WWB 1ac

Inherency
A>
The Chinese National government allocates wildlife
protection duties onto underfunded local governmentsthis causes protectionism to be decentralized and weak
Li 07
Li, Peter.(Peter J. Li is an assistant professor of political science at the University of
Houston-Downtown, Texas, USA.) "Enforcing Wildlife Protection in China." <i>China
Information</i> (2007): 86-89. <i>Animallawconference.org</i>. 2007. Web. 15
Feb. 2016.
local governments shall provide compensation for
damages to agricultural produce or for any other damages caused by protecting the state- or locallyprotected species and that the methods of compensation shall be determined by the
provincial, autonomous region, and municipality governme nts. The consequences of this stipulation
are apparent. Without funding from the national government, local governments are the only financial source for protection activities. Not
surprisingly, wildlife protection is most urgent in economically backward regions.
Local governments in these regions are the most strapped for funds . Because of funding
Article 14 of chapter II (Protection of Wildlife) stipulates that

shortages, damage to crops in nature reserves is often delayed or not paid in full; compensation payment for damage to crops outside the reserves is not

To raise money, local authorities resort to measures that compromise the

objective of protection. China Information XXI (1) 84 Table 2 Selected species population before and after WPL enactment Protection
made at all.35

Population Population Species Category before WPL after WPL Musk deer I 1665 (1985) 100 (1996) Long-armed black gorilla I 2000 (1970s) 19 (2000)
Chinese river dolphin I 187 (19851987) 5 (1999) Wild camels I 3000 (1980s) 800 (2003) Tibetan black bears II 14,000 (1995) 7,000 (2005) Source:
Relevant articles in Chinese Wildlife 24, no. 4 (2003): 45, 24; Chinese Wildlife 24, no. 5 (2003): 2830; Chinese Wildlife 26, no. 1 (2005): 1819, 27.
Downloaded from cin.sagepub.com at University of Houston-Downtown on September 16, 2015 According to a recent media report, Chinas northwestern

. Fees collected are reportedly to be

used for wildlife protection.36 In Anhui, where endangered Chinese alligators are artificially bred for conservation purposes, its
provinces of Qinghai, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Ningxia are opening hunting sites to foreigners

conservation center has been opened as a tourist attraction. Two local restaurants are authorized by the CWCA to serve delicacies made with Chinese
alligator meat. Some of the alligators have even been sold to restaurants in nearby Jiangxi.37 Wildlife parks, the so-called training ground for returning

The national
government cannot hand important protection responsibilities over to the local
governments, Mang Pin argues. In so doing, it is shirking its responsibilit y. If the national government
endangered species such as Siberian tigers back to their natural habitats, are run as commercial enterprises.

establishes a nature reserve, it should invest in it.38 Other scholars proposed the creation of a special wildlife protection fund. The national government
should be the principal financial contributor. Moreover, it is the national government that should compensate businesses or individuals whose interests are

It is unfair, they continue, for the local authorities to shoulder the

compensation expenses.39 Local shortage of funding has undercut local ability to
fulfill the compensation duty. In Yunnan, compensations to the farmers are shared by the provincial and the subprovincial
impacted by wildlife protection.

authorities. In Nanpin township which is frequented by the protected Asiatic elephants, damage caused by the elephants amounted to RMB 2.6 million
between 1996 and 1999. Yet, according to Aster Zhang, former China director of the International Fund of Animal Welfare (IFAW), the township was only
compensated RMB 14,000, averaging a few renminbi per affected person.40 Similar problems also exist nationwide. Frustrated peasants often resort to
extreme measures to protect their interests. In Jiangxi, a peasant was arrested for electrocuting protected wildlife animals to death. In Zhejiang, vegetable
farmers set up sticky nets to ward off birds from their expensive seasonal greens. Li Yumin, a State Forestry Bureau official, proposed that wildlife
compensations should be part of the state budget for handling natural disasters

B>
Legal ambiguity in Chinese wildlife laws creates
space for exploitation
Carter 14 Leo Carter is a first year Masters student in Global Policy Studies at
the LBJ School. After receiving a BA in English and Asian Studies at Rice University in
2009, Leo spent three years in China,. 11/2/14 Gaps in Chinas Wildlife Laws
Global Wildlife Conservation Group
Chinas recent efforts to control the trade of illicit animal products both into the country and within its borders are a positive
development. As I mentioned in a previous post on Chinese wildlife enforcement measures, China has one of the best track records
in Asia when it comes to border enforcement and seizures. Successful seizures and arrests, however, bely surging demand for and

The rate of growth of this illegal market

shows that enforcement and public awareness campaigns are not perhaps as
successful as they are touted to be. In this posting I will be looking at the legal framework for wildlife
consumption of products like elephant ivory and rhino horn.

conservation and the loop-holes exploited by ivory and tiger bone traders in China. Chinas wildlife conservation legislation is
centered around its 1988 Wildlife Protection Law.

While its intentions are good, ambiguous language

have made wildlife
protection efforts a difficult battle for Chinese conservationists. The official position of 1988 law
maintains that the principle purpose of wildlife is for human domestication and
consumption. State agencies regulating domestic ivory trade have the conflicting missions of preserving traditional ivory
carving heritage and cracking down on post-ban ivory products. Furthermore, captive animals are afforded
almost no protection under the law, encouraging poachers and trappers to capture
and breed animals illegally. This also results in the inhuman standards at facilities such as bear bile and tiger farms
and goals, limited protection, and decentralized responsibility for enforcement and monitoring

that have been only recently come under critical scrutiny in the West. Complicating enforcement further, the laws stipulate that the
already cash-strapped provincial and regional governments are responsible for funding their protection campaigns and deciding the
punishments for infractions. This ambiguity and lack of centralized authority can lead to lax oversight and potentially corrupt
practices between enforcers and poachers. Agencies as diverse as the State Forestry Administration and the State Administration for
Cultural Heritage are all designated certain specific roles in regulating the trade. Buck-passing by agencies and law enforcement

Ambiguous legislation and delegation of

authority allow for local level officials to interpret the laws to best serve their self
interests. Even though Chinese law carries some of the stiffest penalties in the world for high-order wildlife trafficking
with overlapping responsibilities has become commonplace in China.

including life imprisonmentthese penalties are rarely if ever implemented. Indo-Chinese tiger cubs (Panthera tigris corbetti) born
at Hanoi Zoo, Vietnam. Young tigers, Hanoi Zoo, Vietnam. Hanoi zoo breeds endangered Indochinese tigers although it has little
room for them and is not part of any international breeding programme. Early 2008 zoo officials admitted selling the bodies of tigers
that had reportedly died of natural causes to animal traffickers. There has been a sharp increase in the keeping of tigers in Vietnam,
raising fears that the animals are being farmed to supply the trade in body parts used in traditional medicine. source:
www.nationofchange.org/2015/wp-content/uploads/IllegalWildlifeTrade.jpg China signed on with CITES in 1981. Currently its only
major reservations include those on captive breeding. Alligator and tiger farms operate with the official purpose of re-introducing
these severely endangered species into their original habitats. According to their own estimates, of the four sub-species of tiger
native to the Chinese mainland, only 40 50 remain in the wild. In a letter to the Secretary General of the 16th Conference of the
Parties in Bangkok, the director of the CITES Management authority of China states: The policy on banning of trade in tiger bone had
been implemented in China since 1993. The stockpile of tiger bones obtained before 1993 are being kept sealed and the tiger parts

government sanctioned tiger

product trade offer poachers legal cover, but ineffective and inconsistent certification methods often make it
coming from captive bred tigers are strictly regulated. Not only does the presence of a

impossible to determine which products are indeed legal and which are not. Another study points out that, wild-sourced parts would
consistently undercut the prices of farmed tigers that could easily be laundered on a legal market. Their survey also indicates that
despite awareness of the environmental impact and the illegal status of tiger consumption, 43% of subjects had consumed products

It is clear that half-measures towards wildlife conservation in China have

only served to further inflate the already world-leading illegal wildlife market . The legal
containing tiger.

sale of pre-ban wildlife products has provided sufficient cover in a poorly regulated domestic market to allow illegally smuggled
products to supply rapidly growing demand. In China, government bans and tougher enforcement may be the only viable option for

Because of Chinas particular sensitivity to its global reputation,

greater international diplomatic pressure on China to clean up their markets at home should
be considered.
reducing illicit trade.

Adv 1 is Extinction
A>
Chinese wildlife trade protection measures fail on the
local level- lack of will and funding means real local
engagement is key to solveLi 07
Li, Peter.(Peter J. Li is an assistant professor of political science at the University of
Houston-Downtown, Texas, USA.) "Enforcing Wildlife Protection in China." <i>China
Information</i> (2007): 86-89. <i>Animallawconference.org</i>. 2007. Web. 15
Feb. 2016.
several obstacles to Chinas
environmental governance. These include vague environmental laws that give local
officials great leeway in interpretation; diffusion and overlapping of protection responsibilities among different agencies;
weak institutional standing of the environmental protection agencies particularly
those at the local level; shortage of funding, lack of adequate and qualified personnel; and governmental
interference in judicial decisions.42 Wildlife protection suffers from similar institutional malaise . At
In her study of Chinas environmental mismanagement, Elizabeth identifies

the national level, the Wildlife Protection Department under the State Forestry Bureau is directly responsible for managing the
nations wildlife. Yet, the former is only one of the nine functional departments in the latter. While the national Wildlife Protection
Department supervises the wildlife protection work of its provincial counterparts, it exercises no organizational power over them.

