Thirst for Luxury Tiger Products. National geographic. Retrieved from http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/21/industrial-scale-tiger-farms-feeding-chinas-thirst-for-luxury-tiger-products/ 388 Ibid. 389 Kirkpatrick, R.C., Emerton, L. (2010). 390 SSN and ENV (2014). Caged Assets: Tiger Farming and Trade [Report]. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/Caged-Assets-revised.pdf 391 Decision 14.69: Parties with intensive operations breeding tigers on a commercial scale shall implement measures to restrict the captive population to a level supportive only to conserving wild tigers; tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts and derivatives. 392 Guynup, S. (2014, June 28). China’s Threat to Wild Tigers. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/opinion/sunday/chinas-threat-to-wild-tigers.html?smid=tw-share&_r=3

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national regulation in member countries, the international community is having a hard job to

control this trade.393

There is a stronger tendency in this international debate to the opponents side

regarding tiger farming. But China, who allows the trade in skins from captives, would tend to

agree with the legal existence of tiger farming. Some actors in the fight against the illegal

tiger trade find it hard to make a decision if the approach to make tiger farms legal is the right

or wrong thing to do to save tigers. This because of the complexity. Van Uhm argues that the

decision of combaters depends on the view they take.394 He argues that, from an animal

welfare perspective, one must conclude that farming is simply a wrong approach, since tigers

experience harm in the small cages where they cannot maintain their natural behavior. From a

biodiversity perspective, those farms are a good solution, because they breed more tigers for a

back-up in case wild tigers become extinct.395 Also some members of the environment sub-

directorate at INTERPOL, where I did my research for two months, found it hard to make a

good, informed choice about this complex issue.

6.7.4 The essence of what it is to be a tiger In my view the question on the issue of what it is to be a tiger is of central importance in the

debate surrounding tiger farms. White advocates that the captive tiger is different to the wild

tiger.396 These differences will continue and evolve over time. Further, he emphasizes that

genetic preservation is not the same as preservation at a lived experiential level. In one sense,

by holding tigers in farms, bio-diversity is preserved. But in another sense, tigers in farms are

different creatures which lives on into the future. We will lose the wild tiger and get another

one in return.

But what is the essence of the wild tiger? And what of this essence is getting lost by

captivity in farms? The tiger is the largest of all Asian big cats and relies primarily on sight

and sound rather than smell. They are essentially solitary animals, which means that they hunt

and stalk prey alone on a large territory.397 This natural style of living is impossible in the

small cages of the farms. First of all are those tigers not alone in their enclosure, because they

have to share it with many others and second the cubs are not learning how to hunt anymore

from their mothers. To show how a tiger ‘loses’ his natural hunt behavior in a farm, I would 393 Nowell, K. (2000). Far from a Cure: The Tiger Trade Revisited. TRAFFIC International. 394 Interview, Daan van Uhm, April 2014. 395 Ibid. 396 Interview, Rob White, August 2014. 397 WWF (2015). Species: Tiger: Overview [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger

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like to refer to an issue from the newspaper The Independent, where they show a quote of

Grace Ge Gabriel, regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The quote

describes a brutal public display in the Guilin farm in 1999: “There were many Chinese

tourists in the stand watching when the cow was released into the enclosure, then five or six

hungry tigers were let in. The tigers could not take down the cow. They were climbing on it,

tearing at it and injuring it, but not in the critical areas. So the tigers were taken out, then a

tractor came in and ran over the cow again and again and again.”398 This quote shows that

tigers in captivity have lost their hunting skills. In addition, the cow had to pay for this loss of

the tigers predator skills by his slow suffering death.

Another essential part of their natural behavior is birth. In nature a tiger gives birth to

two-three cubs every two and a half years.399 Whereas in breeding facilities, tigers are forced

into a ‘speed-breed’ method to boost production, which means that mother tigers usually give

birth to two to three cubs every five months.400 Their natural birth behavior is vanished and is

replaced by a ‘speed-breed’ method.