Provincial wildlife protection departments are beholden to the local officials who
decide on their budget and staff needs and who care more about local growth. Wildlife
protection departments often find that their law enforcement efforts meet with resistance from local authorities and from work units
that have the use right of the land and the resources on the land. In other words, wildlife protection departments can raise the
issue of Wildlife Protection Law violation. Their voices are often ignored because they cannot stop the businesses or organizations
from doing what they are doing since the latter group of actors have the use right of the land. Citing a US legal case involving the
New York State Environmental Bureau and Sour Mountain Real Estate, Wang Xiaogang argues that Chinas wildlife protection
departments at all levels should have the power to curb the use right of the land out of the need to protect the public interest or
public property, that is, the habitat of the endangered species or protected species. He argues that use right of state land should be
revoked, when necessary, by building nature reserves. And to protect wildlife conceived as public interest or public property, the
government should exercise the power to restrict individual property rights.43 China Information XXI (1) 86 Downloaded from

The weak institutional standing of

Chinas wildlife protection departments is most clearly indicated by their small
budget and inadequate staff. There is no national budget for wildlife protection. And, county-level protection offices
are outside local government budgets.44 The operation of protection offices at the grass-roots level
is mostly sustained by fees and fines.45 In Shanghai, wildlife protection is not part of the government planning
cin.sagepub.com at University of Houston-Downtown on September 16, 2015

for future social and economic development. It is therefore not a consideration in budget proposals.46 Not surprisingly, staffing
needs of wildlife protection are generally ignored. In 2004, China had 2,194 nature reserves covering 148 million hectares of land,
14.8% of the Chinese territory.47 Yet, only 28,392 staff were employed to run these nature reserves, on average 12.9 workers for
each reserve. For example, Xinjiangs Aerjin Mountain Nature Reserve, built in 1985 and covering 45,000 km2 (bigger than Taiwan),
was under the supervision of a husband-and-wife team. The couple patrolled an area of 7 to 8 km2 a day.48 Lack of funding also
explains the severe shortage of experts and researchers in wildlife protection.49 Government interference in judicial decisions is by
no means hearsay in wildlife-related cases. Chinas court system is not an independent branch of the Chinese government. It
depends on the executive arm of the government for budget and personnel, thus allowing the government to sway its decisions.50
In China, 70% of the cases involving Wildlife Protection Law violations by catering businesses took place in Guangdong before the
SARS outbreak. Yet, as of 1999, five individuals had been condemned to death while 10 others were sentenced to imprisonment.51
And, in 1999, 236 trafficking cases involving protected species were handled by Chinas courts. Out of this number, 42 of them were
serious and extremely serious cases. However, the courts only detained 15 suspects. Of the 15 detainees, 11 received light
sentences while four others were set free.52 Economic growth and cadre career mobility One of the important objectives of reform is

The focus of the Partys cadre evaluation criteria was therefore

changed from ideological conformity to economic growth . The ability to facilitate growth, attract
to promote productivity.

investment, create jobs, and generate revenue became important criteria of cadre appraisal.53 Local growth has a direct link to the
career mobility of the local leaders.54 The career mobility of Zhao Zhiyang (Party Secretary of Sichuan) and Wan Li: Enforcing
Wildlife Protection in China 87 Li (Party Secretary of Anhui) in the early 1980s was enhanced by the bold reform measures they
implemented in their respective provinces. Similarly, Zhu Rongjis promotion to premiership had a lot to do with his supervision of
Shanghais phenomenal growth in the early 1990s. These erstwhile provincial leaders were not promoted to the Party center
because of education development or environmental protection. Their promotion was exclusively based on economic performance.

Local authorities
are reluctant to divert funds to programs producing no direct economic gains .56 In
Studies of Chinas reform and the new cadre evaluation policy have identified many of their drawbacks.55

Sichuans Baoding Wildlife Reservation, for example, local officials reportedly failed to compensate peasants who suffered damages
caused by the protected species. The number of compensation cases reportedly increased from seven in 2000, to 12 in 2001, and
20 in 2002.57 Spending money on protecting the endangered species, in the eyes of local officials, would divert funds from
productive activities. Despite recent central government emphasis on the need to balance growth with environmental protection,

local leaders are still not motivated to address environmental issues . As critics point out,
some local officials would not hesitate to spend large sums of money on showcase projects for the inspection of their superiors,
while complaining about shortage of funds for wildlife protection.58 Shortage of funds The shortage of funds impedes wildlife
protection. Two factors contribute to the shortage. First, no separate budget for wildlife protection exists at the national or provincial
level. Funding for wildlife protection comes from the budget of the state or provincial forestry bureaus or other relevant agencies.

Funding for special projects required by the Wildlife Protection Law is granted on a
case-by-case basis by the national treasury. For example, the Finance Ministry earmarked special funding for the four-year
nationwide survey of Chinas wildlife in 1995. Second, local governments are reluctant to spend on
nonproductive activities. According to one study, Chinas 32 provinces spent altogether US$10 million in wildlife
protection in 1999. On average, the share of each province was only US$310,000. In contrast, the US expenditure on
wildlife protection in the late 1970s was already US$700 million, some 150 times that of mainland
Chinese spending.59 Shortage of funds has delayed institution building and Wildlife Protection Law enforcement. Today,
80% of the county and city governments in the China Information XXI (1) 88 Downloaded from cin.sagepub.com at University of
Houston-Downtown on September 16, 2015 country have not set up wildlife protection offices.60 Many of the 50-odd national nature

Local nature reserves are most impacted by

such a shortage. Sichuans Tiebu Nature Reserve was so underfunded that it could not satisfy the most basic needs of the
reserves exist in name only because of shortage of funds.61

employees. A pair of binoculars was the reserves only equipment.62 Xinjiangs Aerjing Nature Reserve was so strapped for funds

Lack of
funding is also blamed for research impairment and compromised protection work .64
that one semiautomatic rifle, a dog, and a flashlight were all the equipment the husband-and-wife team had.63

Of the funding for a four-year nationwide wildlife survey in the mid-1990s that was to be contributed by provincial governments,

What was most affected was Wildlife Protection Law enforcement.

Lack of funding has made the forestry police the poorest equipped and most understaffed arm
of Chinas police force. Their equipment, communications capabilities, and transport vehicles, particularly in Yunnan and
40% had not materialized.

the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, cannot match those of the transnational poachers, thus undermining the forestry polices ability to
enforce the Wildlife Protection Law.65 Funding shortage made it hard for the forestry police to conduct around-the-clock patrols in
the vast regions where, for example, Tibetan antelopes live. For a long time, the protection of Tibetan antelopes was carried out by
volunteers. Local protectionism To encourage development using local resources, Deng Xiaoping called on provincial leaders to
make good use of local conditions.66 Since both the national constitution and the Wildlife Protection Law sanction reasonable use
of the natural resources, of which wildlife is a part, wild animals have been used in many provinces as a revenue-generating

The Wildlife Protection Laws reasonable use policy therefore

justifies local use of the wildlife resources. Local governments have stood behind
such a commercial activity.
resource for local development.

B>
Chinese neoliberal interests are increasing demand
for the illegal species trade- the elites are investing in
extinction
Platt 15
Platt, John. (John R. Platt covers the environment, technology, philanthropy, and
more for Scientific American, Conservation, Lion, and other publications.) "China's
Wealthy Are Banking on Extinction." TakePart. Take Part, 24 Mar. 2015. Web. 09 Feb.
2016.
Right now, in warehouses scattered across China, the carcasses of hundreds of dead
tigers sit steeping in vats in a mixture of rice wine and herbs . In weeks, months, or even years,
the resulting tiger-bone wine will be packagedoften in bottles shaped like living tigersand sold for between $80 and $300,

The
longer the bones steep in the rice wine, the higher the price the bottles will fetch.
Chinas elite are purchasing many of the most expensive bootleg bottles , either to give as
gifts, as displays of their own wealth, or for their future value, much in the same way that people invest in
precious metals, according to J.A. Mills, author of the new book Blood of the Tiger, which details her 20-year career
investigating wildlife crime. She said one of the major driving factors in the illegal wildlife trade is
now Chinas ber-elite, who are investing in these items as a new asset class . Quoting
according to reports from the Environmental Investigation Agency and other international conservation organizations.

reports from undercover investigators working in the field, Mills said people are banking on extinctionbuying products hoping

These items will become priceless if these species become

extinct, she said. Banking on extinction is the newest, most deadly threat to the
survival of wild tigers and other endangered species. Siberian tiger-bone wine is displayed for sale
at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, China. (Photo: Hong Wu/Getty Images) Investing in Extinction Tigers, elephants,
rhinos, bears, and even a few tree species have become new kinds of collectible
investments, similar to fine art and antiques, several experts said. As more collectors have entered the
market, killing endangered species has grown increasingly profitable . Ivory wholesale prices,
for example, have shot up from $564 per kilogram in 2006 to at least $2,100 today. Ivory prices have been
skyrocketing, said Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. When I go to ivory
that wild species will soon disappear.

markets, people literally tell me This is a good investment. Market buyers, she said, have recently come up with a new name for
ivory: white gold. A New Trend Until a few years ago, traditional medicine played the biggest role in driving Chinas illegal wildlife
trade owing to the belief, not supported by science, that certain animal parts hold curative powers. Things began to change in 2008.
Though the international ivory trade was banned in 1989, seven years ago the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species allowed a onetime sale of 105,000 kilograms of ivory to China and Japan. That kicked off a buying frenzy for culturally
valuable ivory carvings that the initial supply could not satisfy. It also inspired the start of a deadly new poaching crisis that today

customers dont know

what is legal and what is illegal, Mills said. Within two years, conservation organizations
began to notice that wildlife products were being sold for wealth, not health . One of
threatens African elephants with extinction. Poached ivory can easily enter the market because

the most blatant examples occurred at the end of 2011, when IFAW officials got word of a major auction planned just down the
street from their office in Beijing. Through our investigations, we found that one auction house was about to sell off 400 bottles of
tiger-bone wine in a hotel pretty much next door to our office, said Gabriel. We walked over there during our lunch break and
investigated the preview. In addition to the tiger-bone wine, they also found numerous rhino horns and ivory carvings. All but the
ivory was illegal under Chinese law. The discovery of the auction created an international outcry. As a result, China issued a notice to
auction houses that the sale of tiger bones and rhino horns remains illegal. Auctioneers pulled endangered species from their
offerings, a move that reduced their sales by $322 million in 2012.