In a short film about tigers in captivity in the United States from the WWF it is

emphasized that tigers stand for everything that is wild in the world, for everything that

cannot be tamed.401 Another documentary about the Sumatran Tiger, noted that some captives

still have a real personality. They still have that natural wild energy. This energy, the

vocalization of the roaring, is what it is to be a tiger, its being the strong, dominant predator in

the large forest in search for his prey, as is argued in the documentary.402 When one goes to a

zoo, one sees tigers which are calm and sleepy and do not roar at the people. The wild is

wiped oud from those soulless prisoners. A new artificial tiger is born. A tamed one. This

process shows what White was emphasizing: the DNA of a tiger is preserved, but the lived

experiential level, the wild soul, has vanished.403 Is it desirable to save a biological species in

a state wherein it cannot maintain its own natural life cycle?

398 Fullerton, J. (2014, July 29). Save the Tiger: The animals bred for bones on China’s tiger farms. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/save-the-tiger-the-animals-bred-for-bones-on-chinas-tiger-farms-9636537.html 399 WWF (2015). Species: Tiger: Overview [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger 400 Guynup, S. (2014, October 21). Industrial-Scale Tiger Farms: Feeding China’s Thirst for Luxury Tiger Products. National geographic. Retrieved from http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/21/industrial-scale-tiger-farms-feeding-chinas-thirst-for-luxury-tiger-products/ 401 World Wildlife Fund (2010, October 20). Tigers Among US [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-xN0HmXqrk#t=43 402 NPO (2014). Natuur op 2: De levensgevaarlijke Sumatraanse tijger [video file]. Retrieved from http://www.npo.nl/natuur-op-2-de-levensgevaarlijke-sumatraanse-tijger/19-09-2014/POW_00757756 403 Interview, Rob White, August 2014.

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Various characteristics of a wild tiger and the wild spirit are gone as soon they get used

to their new ‘home’. The essence of being a tiger seems almost completely gone as soon as

people placed them behind bars. We will lose an ancient predator and receive a domesticated

entertainer instead.

6.7.5 Neutralization Theory Sykes and Matza’s (1957) neutralization theory sets out how delinquents justify and

rationalize their behavior. By using the so called neutralization techniques, the deviance act of

the delinquent is seen through his or her eyes as valid, which is at the same time seen as

criminal through the eyes of the legal system or society at large.404 The delinquents possesses

the same moral imperatives, values and attitudes as the dominant society, but the

neutralization techniques allow them to wipe out their guilt. What the neutralization

techniques especially provide, is the protection of the individuals self-blame and the blame of

others before and after the act.405 This makes it possible that the delinquent does not mind to

do the deviant behavior ones again. This whole process could be seen as a cognitive

dissonance reduction strategy, by neutralizing any definition of themselves as criminals.406

Ten of these neutralization techniques can be found in literature. Sykes and Matza

identified the first five of these, Minor (1981) provided the sixth technique, the seventh is

added by Klockars (1981) and Coleman (1994) identified the last three407:

1. The denial of responsibility, 2. The denial of injury, 3. The denial of the victim, 4. The

condemnation of the condemners, 5. The appeal to higher loyalties, 6. The defense of

necessity, 7. The metaphor of the ledger, 8. The claim that everybody else is doing it , 9. The

denial of the necessity of the law, and 10. The claim of entitlement.

It is not uncommon to use the neutralization theory in scientific debate to help explain

wildlife crime is. So did Forsyth and Evans draw on Sykes and Matza concepts of

neutralization by showing how dogmen used neutralization techniques to counter a criminal

identity of dogfighting.408 The deployment of neutralization techniques by deer poachers to

404 Sykes, G.M., Matza, D. (1957). Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency. American Sociological Review 22(6), 664-670. 405 Ibid. 406 Ibid. 407 Eliason, S.L. (2003). Illegal Hunting and Angling: The Neutralization of Wildlife Law Violations. Society & Animals 11(3), 225-243. 408 Forsyth, C. J., & Evans, R. D. (1998). Dogmen: The rationalization of deviance. Society and Animals 6, 203-218.