But the trade did not stop. It just became

less visible. You rarely see endangered species for sale in physical shops in major cities, said Zhou Fei, head of the China
office for TRAFFIC, the international wildlife trade-monitoring network. Instead, the trade has gone online.
More recently, they have moved from websites to social media , Fei said, noting that ivory
tusks, rhino horns, bear gall bladders, hornbill beaks, and other products now turn up for sale on art collection websites, online
forums such as Baidu Tieba, the mobile phone app Wechat, and even Facebook. A small ivory ring can fetch about $1,000 in these
markets. A full rhino horn can sell for $100,000 or more, according to the IFAW. Items are sold under code names: African materials
or white plastic for ivory, red for hornbill beaks, striped T-shirt for tiger skins, and black for rhino horns. Some sales,
according to investigators, are hidden in chat rooms that cannot be accessed unless someone invites you. Without that introduction,

The Growing Middle Class Is a Growing Problem The prices

have grown so high that only Chinas ultraelite can afford to buy them. They are not the only buyers, however. The middle class aspires to
becoming wealthy, Gabriel pointed out. They are still buying smaller items such as ivory jewelry or trinkets in the hope
that their value will increase. Endangered Species, Then and Now Although they are only acquiring smaller items , the effect
of Chinas estimated half a billion middle-class consumers adds up . When you look at China,
the doors remain locked to prying eyes.

for the most elaborately carved elephant tusks and rhino horns

everything is magnified, said Julian Newman, campaigns director for the EIA, who has been investigating the illegal wildlife trade
since 1997. Even a small percentage of the population obviously has a big numeric impact. More Than One Way to Invest While
some people buy these products to hold on to, many others use them as a different kind of investment. The high price of ivory, tigerbone wine, and other items makes them valuable in Chinas gift-giving culture. In other words, they are great for bribes. Weve had
many, many traders say that some of their customers want to provide ivory tusks or tiger-bone wine to government leaders or
business contacts to create a chance of doing business, said Newman. In one notorious recent example, a Chinese businessman
was arrested for electrocuting and eating a tiger at a banquet. Here, the specter of traditional medicine lingers. Tiger-bone wine
has medicinal use, Gabriel said, but at current prices, they dont buy it as a medicine. They buy it as a way to bribe officials.
Culture Matters One final element driving trade is wealth combined with a return to tradition. Newman points to the recent surge in
sales of old-style furniture called hongmu, made from rosewood trees, several species of which grow in South America, Africa, and

Asia. Its a style of furniture the emperors used, he said. It has become very fashionable again. The illegal trade in rosewood
species from around the world now threatens several species with extinctionas well as the species that depend on the trees in the
wild. Here, too, theres speculation. The price of rosewood has gone up so high now that a single cubic meter is worth over
$50,000, Newman said. People are sitting on the wood, storing it away, and waiting for the price to go up if certain rosewood
species go extinct, EIA investigators have found. Moving Forward Reducing the demand and consumption of endangered wildlife
and saving some of these species from extinctionwill require multiple approaches. As Zhou said, We need to address all of the
parts in the puzzle: international pressure, behavior change, government leadership, capacity building in law enforcement, and
revision of existing laws. Those forces have been at work in the recent reduction in demand for shark fins. Zhou said he is also
hopeful that the demand for ivory will soon decrease, and recent polls suggest that this is already starting to happen. Newman
acknowledged that persuading people not to buy wildlife products is a long-term approach thats not going to happen overnight.
Meanwhile, though, he praised recent efforts to track down and punish the criminal enterprises responsible for poaching as well as
the people within China who are working to change the existing laws. Its Chinas law, so it needs to be changed by Chinese

Elephants, rhinos, and tigers may not have many more years to wait for
change. We havent got that much time for some of these species , Newman said.
people, he said.

C>
The growing middle class only accelerates the trade
(Kind of redundant card)
Wen 15
Jian, Wen. (Wen is a contributor for radio free asia, an online publication that covers
geopolitics within the region) "For China's Newly Rich, The More Endangered, The
Better." <i>Radio Free Asia</i>. N.p., 22 July 2015. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
Wealthy people in China are buying illegal wildlife products that include the parts of
endangered tigers, elephants, rhinos and bears . These items are increasingly seen as investments whose
values will rise once the animals become extinct, according to activist website TakePart. Warehouses across China
currently house hundreds of tiger corpses soaked in bottles of herbs and rice wine.
These bottles will eventually be sold for between $80 and $300. The longer the bottles sit out, the more valuable they become.
Ivory has also rose in popularity amongst the Chinese elite. As more collectors have
entered the market, poaching of endangered species that supply ivory, like elephants and rhinos,
have increased in order to meet demand. Back in 2006, the wholesale price for ivory was $564 per kilogram; today a kilogram
costs $2,100. Horn_Louvre_OA4069 Most of the illegal wildlife product trade is online. Products including elephant
tusks, rhino horns, bear gallbladders and hornbill beak s have been seen for sale, according to Zhou
Fei, who works for TRAFFIC, an international wildlife trade-monitoring network in China. Fei explained to TakePart that these products
can be found on art collection websites, online forums like Baidu Tieba, the mobile phone messaging app Wechat, and even
Facebook. Prices on ivory pieces can range from $1,000 for a small ring to over $100,000 for a full rhino horn, according to the
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Last year, a 28-year-old former Chinese actress was arrested for selling illegal ivory
products and other products made from endangered species via WeChat, according to China Daily. She had been in business since
October 2013 and had made a profit of 450,000 yuan ($72,405) before she was caught. 12769823803_2e24f8aeca_b Initially, illegal
wildlife products were sought after because of the belief that consuming them resulted in certain health benefits .

Over the
last few years, however, these products have evolved into status symbols
for the Chinese elite or investments for the middle class. The middle class
aspires to becoming wealthy, Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia regional director for the International Fund for Animal
Welfare, told TakePart. According to Julian Newman, campaigns director for the Environmental Investigation Agency, wildlife
products are also used as bribes: Weve had many, many traders say that some of their customers want to
provide ivory tusks or tiger-bone wine to government leaders or business contacts to create a chance of doing business. Although
there have been recent efforts to track down and punish poachers, as well as activists working to toughen existing laws against the
wildlife product trade in China, Zhou said a more multi-pronged approach needs to be taken: We need to address all of the parts in
the puzzle: international pressure, behavior change, government leadership, capacity building in law enforcement, and revision of

However, time is running out. Elephants, rhinos, and tigers may not have
many more years to wait for change. We havent got that much time for some of
these species, Newman said.
existing laws.

D>
This trade threatens the extinction of several
species- Pangolins, Tigers, Rhinos, and Elephants
Stout 15
(Kristie Lu Stout is is an anchor and correspondent for CNN who specializes in
Chinese and Asian politics) 5/24/15 CNN When will China protect the pangolin
along with the panda http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/24/asia/china-animal-welfarekristie-lu-stout/
Hong Kong (CNN)Without a doubt, the giant panda is a political animal. It is the instantly recognizable global symbol of wildlife
conservation. It is the absurdly adorable diplomatic tool used by China to soften relations with other countries. And it enjoys an
abundant supply of bamboo and protection from poachers thanks to a government that plays favorites with the animals it chooses
to protect. "Panda

conservation is not an accurate indicator of wildlife protection work in

China," says Dr. Peter Li, China specialist of the Humane Society International. During a taping of the latest CNN "On China"
program, Li tells me that a "disproportionate" amount of money has been invested into China's panda protection, helping to
dramatically boost the number of pandas in the wild by some 17% over the last decade. Are dogs friends or food? Are dogs friends
or food? 02:19 "The Chinese government has put so much money and so much effort into preserving pandas," adds Grace Ge
Gabriel, Asia Regional Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). " But

there are so many other

species that need addressing: the pangolin, the river dolphin, tigers, and
elephants." READ MORE: A new mass extinction could be underway , say researchers Curious creature
A curious creature that looks like a scaly anteater, the pangolin is in huge demand in China and Vietnam for its meat. The
International Union for Conservation of Nature warns if demand for the pangolin is not reduced, the animal could soon become

The pangolin, prized in China and Vietnam for its meat, could soon become extinct.
Tigers have been poached for their body parts for traditional Chinese medicine. There are only
around 3,000 left in the wild today, according to the World Wildlife Fund. And the Chinese freshwater
dolphin, or baiji, was declared extinct less than a decade ago. Its demise was brought about by
overfishing, pollution and a lack of any meaningful effort to save it. "I was looking at a list of endangered
species, and ten of those animals were taken off the list ," says Financial Times Asia
editor David Pilling. "It was not because they were no longer endangered. It was
because they were no longer species. They are gone." Insatiable demand from China is also
putting the rhino in peril. In one corner of Africa, the last male northern white rhino is left... under 24-hour armed
extinct.

guard. "When I was in Kenya, where there is the highest concentration of rhino, we had to go out with armed guards," Pilling tells
me. "They were guarding not us, they were guarding the rhinos because the horn is worth its weight in gold." Rhinos have been
poached for its horn, which is ground into dust and believed to treat ailments. But rhino horns have no medicinal value. They are

China's appetite for another

illegal wild animal product, ivory, has led to the unsustainable slaughter of 100,000
elephants in the last few years. China is the world's largest consumer of ivory and yet most Chinese don't have a
made of keratin, the same protein found in human fingernails. Unsustainable slaughter

clue about its true cost. In 2007, IFAW found that 70% of Mainland Chinese respondents did not know that ivory comes from dead
elephants. "In Chinese, ivory is 'xiang ya' or 'elephant teeth' so people naturally think teeth can fall off and (animals) don't die," says
IFAW's Grace Ge Gabriel. The same poll revealed that 80% of Chinese consumers would refuse to buy ivory after finding out the
truth. Photographer documents illegal wildlife trade Photographer documents illegal wildlife trade 01:55 Increased education can
help cultivate a distaste for endangered animal butchery. But it is still too easy, and for some too tempting, to buy a chunk of rhino
horn or ivory in China today. Despite China's one year ban on carved ivory imports, IFAW says dozens of ivory carving factories and
over a hundred retail outlets openly sell illegal ivory products in China. The trade is also active and flourishing on Chinese social
media platforms. "WeChat is becoming an area where the illegal wildlife trade is occurring," says Gabriel. IFAW has worked with
Tencent's WeChat as well as Alibaba's TaoBao e-commerce platform to introduce new keyword filtering software to minimize the
trade in endangered species. Animal welfare groups have also enlisted the starpower of Chinese celebrities. NBA legend Yao Ming
has been widely commended for his work to raise awareness in China about illegal animal poaching. His campaign with WildAid has
been hailed for helping to bring about a dramatic fall in the sales of shark fin, long strips of tasteless cartilage cooked in soups, that
symbolize wealth and prestige

E>
We have an ethical obligation to protect the
existence of a species
Marina 09, (Daniel, Sdertrns hgskola | Institutionen fr Kultur och
Kommunikation, Anthropocentrism and Androcentrism An Ecofeminist
Connection http://www.projectsparadise.com/anthropocentrism-androcentrism/)
Environmentalism is the movement that works to end naturism. Environmentalists
assert that the domination of nature by humans exists and that this domination
is wrong. Some environmentalists carry out the work to end naturism from the discipline of
philosophy. Environmental philosophy is work carried out within some
philosophical field mainly ethics that is motivated by the general goal
of the environmental movement. Despite the differences between the various positions, there is one
assumption shared by most environmental philosophers, namely nature deserves moral consideration in its own right. As Warren

The standard notion has been

that humans only have moral obligations towards humans. Nature has
merely had instrumental value. Environmental philosophers endeavour to
elucidate the connections between environmental problems and
traditional philosophical conceptions. They set themselves the task of identifying how naturism
manifest itself in philosophy, that is, of countering when philosophers deliberately or
accidentally articulate the already privileged world of humans maintaining
its status over nature. Some of the environmental ethical positions are: (1) the individualistic approaches of Peter
Singer and Tom Regan: moral consideration is due to all those individuals who
possess the morally relevant capacities, namely sentiency (Singer) and to be the
subject of a life (Regan); (2) the holistic approach of Aldo Leopold whose focus is on populations, species,
ecosystems, and the biosphere: it is not only individual animals that enjoy
moral value, but also plants and the non-living elements of the natural
world; (3) deep ecology that expects humans to develop an ecological
sensitivity: a respect that reflects the fact that each organism is
essentially related to the other elements of the biospherical net and the
fact that every life form possesses an intrinsic value independently of the
instrumental values that it may possess in the eyes of a human beholder ;
(4) social ecology that identifies a structural and institutional root of the
environmental crisis, specifically a society that has been permeated by
authoritarian hierarchies and a capitalist market economy, and a natural
world that has been arranged in accordance with a hierarchal order of
beings: it underlines then the vital connection between social problems and environmental problems, that is, between the way
explains, mainstream Western ethics has traditionally neglected nature.

humans relate to humans and the way humans relate to nature. Ecofeminism is the approach that merges the goal of the
environmental movement with the goal of the feminist movement. Warren explains that it does this because ecofeminists believe
that both environmentalism and feminism have their shortcomings, and that they should complement each other. According to her
environmentalists will not be able to fully and correctly understand, and consequently successfully abolish, naturism unless they

They will not

be able to elaborate theories that do not contribute to oppression unless
they recognize the role and configuration of oppressive conceptual
frameworks and the conceptual connections between naturism and sexism they give rise to. They
cease to disregard the connections existing between the domination of nature and the domination of women.

will not be sensitive to the specific realities and perspectives of women unless they admit gender as a fundamental category of
analysis. Feminism needs, in a similar way, to understand the connections between sexism and naturism.

Adv 2 is Suffering
A>
Growing animal welfare activism is key to creating
animal welfare legislation
Gao 14
(Helen Gao is Helen Gao is a freelance writer based in Beijing for the Atlantic and
prospect magazine who specializes in social and environmental issues in China)
1/23/14, Letter from Beijing: Animal cruelty is rife in Chinabut things are
changing Prospect Magazine http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/opinions/animalcruelty-is-rife-in-china-but-things-are-changing
The angora rabbit, with its front legs tied to a bench, squirmed as a farm worker laid his hand on its white fur. It
shrieked when the worker began to rip off its fur by the handfu l, exposing large patches of pink
skin beneath. The gruesome video, taken by US-based animal rights group Peta at a rabbit farm in northeastern China, enraged
animal rights activists worldwide when it appeared online in November. In Britain, retailers such as Primark and Topshop halted

The video also had an impact inside China, where animal

welfare is becoming an issue with increasingly broad public suppor t. On Youku, a video
orders of angora wool products from China.

sharing website, the clip received more than 200,000 views within a month, and provoked a torrent of condemnation. Have you
thought about how the rabbits feel? What if someone tried to pull your hair off like that? wrote one web user. I wont buy animal
fur products from now on, wrote another. Although ancient Chinese philosophies and religions such as Taoism and Buddhism viewed

during the Mao era such beliefs were attacked. Love of animals
was denounced as western and bourgeois . Over recent decades these perceptions have begun to fade, but
the concept of animals as resources instead of sentient beings still persists . Animals are routinely exploited for
their commercial value in circuses or for ivory, fur and food. Among younger Chinese,
however, there is a different attitude. Having grown up with domestic pets and anthropomorphic Disney characters, they tend to
be more receptive to animal welfare campaigns. Hooked on social media, they have helped spread
animals as worthy of respect, even reverence,

awareness of animal welfare in China. Two years ago, for example, a Chinese blogger saved more than 1,100 dogs bound for the
slaughterhouse after he spotted them in trucks and posted a plea online to alert local police and animal welfare advocates. And in
September, an animal performance show in the eastern city of Jinan was cancelled as a result of angry online protests from animal
rights groups. The milking of bears for their bilea key ingredient in some traditional Chinese medicineshas also become a
target. Bears are often kept in tiny cages and their bile extracted by creating a permanent hole in their abdomen, through which the

Activists and celebrities have enjoyed relative freedom to lobby for animal
welfare, says Peter Li, a China policy expert at the Humane Society International, because the issue does not
pose immediate threat to social and political stability . Yao Ming, the retired NBA star, has led a
bile drips out.

crusade against eating shark fin soup, which, boosted by the governments campaign to curb excessive official banquets, has helped
curtail the countrys consumption by 50 to 70 per cent in the last two years. In another watershed moment in 2013, a petition
signed by more than 70 Chinese celebrities succeeded in blocking the flotation of a company seeking to expand its bear bileextracting business. For the same reason that the government allows animal welfare activism, however, it also has little incentive to
implement drastic change: it is not an urgent political priority.

China still lacks laws proscribing cruelty to

animals. In England, the first animal protection legislation was passed in 1822. Animal rights advocates remain optimistic about
the prospect of legal reform. I believe the current leadership will issue animal protection
legislations soon, says He Jianjun, the founder of Hunan Bird Protection Camp, an NGO in southern China. The
grassroots organisations are pushing for it, and it matters to Chinas international
image. Nonetheless, change, like much else in China, does not follow a neat
trajectoryit takes place amid a hodgepodge of new perceptions and old habits. One morning during a recent hike in southern
China, I stood in front of a rural restaurant, trying to decide what to order for lunch. The owner recommended dog meat hotpot.
Why dont you try it? he said, making a sweeping gesture. Its our local speciality! As I smiled hesitantly and thanked him, an
Indian Pariah dog wandered by. I looked at the owner questioningly. Oh no, thats my own dog, he laughed. Its been with me for
years. I would never eat it.