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neutralize their offenses is shown by Eliason and Dodder.409 This form of explanation of the

normalization of wildlife crime have revealed how the treatment of animals is morally

justified.410

However, it seems that the neutralization theory has not yet been used to explain why

tiger farming has such a strong presence in some of the tiger range countries. Tiger farming is

considered to be a successful failure story, where the farms are seen as a success in saving the

tiger species. The farms, however, where still thousands of tigers live in captivity,

overshadow the urgent situation of tigers in the wild. They give a false impression about the

amount of wild tigers alive today.411 A news article in The Independent referred to comments

that were given on a campaign website for saving tigers, where people were saying that there

is no need for a campaign, because there are still many tigers. This comment referred to the

tigers in the farms and not those in the wild. This may show a lack of awareness of the

urgency of the situation of wild tigers and neutralizes the imperative on us to act.412 Moreover,

White emphasized that farms are seen as a ‘fall-back’ solution.413 People do not see the

severity of the situation, because farms make it seem that everything is alright. This is exactly

the point of the successful failure story. The tiger farms actually function as one big

neutralization technique to weaken the moral commitment of saving wild tigers.

Five examples of neutralization techniques (the first five of Sykes and Matza) that can

be used by actors in the illegal tiger trade to weaken their guilt of the deviant activity, such as

poaching a tiger or producing and consuming tiger products, will be exposed here. Such

neutralization allows individuals to redefine the deviant act as a more acceptable form of

behavior and protect their self-image.414 However, these examples are fictional and need to be

researched in another study by set up interviews with these individuals.

The first technique is the denial of personal responsibility. Poor poachers may think:

“of course I am killing a tiger, who would not be, coming from my poor background?”

409 Eliason, S. L., Dodder, R.A. (2010). Neutralization Among Deer Poachers. The Journal of Social Psychology 140(4), 536-538. 410 Enticott, G. (2011). Techniques of neutralising wildlife crime in rural England and Wale. Journal of Rural Studies 27, 200-208. 411 Fullerton, J. (2014, July 29). Save the Tiger: The animals bred for bones on China’s tiger farms. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/save-the-tiger-the-animals-bred-for-bones-on-chinas-tiger-farms-9636537.html 412 Ibid. 413 Interview, Rob White, August 2014. 414 Sykes, G.M., Matza, D. (1957). Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency. American Sociological Review 22(6), 664-670.

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Owners of farms may think: “of course I am breeding tigers for their skins, it is the only

income I can get from farms that already existed before the general ban.”

The second technique is the denial of harm to anyone. Farm owners may think: “who

do we harm with saving tigers in farms from being killed in the wild or why do we harm

tigers by saving them from extinction?”

The third technique is the denial that the one who is injured or wronged is really a

victim. Actors may think: “a tiger is just an animal, we are not talking about human lives.”

Many people still do not see animals as valuable victims, which is for green criminology a big

issue.

The fourth technique is the condemnation of the condemners by the actors in the trade.

Actors may think: “well blame me, but the society is much more corrupt than I am. Moreover

the Chinese government is even allowing the trade in skins from captives, right?”

The fifth technique is the shifting of loyalty from the norms of an impersonal society

to a group or gang. This can be the case with actors within an organized crime group. The

group considers itself to be above the law.

6.7.6 Future Perspective

To conclude this discussion surrounding tiger farms, I wish to sketch a possible future

perspective. Kirkpatrick advocates that the level of endangerment is so high for tigers, that a

precautionary approach is called for, regardless of whether the tool at hand is the supply-side

conservation.415 Although the theory of the supply-side conservation seems applicable, this

often does not work in practice. This is clear from the fact that not one captive tiger has ever

been successfully released into the wild.416 According to Kirkpatrick an approach as farming

should only be tried with species that allow a substantial margin for error, i.e. species that are

not highly endangered. For the species that are at a great risk of extinction, regulatory

approaches hold less downside risk than market approaches, if only because the level of

control is greater.417 However, this argument seems not valuable for owners of several large