B>
However minimal, public awareness of animal
welfare regulations prevents activism from growing
CPC 12
The communist party of China, Shanghai daily 11/7/12 Public awareness key to
animal welfare in china http://www.china.org.cn/china/18th_cpc_congress/201211/07/content_27027274.htm
Animal welfare laws are lacking in China where animal mistreatment is far from a burning issue and is often
taken for granted by many people. But China does have laws to protect endangered species of wildlife. For years, there
has been talk about animal welfare legislation in China, but nothing has come of it ,
because the issue is complicated. For example, people who catch, transport and sell live dogs and cats to be eaten, or who raise
them for food, are not about to cooperate. Nor are market owners, restaurants and diners.Bile is extracted from live farmed and
caged bears in China and Southeast Asia. Zoos put on animal Olympics, in which animals perform in circuses, or face beatings.

Animal abuse cases increasingly are coming to light and many are uploaded onto the Internet.
Discussions are ongoing about possible laws and regulations involving the
treatment of animals. The Agriculture Ministry does have regulations on animal raising and animal health. The 3rd China
Veterinary Conference held in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, last week attracted more than 1,000 experts, animal protection organization
officials and veterinarians from China and overseas to discuss treatment of animal diseases, the management of pet hospitals, and
more important, development animal welfare awareness. They discussed challenges in China's animal welfare protection, and
brainstormed approaches to problems and the role of veterinarians. Vets play a key role in educating the public, as well as farmers
and businessmen about animal welfare. The

idea of animal welfare is new in China and many

people ask why people should care about animals and even enact laws to protect
them, when the welfare of human beings, especially low-income people, is not secure. "I know people should not hurt animals,
but why there should be a specific welfare law for animals?" asks Hu Shirong, a Shanghai resident in his 40s who works for a bus
company. He says human welfare comes first, and then people could consider the issue of animal welfare. " Animal

welfare
just started in China, and the recognition and understanding of the concept among
the general public is a major challenge ," says Jia Youling, president of the Chinese Veterinary Medical
Association. He was director of the Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture. " The public doesn't understand
animal welfare," he says, adding that many people think animal welfare will cost taxpayers money, hence, they
reject the idea and say social welfare comes first. Low progress has been witnessed, Jia says. In the past, people criticized
international reports on animal abuse in China, including the eating of dogs. At that time they thought eating dogs was all right, but
now many people are opposed, he says. When foreign agriculture experts required China to anesthetize cattle for export before
slaughtering several years ago, it was considered a joke. But now many slaughter houses use anesthesia through electric shock, he
says. Poultry farmers and traders generally ignore animal welfare, squeeze fowl together in raising and transport to raise profits, Jia
says. Livestock - pigs, sheep, cattle - suffer in crowded long-distance transport to accommodate the widespread taste for meat that
is freshly slaughtered. "This

is a disaster for the animals," Jia says. If animal welfare cannot be

ensured, it will lead to problems in public health, food safety and environmental
damage. Abandoning animals and failure to immunize them poses threats to public health. Last year, 1,879 people died from
rabies (and there were 3,300 cases in earlier years), making China one of the countries with the most cases. But with widespread

Meanwhile, China's education

system doesn't include animal welfare , though there are optional courses on wildlife conservation.
immunization and animal control, rabies should not be a problem, expert says.

Veterinarians who study animal medicine may be the best-versed when it comes to animal welfare. Even animal protection
organizations and experts have different views on the meaning of animal welfare. According to the World Society for the Protection
of Animals, an international non-profit organization, animal welfare is about more than providing basic care, food and water. "Being
responsible for an animal's welfare means taking measures to meet their physical and mental needs and to protect animals from
avoidable suffering at the hands of humans," the World Society says in a statement. Though animal welfare laws have been drafted,
there are many opinions and no consensus. Some call for significant fines, others call for criminal punishment; everyone agrees that
enforcement is difficult. Some say any legal punishment is inappropriate since animal protection is a moral concept and fines are
enough. But should animal circuses be banned? What about eating dog meat? In 2005, the concept of animal welfare was raised in
the drafting of China's Animal Husbandry Law, but with little effect. The law does say that people should try to improve the
conditions of livestock and poultry breeding, slaughter and transport. But there's nothing mandatory, nothing prohibited, no
punishment. Improving education and raising public awareness are essential, Jia says. Moreover, the situation will be helped by
introducing animal welfare into professional veterinary and animal husbandry education, urging big companies to set standards for
slaughter and transport (some optional, some compulsory), expanding scientific research, Jia says. " It's

impossible to
enact a comprehensive animal welfare law immediately because many people still
don't understand and it cannot be forced upon them," he says. "But gradually introducing regulations ,
such as prohibiting the abandoning of pets and requiring immunization, will be gradually understood ." During the
Suzhou conference last week, the World Society for the Protection of Animals and the Animal Health and Welfare Branch of the
Chinese Veterinary Medical Association signed a cooperation agreement to ensure animal welfare education for veterinary students

and practitioners. To date, there are no standard teaching materials, but veterinarians have a key role to play since they come in
contact with many people and influence their attitudes. "Many veterinary practitioners lack sufficient knowledge about humane
treatment of animals and may even hurt them in treatment," says Chang Zhigang, president of Animal Health and Welfare Branch of
the CVMA.

C>
Lack of basic wildlife protection laws means wildlife
undergo unregulated commercial utilization
Li 07
Li, Peter.(Peter J. Li is an assistant professor of political science at the University of
Houston-Downtown, Texas, USA.) "Enforcing Wildlife Protection in China." <i>China
Information</i> (2007): 86-89. <i>Animallawconference.org</i>. 2007. Web. 15
Feb. 2016.
the Wildlife Protection Law. Articles 1
present a strange combination of two odd objectives, namely protection
and utilization: Article 1. This Law is formulated for the purpose of protecting wildlife species that are rare or near extinction,
Chinese critics believed that mission confusion was the biggest problem with
and 4 of chapter I

protecting, developing, and rationally utilizing wildlife resources and maintaining ecological balance (emphasis added). Article 4. The
State shall pursue a policy of strengthening wildlife resource protection, actively domesticating and breeding wildlife species,
rationally developing and utilizing wildlife resources, and encouraging scientific research on wildlife (emphasis added). Article 1 did

objectives. Yet, as critics have pointed out, the most

important objective of the law is wildlife utilization. Protection is, therefore, the
means for achieving the end of human utilization . Admittedly, this protection for human use objective
mention ecological balance as one of the laws

is not unique to Chinas Wildlife Protection Law. A quick review of wildlife-related laws of other nations with a tradition of wildlife use
reveals similar language. For example, Brazils animal protection law was drafted with sustainable use of wildlife as one of the

However, the uniqueness of the Wildlife Protection Law is the dominance of the
human use proposition throughout the legal document . The phrase wildlife resources appears
eight times in the law while maintaining ecological balance is mentioned only once. Besides, use of wildlife,
wildlife farming and breeding, and reasonable use of wildlife resources are the main themes of
Articles 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 17, and 22 and of the chapter titled Relevant Legal Articles. Article 17 goes even further by declaring
objectives.

that the state encourages breeding and farming of wildlife animals. The contradictory missions have been questioned by Chinese
critics. Mang Pin, a scholar on animal welfare issues, challenges the purpose of the Wildlife Protection Law critically: In ... the Wildlife

wildlife species are solemnly proclaimed to be wildlife resources. Such

resources are therefore not different from mineral resource s or land resources and are
therefore nothing special. Implicit and evident in this positioning of the wildlife as resources is the belief that wildlife
exist for humans and are a resource to be used by the humans . Human use is the essence of the law. The purpose of
the Wildlife Protection Law is to define how the resources are to be used. This is why
the protection for human use proposition has been widely accepted in China.29 To Chinese critics, the protection for
human use proposition undercuts law enforcement and leads to practices that compromise
wildlife protection. According to Li Xiaoxi, professor, Peoples Congress deputy, and a long-time animal advocate, the
Protection Law,

protection for human use proposition has not only made enforcement of the Wildlife Protection Law difficult, it has also undermined
Chinas ability to fulfill its Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species obligations in curbing global trade in endangered
species. 30 Zhang Endi, a professor and board member on the World Wildlife Conservation Council, questioned the alleged
conservation objective of wildlife farming. The orderly use of wildlife resources proposition, he argues, contradicts the objective of
wildlife protection. Farming wildlife, he argues, does not equate with protecting
to Chinese critics, the classification of wildlife as a natural resource undermines the objective of protection

wildlife .31 According

D>
These unregulated commercial enterprises lack even
the most basic standards of humane treatment- this
incurs unimaginable suffering to animals that denies
even minimal acts of kindness (Read this card slower)
ESDAW 15

(European Society of Dog and Animal welfare) 3/4/15 Animal welfare and rights in
China
http://www.esdaw.eu/animal-welfare-and-rights-in-china.html
China is now "the worlds biggest
animal farming nation." In 1978, China collectively consumed 1/3 as much meat as the United States. By 1992 China
Livestock farming has grown exponentially in China in recent years, such that

had caught up, and by 2012, China's meat consumption was more than double that of the U.S. Almost 3/4 of China's meat is pork,
and China's 476 million pigs comprise half of the world's pig population. China produces 37 million tons of farmed fishmore than
60% of the world's total. A 2005-2006 survey by Prof. Peter J. Li found that many

farming methods that the

European Union is trying to reduce or eliminate are commonplace in China ,
including gestation crates, battery cages, foie gras, early weaning of cows , and
clipping of ears/beaks/tails. Livestock in China may be transported over long distances, and there are currently no
humane-slaughter requirements. Cooking animals live Picture In 2008, more than 40 animal activists in Beijing gathered to protest
skinning and cooking live cats in Guangdong province.