415 Kirkpatrick, R.C., Emerton, L. (2010). Killing Tigers to Save Them: Fallacies of the Farming Argument. Conservation Biology. Retrieved from http://www.globaltigerinitiative.org/download/ELF/session-papers-and-presentations/Kirkpatrick_2010_Killing-Tigers-to-Save-Them_Conservation-Biology.pdf 416 Guynup, S. (2014, June 28). China’s Threat to Wild Tigers. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/opinion/sunday/chinas-threat-to-wild-tigers.html?smid=tw-share&_r=3 417 Kirkpatrick, R.C., Emerton, L. (2010).

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tiger farms in China, because owners recently have been pressuring the government to lift the

domestic trade ban and allow them to legally produce all kinds of tiger products.418

It is further pertinent to note that the wild tiger populations of range states, that have

permitted the growth of facilities which keep and breed tigers for commercial purposes, are

dwindling, and in some cases are believed to be virtually extinct.419 Massive tiger farms

produce millions of dollars for only a handful of people. These people are watching their

investment grow as the numbers of wild tigers dwindle. If this will continue, they are banking

on extinction.420 Wyatt explains in an interview that the successful failure scenario, were wild

tigers are extinct and thousands of captives are still alive, would be truly awful.421 Tigers

cannot fully express their nature and suffer from a life in a farm. She hopes that we do not get

to that point. Sellar states that it is especially the tiger, which deserves the regard and respect

from humans. According to him they are truly the most amazing of species and he finds it

almost incomprehensible that we have allowed tigers to come so very, very close to

extinction.422

418 WWF (2011). Save Tigers Now [Format description]. Retrieved from http://www.savetigersnow.org/problem 419 SSN and ENV (2014). Caged Assets: Tiger Farming and Trade [Report]. Retrieved from http://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/Caged-Assets-revised.pdf 420 Guynup, S. (2014, October 21). Industrial-Scale Tiger Farms: Feeding China’s Thirst for Luxury Tiger Products. National geographic. Retrieved from http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/21/industrial-scale-tiger-farms-feeding-chinas-thirst-for-luxury-tiger-products/ 421 Interview, Tanya Wyatt, August 2014. 422 Sellar, J.M. (2014). The Un's Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime. Dunbeath: Whittles.

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CONCLUSION

Since wildlife crime still suffers from a lack of research, data and case studies in comparison

to other crimes, this study has been attempted to contribute to the criminological scientific

debate by doing research on the illegal tiger trade. Even with the international attention by the

transnational collaborations to fight the illegal tiger trade, the practical impact on the ground

seems to be minimal. Many efforts seems simply ineffective, because the tiger population is

still not increasing.

Central to this study was the following question: Which problematic factors hinder the

fight against the illegal tiger trade? To provide an informed answer to this question, four sub

questions were formulated:

1. How is the illegal tiger trade embedded in the Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species (CITES)?

2. What kind of transnational collaborations are there to fight the illegal tiger trade?

3. What is the nature and extent of the illegal tiger trade?

4. Which factors hinder the fight against the illegal tiger trade?

The species of the tiger started to live in east Asia around two million years ago. They have

survived until now, but the international community shows signs of fear for their extinction in

the near future. In the early 1900s, tiger species roamed through the forests of Asia with a

population of around 100.000, but the total global wild tiger population is currently around

3.200 individuals. This means that the numbers of wild tigers have declined 97% since 1900.

Poaching is number one concern for the illegal tiger trade. To avoid the doom scenario, which

is the extinction of the wild tiger species, the fight against the illegal tiger trade is in full

progress. However, tiger range governments agreed that while progress has been made,

critical areas of concern remained.