A 2010 article featuring content from Tiexue and Mop news sources
showed pictures of skinned cats being submerged in boiling water. The 2010 documentary
San Hua by Guo Ke is the first to depict China's cat-meat industry. In one scene, Guo and fellow activists stop a
transport truck and find "more than 300 cats crammed into cramped wooden cage s,
unable to move"some missing tails and others "crushed into unconsciousness ." In another scene at Fa's Cat
Restaurant, Guo used a hidden camera to film cooks beating cats with a wooden stick, dumping them into a fur-removal machine,

Pictures have also circulated featuring two dogs in boiling water in

In some areas, dogs are
beaten to death in order to release blood into the meat. Yin Yang fish involves deep-frying fish while
and then boiling them.

China. It's claimed this is because some Chinese prefer the taste of adrenaline-soaked meat.

it's still alive. The practice has been condemned by animal-rights activists. Many chefs in Taiwan are no longer willing to prepare it,
but it's popular in mainland China. Some chefs cook a carp's body while keeping its head wrapped in a cloth so that it can keep
breathing. In 2009, a video of Chinese diners prodding and eating alive a fried fish went viral on YouTube and provoked an outcry
from PETA. On streets in China, live scorpions are "scooped up alive and wriggling, skewered on a kebab, and deep-fried in oil."

Drunken shrimp are eaten while struggling to get

away. One tourist visiting China described eating drunken shrimp as follows: "Everyone at the table reached into the bowl, chose
Eating animals live - main article: Eating live seafood

a particularly feisty little (or rather quite big) shrimp, and placed him on their plate. As poor Mr. Shrimp jumped up and down [...]
you picked him up, ripped off his head, and proceeded to peel him as fast as you can." Some Chinese food markets include live

China farms about 10,000 Asiatic black bears for bile

productionan industry worth roughly $1.6 billion per year. The bears are permanently kept in cages,
and bile is extracted from cuts in their stomachs. In Jan. 2013, Animals Asia Foundation rescued six bile
bears, which had broken and rotted teeth due to gnawing at their cages . Jackie Chan and Yao
animals, such as live scorpions Non-meat farming Bile bears

Ming have publicly opposed bear farming. In 2012, over 70 Chinese celebrities took part in a petition against an IPO application by
Fujian Guizhentang Pharmaceutical Co. due to the company's selling of bear-bile medicines. In 2013, the company pulled its IPO
application. According to Jill Robinson, over 1000 Chinese medicine stores have committed to not selling bear bile, but this compares

Some fur animals are

skinned alive, and others may be beaten to death with sticks. In Nov. 2013, PETA released a
with over 40,000 such shops in all of China Fur China is the biggest fur-producing nation.

video of a live angora rabbit in northeastern China having its fur torn off. The video received 200,000 views on China's video site
Youku within a month and prompted UK retailers like Primark and Topshop to stop imports from China of products using angora wool
Other Asian palm civets are farmed in battery cages to produce Kopi Luwak ("civet coffee").

<><>Plan<><>: The USFG should substantially

increase its funding for the Wildlife Without
Borders Program in operations regarding china

Solvency
A>
Wildlife Without Borders is a USFG conservation program
that works on the local level- and engages in grassroots change
Congress 7
+--12/11/7 Wildlife without Borders authorization act H.R. 4455, 110 Cong. (2007)
(enacted). Print.
(a) Findings- Congress finds that-- (1) our Nation has a long-standing commitment to assisting other countries with the conservation
of wildlife species and limited wildlife conservation resources, including trained wildlife professionals, are often unavailable in many
foreign countries containing globally important biological resources; (2) conservation activities, both overseas and in neighboring
countries, are required to meet the Federal Government's obligations under numerous international treaties, laws, agreements, and

Wildlife Without Borders Program, an administrativelycreated program within the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, has provided
wildlife conservation assistance throughout the world by developing locally-adapted wildlife
management and conservation programs, in coordination with non-governmental organizations,
governments, private businesses, and community leaders, in an effort to maintain global species diversity; (4) activities under the
Wildlife Without Borders Program is responsible for implementation of over 800
conservation projects around the world that address grass-roots threats to numerous
cooperative programs; (3) since 1989, the

endangered species, habitats, and ecosystems and that complement the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's existing programs
for African elephants, rhinoceros and tigers, Asian elephants, great apes, migratory birds, and marine turtles; (5) activities under

the Wildlife Without Borders Program provide education, training, and outreach to
strengthen capacity for habitat and wildlife conservation throughout the world and serve a key role
in facilitating international dialogue; and (6) although the Secretary of the Interior is generally authorized to undertake partnering
and capacity building activities, a specific authorization will reinforce our Nation's long-term commitment to the Wildlife Without
Borders Program. (b) Purpose- The purpose of this Act is to provide capacity building, outreach, education, and training assistance in
endangered species and strategic habitat conservation to other nations by providing international wildlife management and
conservation programs through the Wildlife Without Borders Program. SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. In this Act: (1) CONSERVATION- The term
`conservation' includes-- (A) the methods and procedures necessary to bring a species to the point at which there are sufficient
populations in the wild to ensure that the species does not become extinct; and (B) all activities associated with protection and
management of a species, including-- (i) maintenance, management, protection, and restoration of species habitat; (ii) research and
monitoring; (iii) law enforcement; (iv) community outreach and education; (v) conflict resolution initiatives; and (vi) strengthening
the capacity of local communities, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other institutions to implement
conservation programs. (2) FISH OR WILDLIFE- The term `fish or wildlife' means any member of the animal kingdom, including any
mammal, fish, bird, amphibian, reptile, mollusk, crustacean, or arthropod. (3) PLANT- The term `plant' mean any member of the
plant kingdom, including seeds, roots, and other parts thereof. (4) SECRETARY- The term `Secretary' means the Secretary of the
Interior. (5) SPECIES- The term `species' includes any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants, and any distinct population segment of
any species of vertebrate fish or wildlife. SEC. 4. WILDLIFE WITHOUT BORDERS PROGRAM. (a) In General- The Secretary shall carry

Wildlife Without Borders Program within the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to provide
international wildlife conservation assistance through the initiation, facilitation, and
promotion of locally adapted wildlife managemen t and conservation programs in coordination with nonout the

governmental organizations, governments, private businesses, and community leaders. Such program shall include, but shall not be
limited to, partnership programs for grass roots capacity building, applied scientific conservation research, and wildlife management
training.

B>
WWB is empirically proven to solve- a litany of
warrants. Most importantly, it solves underfunding
through grants, trains law enforcement, and solves public
awareness through grassroots campaigns
USFWS 11
U.S Fish And Wildlife Services, 1/21/11 Wildlife without Borders Success Stories
http://www.fws.gov/international/success_stories.html

Mr. Burns Beaked Toad - No. 1 New Species in 2010, Discovered with Support from USFWS Time Magazines Top 10 new species
discovered in 2010 voted the "Mr. Burns Beaked Toad" as the number one new species for 2010.

This tiny toad of the

genus Rhinella was discovered during an expedition led by ProAves-Columbia with Global Wildlife
Conservation, the IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, and Conservation International near the "Las Tangaras" Reserve, in the
Choc region of Colombia. Mimicking the color of the dead leaves among which it lives, it is one of the only toad species that skips
the tadpole stage and emerges from the egg as a fully formed toadlet. Its tiny, 2 cm (0.8 in.) size helps it hide from predators, but its

Through its Wildlife without Borders-Amphibians in

Decline program, USFWS made a catalytic grant in 2010 to the project that led to
this discovery. In addition, the grant supported the identification of surviving populations of lost amphibians so that swift
most distinctive feature is its hooked snout. (Source)

conservation actions could be taken to protect their remaining habitats. Our funding strengthened the capacity of Colombians to
undertake field explorations that will continue to provide the data needed to focus conservation action, and support environmental
outreach with local communities about the project goals and the unique and endangered amphibians in their environment. Reducing
Illegal Wildlife Trafficking in Cameroon and Central African Countries A unique law enforcement partnership between Cameroonian
wildlife authorities and the Last Great Ape Organization (LAGA) aims to investigate and prosecute wildlife crimes, associated with

With funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
U.S. Agency for International Development, LAGA is assisting the government of Cameroon to
increase wildlife law enforcement capacity, produce effective deterrents to the killing of
great apes and other wildlife, monitor the illegal wildlife trade , conduct public outreach
campaigns and other activities, with a particular focus on the fight against corruption. The multidisciplinary
rampant illegal trade in apes and other wildlife.

approach has dramatically increased wildlife crime prosecutions to the level of one per week in the country with 87% of offenders
serving prison time. This innovative program is now being replicated in the Central Africa region where illegal wildlife trade is
widespread. In the Central African Republic, significant arrests have been made and governmental corruption is now being
addressed. Wildlife Without Borders-Africa Develops Future Conservation Leaders in Eastern Africa The rising demand for bushmeat
in eastern Africa due to demands of a burgeoning human population has led to a severe decline in many wildlife populations.
Alleviating the impact of the illegal bushmeat trade requires a multidisciplinary approach involving wildlife policy, law enforcement,