The illegal tiger trade can be considered as a transnational environmental crime. This

means the movement of tigers across borders in contravention of domestic law in violations of

prohibition or regulation regimes established by multilateral environmental agreements. From

a green criminological perspective, transgressions that are harmful against tigers are also part

of the definition. Transnational environmental threats such as species extinction are likewise

felt way beyond the country of origin. The extinction of tigers can have destructive

environmental, economic, aesthetic and cultural impacts on places far removed from the

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source of the problem. The illegal tiger trade is also a form of wildlife crime. The whole

wildlife trade is estimated to be worth 50-150 billion dollars per year. The penalties for

wildlife crime offenses are, in most countries, extremely minor compared to what a wildlife

product is worth on the black market.

The trade in tiger, tiger parts and derivatives is protected by CITES. The tiger species

is listed since 1975 in Appendix I of the Convention, which means that the tiger species is

threatened with extinction. Moreover is CITES stating that tiger farming should be abolished

and tigers should not be bred for trade. The effectiveness of CITES is questionable. It has

limited sanctioning mechanism regarding member countries, which means that they are totally

dependent on the will and capacity of members to fully implement and enforce the decisions

that are made. China is given as an example to show that the implementation by a member

country is not always working as CITES requested. Some scholars consider CITES as being

paternalistic and only part of a Western agenda. International environmental law would be

more a product of international geopolitics, instead of real concerns to minimize the harmful

consequences of environmental crime. However, Sellar stated that the status of wildlife would

be much worse without the protection of CITES.

Research has demonstrated that environmental and wildlife crime recently gained an

increasing priority amongst transnational organizations and other actors. The fight against the

illegal tiger trade can be considered as one big transnational collaboration between many

actors around the world. These collaborations could also be considered as transnational

advocacy networks. The actors in the fight against the illegal tiger trade working

internationally on the tiger trade issue, and are bound together by shared values, a common

discourse, and dense exchanges of information and services. One of those many actors are

non-governmental organizations, which increasingly take a central role in global governance.

They have, for example, the expertise and resources to fight the illegal tiger trade.

Transnational collaborations are essential in the case of the illegal tiger trade, because

individual countries may not have the political power, skills or funding to fight the illegal

tiger trade totally on their own. This research made a distinction between four different

collaborations which are formed as an effort to fight wildlife crime: species collaborations,

regional collaborations, global collaborations and INTERPOL. It is shown that transnational

collaborations is considered as political propaganda by some scholars. People and

organizations from very different backgrounds work together in a global, political, social and

economic environment, which is a complex task. Different languages, and different

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organizational and hierarchical structures can create difficulties for an efficient collaboration.

Cultural differences are especially visible in the attitude towards the tiger trade. Organization

may try to convince Asian cultures with Western idealistic values, instead of coming with

strong scientific data.

The exact scope of the illegal tiger trade is difficult to establish since all wildlife

trafficking has a high dark number, yet this research has attempted to sketch a picture of the

trade. The area of wild tigers is spread over thirteen range countries. Although people still

worship the tiger for his health and fertility, tiger products are increasingly used as status

symbols. There seems to be a swift from health to wealth. Rising economies in demand

countries could be considered as one of the most important reasons for the remaining market

for tiger bones and skins. Different sources are contradictory on the issue of the magnitude of

the sale of tiger products on the internet. This means that more information is needed to gain a

better understanding of the online trade. The size of the trade in fake products is significant.

This creates problems for the enforcement, since it has a hard time to distinguish the authentic

from the fake tiger products. The main trade chain actors are: poachers; intermediate traders;

processors; retailers; and consumers. The most complex actors are the poachers and the

consumers. The most popular poaching methods are wire snares, steel traps and poisoned

meat. Popular transport methods are fraudulent documentation, the transport of illegal

products in combination with legal products, the use of a specific logistic company where

there is an absent of checks on cargo, and the use of females as smugglers.

The most important research findings were the six problematic factors which hinder

the fight against the illegal tiger trade. The first factor concerns ‘The Ivory Tower: Rangers

and the International Bureaucrats’ where the disconnection between the practical concerns in

the everyday life of a ranger and the world of the international bureaucrats in the fight against

the illegal tiger trade is shown. Research has demonstrated that rangers who protect the wild

tiger species are forced to work in harsh conditions. Some people in high positions have no

idea how their authority influences people in the field. The second factor is the likelihood of

`Confusion in a Culture´. The labeling theory of Howard Becker is used to explain the

confusion caused by the change in labeling of the tiger trade. Moreover, arguments are given

why the criminalization process of the tiger trade could be considered as cultural imperialism.