Wildlife Without Borders Africa

program is helping wildlife professionals gain the requisite skills needed to address conservation
public awareness and sustainable alternatives. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services

challenges through a signature initiative called MENTOR (Mentoring for ENvironmental Training in Outreach and Resource
conservation). The 2008-2009 MENTOR program focused on the unique combination of active fieldwork, mentoring and team
building. This resulted in the creation of a new non-governmental organization run by eastern African wildlife professionals, the
Bushmeat-free eEastern Africa Network (BEAN). Through MENTOR and BEAN wildlife professionals from four Eastern African
countries (Kenya, Southern Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda) continue to work together to combat the illegal bushmeat trade in
important wildlife areas. USFWS-Supported Sierra Gorda Reserve in Mexico - A Major Success Story for Grassroots Action on Climate
Change Sixteen years ago, the Wildlife Without Borders-Mexico program funded a group of farmers in the mountains of central
Mexico who wanted to protect their forest and its biodiversity. This area has been classified as an important migratory bird area,

Through a series of grants from Wildlife Without

Borders, these farmers successfully negotiated with the Government of Mexico to
declare this area a nature reserve, then produce and implement a management plan for the reserve. USFWS
wildlife corridor, and biodiversity "hotspot.

supported the farmers as they trained in natural resource management and created their own non-governmental organization to
support the reserve. The Sierra Gorda Reserve in Mexico is now considered an international model in successful grass-roots reserve
management that links biodiversity conservation, sustainable development, and climate change, and was featured in CNNs iReport
for Global Climate Action Day, October 2010. Upper Mississippi River Floodplain Wetlands Officially Designated a Wetland of
International Importance In January 2010, the Upper Mississippi River Floodplain Wetlands officially became one of only 30 Ramsar
sites of international importance in the United States. The site includes 302,344 acres of wetlands in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin,
and Illinois and provides critical habitats for fish and migratory birds, specifically as a continental flyway. The official designation
ceremony for the site took place on October 14, 2010 at the Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. The Convention on
Wetlands of International Importance, better known as the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the
framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
There are now almost 1,900 sites worldwide designated as wetlands of international importance. Grassland Restoration and

Wildlife Without
Borders Critically Endangered Animals Conservation Fund provided a grant to Bird Life International in
partnership with the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society to help save the Liben Lark from
extinction. This critically endangered bird is found only on the tiny Liben plain in southern Ethiopia and its grasslands face
Community Engagement Plays a Critical Role in Preventing Africas First Bird Extinction In late 2009, the

destruction due to overgrazing, scrub invasion and agricultural conversion. Funds from USFWS have helped local communities find
solutions to the problem of overstocking cattle on the plain. In addition, the project has created a new cattle pasture and fenced off
an area of the plain to allow the grass to regenerate and provide potential shelter for the lark. Program participants state the
funding has been "crucial" as the foundation for a long-term project working with local pastoralist communities. "Smart Lands"
Brings Together Top Conservation Practitioners from Latin America and the Caribbean An estimated 40 percent of the worlds
biological diversity can be found in Latin America and the Caribbean, making it one of the most environmentally significant regions
on the planet. But compared to the richness and complexity of its natural resources, the number of natural resource professionals in
the area is disproportionately small. In November 2009 in Montelimar, Nicaragua, the Wildlife Without Borders-Latin
America and the Caribbean (WWB-LAC) program and Fauna & Flora International conducted a precedent-setting workshop aimed at

developing a cadre of conservation professionals in Latin America. More than fifty top conservation practitioners from over thirty
countries in Latin America and the Caribbean met to formulate a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary program to train the next
generation of conservationists in the region. The workshop proceedings are now available in Spanish and English, and WWB-LAC has
begun planning for future capacity building programs that take an inter-disciplinary approach. Ape Sanctuaries Equip Local Youth

The Wildlife Without Borders Great Apes Conservation Fund

provided a grant to the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) to outfit youth soccer teams with
endangered ape-themed equipment in 2010. Taking advantage of the international attention on soccer at the
Soccer Teams with Uniforms and Conservation Messages

FIFA World Cup, which was held in Africa for the first time this year, PASA wildlife sanctuaries in 12 African nations adopted local
youth teams during the soccer season. The teams wore uniforms with images of endangered apes and conservation messages
written in their languages. They and their supporters also participated in conservation workshops and activities. This project was
conducted in partnership with the Brevard Zoo in Florida, Conservation International, and Eques Inc. My Island-My Community
Partnership Launches the First Radio Serial Drama Addressing Climate Change The Wildlife Without Borders Regional Program for
Latin America and the Caribbean recently provided a grant to PCI-Media Impact to create the first-ever radio serial drama to raise
awareness about the impacts of climate change on small island communities in order to support human and ecological resilience.
This initiative, called My Island My Community, will promote ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change, multiple-use marine
zoning, and community livelihood opportunities by integrating these messages into radio serial dramas. These dramas will reach
nearly 4 million listeners across 12 island nations in the Caribbean during the next two years. Shipping Company Donates

A grant from the Wildlife Without Borders

Critically Endangered Animals Conservation Fund provided much-needed support for the Smithsonian National Zoos
efforts to save amphibians in Panama from the spread of the deadly chytrid fungus. This
Containers to House Amphibians Rescued from Deadly Fungus

spring, frogs at risk of extinction were collected to be housed and bred as assurance colonies, promising the continuation of their
species should all of their wild counterparts be wiped out by the fungus. In a uniquely innovative move, Smithsonian and its partners
utilized refrigerated shipping containers donated by Maersk Line to house the growing group of rescued amphibians. The eventual
aim of the Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project is to control the chytrid fungus and reintroduce endangered amphibian
populations. Critically Endangered Black Rhinos Reintroduced to Serengeti National Park - More Reintroductions Planned In May
2010, the first five critically endangered Eastern black rhinos (Diceros bicornis michaeli) were successfully returned to the Serengeti
National Park as part of a bold initiative to boost the viability of Tanzanias rhino population. Their safe arrival is a remarkable
achievement for rhino conservation and for cooperation between nations. The May flight and five future flights to deliver the rhinos
to Serengeti National Park are sponsored by National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Nduna Foundation, and the Wildlife Without
Borders Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund. During the next two years, a total of 32 Eastern black rhinos will be returned as
part of the Serengeti Rhino Repatriation Project, more than doubling the number of rhinos in the Serengeti. "Mixing the Matrix"
Project Builds Conservation Alliance Among Ranchers, Coffee Growers, and Protected Areas Managers The Wildlife Without Borders
Regional Program for Latin America and the Caribbean provided a grant to CATIE (the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher
Education Center) in 2009 to launch a participatory avian biodiversity monitoring program focused on the role of agroecosystems in
the conservation of birds. The program, called "Mixing the Matrix: Parks, Pastures and Coffee" utilizes citizen science as an outreach
tool targeted at audiences which impact the landscape within the Volcnica Central Talamanca Biological Corridor (VCTBC) of Costa
Rica. Citizens from these target audiences including ecotourism guides, park guards, coffee growers, and cattle ranchers came
together to collect data on occurrence of a set of indicator bird species across the landscape. This information was in turn used to
assess the health of the biological corridor across different land uses. Through training workshops within the VCTBC project area, a
network over 120 local citizen monitors was created and continues to grow. Distribution of indicator bird species within the VCTBC
have been mapped and will shape studies linked to climate change. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Employees Donate Uniforms to
Anti-Poaching Patrols in Angola In December 2009, Cyndi Perry and Dr. Michelle Gadd from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services
Division of International Conservation coordinated a nation-wide effort to collect unused uniforms from agency personnel to donate
to conservation partners abroad. Working with multiple field offices all across the country, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees
procured hundreds of donated uniform pieces, which were given to support the Angolan rangers patrolling their national parks,
particularly Cangandala National Park. Ambassador Dan Mozena himself delivered the uniforms to the Angolan Minister of the
Environment, Fafaitima Jardim. The park rangers and game wardens that received the much needed uniforms work to protect a wide
variety of African wildlife. Wildlife Without Borders Staff Conduct Training on Sea Turtle Nest Protection in Oman In April 2009, Earl

Wildlife Without Borders Marine Turtle Conservation Fund, went on a 10-day mission
with the Florida Marine Research Institute to train conservation professionals in Oman. The U.S. representatives conducted
workshops to equip Omani rangers with the knowledge and expertise to protect the
nesting populations of loggerhead, green, and hawksbill turtles that inhabit the countrys beaches. U.S.-Oman
Possardt, Project Officer for the

cooperation in this area has led to monitoring of nests and threats such as light pollution. The next step will be planning for
sustainable growth of the tourism industry. The Andean Tapir Conservation Project Builds Local Support for Conserving One of the
World's Most Endangered Mammals The Andean Tapir Conservation Project is enhancing the protection of tapirs one of the worlds
most endangered large mammals - within their last remaining stronghold in Ecuador. Finding Species, supported by a grant from the

Wildlife Without Borders Regional Program for Latin America and the Caribbean, has reached more
than 1,300 local people through its education and conservation campaigns targeting park
staff and managers at Sangay and Llanganales National Parks, government authorities, and local communities. As a result, rangers
in both parks are monitoring tapir populations for the first time, reports of tapir poaching in the area have decreased significantly,
communities are adopting tapir-friendly land use practices and local authorities are evaluating new conservation policies for the
parks buffer zones.