The legal grey areas also creates confusion due to the exceptions to the illegality. Open

advertisements and open display of tiger products is another cause for confusion for example

for tourists, who, because if this, do not get aware of the illegality and their contribution to

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extinction. The third factor concerns the ‘Different Justifications for Saving the Wild Tiger’.

This factor has shown how different normative frameworks could result in conflicting

understandings of problems and solutions regarding the illegal tiger trade, which inhibit

meaningful action against the trade. The motivations behind a combat have to be clear and

stay clear, so that the fight is heading in one direction. The fourth factor concerns the ‘Lack of

Valuable Data on the Involvement of Organized Crime’. The definition of ‘transnational

organized criminal syndicates’ is not fully useful for the fight against the illegal tiger trade. In

addition, research has shown that there are many contradictory statements about the

significance of organized crime in the illegal tiger trade. The vagueness in the information

that is given about organized groups also throws a spanner in the works. The fifth factor

concerns the ‘Lack of Collaboration and Political Will´. The research findings made clear that

there is a lack of good collaboration and a strong political will on many levels. There is a need

for greater communication, better information exchange, less fragmentation and a stronger

political commitment. This will results in a better international combat against wildlife crime

in general. The sixth factor concerns tiger farming, which can be considered as one of the

most important factors that hinder the fight against the illegal tiger trade. Tiger farming is a

booming business. Around 6000 tigers are in captivity in Asia. The problem is that the tiger

farming is considered to be a successful failure, which means that people neutralize the fact

that there are only 3200 tiger left in the wild, because there are enough farms who keep the

DNA of the tiger alive. In this way, tiger farms are seen as a ‘fall-back’ solution. The

conditions of many farms are alarming and a good overview of these farms is missing. Tiger

farms seemed to be functioning as entertainment houses for tourist and slaughter houses to

provide tiger products to satisfy the demand, instead of serve for conservation of the species.

It is concluded that the essence of the wild tiger species will vanish when they live in farms.

We will lose an ancient predator and receive a domesticated entertainer instead. The

neutralization theory of Sykes and Matza is used to identify the possibility of the use of

neutralization techniques by tiger trade actors to weaken their moral commitment. The use of

these techniques needs to be researched in another study by set up interviews with actors, for

example. The future perspective is sketched by arguing that the level of endangerment is so

high for tigers, that tiger farming is too risky.

This thesis gave a green criminological diagnosis of the problematic factors which

hinder the fight against the illegal tiger trade. The monster is on a path to become a soulless

prisoner only served for human desires. Cultural differences in attitudes towards the illegal

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tiger trade definitely have to be taken into account, but please let us do not forget about the

definitive consequences, in contrast to the unlimited supply of narcotics. Environmental crime

is serious and let us be serious about environmental crime.

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ANNEX I LIST OF INTERVIEWED PERSONS

Semi-structured interviews

Daan van Uhm, PhD candidate Criminology at the Utrecht University

- April 2014 in Utrecht

Ioana Botezatu, Project leader Environmental Security at INTERPOL

- May 2014 in Lyon

Edwin Wiek, Founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation in Thailand

- August 2014 through Skype contact Thailand/Utrecht

E-mail correspondence

Rinke Brussel, Policy Advisor at European Parliament, May 2014

Rob White, Professor of Criminology at the University of Tasmania, August 2014

Tanya Wyatt, Dr. lecturer and Green Criminologists, August, 2014

China Team, Wildlife Conservation Society, August/September 2014

Ioana Botezatu, Project leader Environmental Security at INTERPOL, September

2014

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ANNEX II

Source: National Geographic, 2014

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ANNEX III

Source: WWF, 2014