C>
The 1acs education elevates animals to a policy level
this allows us to break down anthropocentrism in favor
of a more bio centric ethic
King 97 Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Reading in
England, where he was on the faculty until resigning He has received multiple
fellowships from Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and the Virginia Center for the
Creative Arts. (Roger, Critical Reflections on Biocentric Environmental Ethics: Is It
an Alternative to Anthropocentrism? Space, place, and environmental ethic, pg.
215-216,
http://www.academia.edu/231815/_Critical_Reflections_on_Biocentric_Environmental
_Ethics_Is_it_an_Alternative_to_Anthropocentrism_in_Philosophy_and_Geography_I_S
pace_Place_and_Environmental_Ethics_Eds._Andrew_Light_and_Jonathan_Smith_Row
man_and_Littlefield_1997_209-230)//ED

Without denying that anthropocentrism can become much more environmentally informed and
sophisticated, there are still several reasons for suspicion that motivate biocentric ethics .
First, it might be argued that without a radical shift in attitudes and beliefs about
the value of nonhuman nature, narrowly conceived and short-term human interests
will continue to prevail at the expense of the environment. Our sense of difference from and
superiority to nonhuman nature is so fundamental to our cultural outlook, it might be argued, that nothing short of a
shift to a biocentric standpoint will be sufficient to protect even human needs and
interests. From this standpoint, it is essential to develop and adopt a biocentric environmental ethic even in order to promote
human rights or preference satisfaction. A second argument is that anthropocentrism simply fails to articulate the experience of
many human beings. Just as many men and women care about their fellow human beings, respect human rights, and hope to
minimize human suffering, so too they care about what happens to domesticated and wild animals, natural ecosystems, and the
planet as a whole. And while some may see their moral concern as entirely derivative from their concern for human beings, in the
Kantian fashion, many others value nonhuman nature for its own sake and not for the sake of other human beings. The

experience and the potential for expanding it justifies efforts to

articulate an environmental ethic that does not ultimately reduce value to some
derivative of human rights and preferences . A third argument in favor of abandoning anthropocentric ethics
is a practical one. If the goal of public policy is simply the satisfaction of human interests,
then the resolution of policy conflicts reduces to a balancing of human rights and
utilities. In such circumstances, environmental policy may tend to provide less protection both to nature and to human beings
than might have been achieved by a biocentric ethic. Eric Katz and Lauren Oechsli have suggested that if the intrinsic
value of nonhumans is granted by the parties in policy conflicts, then resolution of
the conflicts will also take into account the consequences for nature." Christopher Stone has
phenomenological reality of this

defended the idea of granting natural entities legal standing on the grounds that unless the natural entity is represented in court
proceedings, it is unlikely to benefit directly from damages awarded or reparations imposed by the courts." In sum, the skepticism

definition of costs and benefits will inevitably skew

moral deliberations in a self-serving, anthropocentric direction unless we can
develop a satisfactory biocentric environmental ethics
about anthropocentrism lies in the concern that the

Framing
Prefer impacts that concern the entirety of the ethical spectrum- the
prioritization of purely human interests is a form of anthro-centric
thought that turns the animal into the ultimate other
ONeill 97 [Onora, professor of philosophy at Newnham College. Environmental
Values, Anthropocentrism, and Speciesism. Environmental Values 6, no.2, (1997):
127-142.]
A common criticism of anthropocentrist positions in ethics is that they all
incorporate what has come to be called speciesism. The term speciesism, which was
coined by analogue with terms such as racism or chauvinism, is usually used as a
label for unjustified preference for the human species . The problem with any form of
speciesism, critics complain, is that it accords humans moral standing but
unjustifiably accords animals of other species no, or only lesser, standing . On some
views speciesism is also unjustifiable in its denial of moral standing to other aspects
of the environment, ranging from plants and rivers to abstract entities such as
species, habitats and ecosystems, bio-diversity and the ozone layer . Speciesism, as
defined, is self-evidently to be condemned, since it builds on something that cannot be
justified. Unfortunately the term speciesism is also often used (derogatorily) for any preference for the human
species, regardless of whether the preference is justified or not. This dual usage makes it easy to beg questions. In
order to avoid begging questions I shall use the term speciesism strictly for unjustified views about the moral
standing of certain species, and leave the question whether any preferences can be justified open for discussion.

specieisist descriptively to refer to those who do

and do not accord non-human animals (full) moral standing. Speciesists in this merely
However, I shall use the terms anti-speciesist and

descriptive sense would be guilty of speciesism only if the preference they accord humans cannot be justified. The
view that anthropocentric positions in ethics are invariably committed to speciesism, so unjustifiably blind to the

Anthropocentrism views ethics as created by or

dependent on human action; speciesism builds a preference for human beings into
substantive ethical view. Many anthropocentric positions have benign implications for environmental
claims of non-humans, is, I believe, unconvincing.

issues, and specifically for the lives of non-human animals. To show that it might seem reasonable to turn first to

Utilitarianism is
anthropocentric in the straightforward and indispensable sense that it takes it that
ethical argument is addressed to human agents, and that only humans can take up
(or flout) utilitarian prescriptions. However, utilitarians claim to repudiate (human) speciesism because
they offer reasons for according moral standing to all sentient animals. As Bentham put it, the way to
determine moral standing is to ask not Can they reason? Or can they talk? But can
they suffer? By taking sentience rather than the ability to reason as the criterion of
moral standing, utilitarians can show the ethical importance of human welfare ;
some of them even aim or claim to justify a conception of animal liberation. Still, it
is worth remembering that utilitarianism needs only a little twist to reach
conclusions which anti-speciesists do not welcome . John Stuart Mill agreed with Bentham that
that supposedly least speciesist of anthropocentric positions, utilitarianism.

happiness was the measured of value but thought that it came in various kinds and that the higher kinds were
restricted to humans. He concluded that it was better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied .

Utilitarian reasoning about required trade-offs between different types of pleasure

may demand that human happiness (of the higher sort) be pursued at the cost of
large amounts of porcine misery. The readiness with which utilitarian thinking can return to
prescriptions which favour humans is not unimportant: in a world in which xenotransplantation from pigs to humans
may be possible, Millian and Benthamite forms of utilitarianism will perhaps reach quite different conclusions about

permissible action. Even if this difficulty were set aside, there are other reasons why utilitarian thinking cannot

Utilitarianism relies on a subjective conception of

value which allows it to take account of non-human pleasure and pain, but equally
prevents it from valuing either particular non-sentient beings or dispersed and
abstract features of the environment: anything that is sentient cannot suffer or
enjoy, so is denied moral standing. Oak trees, bacteria and Mount Everest, species
and habitats, ecosystems and biodiversity, the ozone layer and CO2 levels are not
sentient organisms, so utilitarians will conclude that they can have at most
derivative value. They may value bacteria and habitats as constituting or providing
the means of life for individual sentient animals; they may value bio-diversity as
increasing the likelihood of future survival or pleasure for sentient animals: but they
will not value these aspects of the environment except as a means to pleasure or
happiness in the lives of sentient beings. A second, equally central feature of utilitarianism
also suggests that, far from being the most environmentally benign of
anthropocentric positions, it is inevitably highly selective in its concern for the
environment. Utilitarian thinking, like other forms of consequentialism, insists that
trading-off results is not merely permitted but required . Maximizing happiness or
welfare or pleasure can be achieved only by trading-off some outcomes to achieve
others. There is no way in which to pursue the greatest happiness of the greatest
number without pursuing happiness that will be enjoyed in some lives at the
expense of suffering that is to be borne in other lives. Some of the outcomes that yield a lot of
happiness (or welfare, or pleasure) in some livesfor example, economic growth and exclusive
patterns of consumptionhave high environmental costs which are not, or fully,
registered as suffering experienced in any sentient lives . Equally environmental damage that
provide a comprehensive environmental ethics.

affects no sentient beings (e.g. destruction of arctic or desert wilderness with no or little destruction of sentient life)
will not count as a cost or harm. More generally ,

maximizing approaches that rely on a subjective

measure of value will not merely permit but require pleasurable environmental
damage whose costs escape their calculus. These worries might perhaps be assuaged to a limited
degree by working out how environmental gain or damage could be more fully or better represented in utilitarian

But better representation of environmental gain or damage in

utilitarian and kindred reasoning is still only representation of their effects on
sentient lives: a subjective measure of value is still assumed. There is no guarantee
that such measures of values will register all environmental gain or damage, and no
guarantee that widely shared or trivial short-term pleasures that damage will not
outweigh the pains caused by that damage . The destruction of wilderness or
environmentally sensitive areas will be a matter for concern only insofar as it is not
outweighed by the pleasure of destroying them ; the suffering caused by destruction
of fragile habitats with few but rare sentient inhabitants might be outweighed, for
example, by the pleasures of tourism or gold-mining .
and cognate calculations.

Reject utilitarian calculus its an anthro-centric and myopic

viewpoint takes into account only the needs of humans, and it
fundamentally contradicts with principles of ecological
protection
Katz 97, Eric Katz, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 1997 [Nature As Subject:
Iluman Obligation and Natural Community]

I argue that Martins view is wrong, that utilitarianism in its most basic forms cannot explain or justify the
preservationist position in the preservation vs. development debatealthough it often appears to do so. In fact,

the widespread use of utilitarian arguments to justify policy decisions

about the protection of the environment is detrimental to preservation.
The essential elements of utilitarianism only provide a justification for the
satisfaction of human need, for this satisfaction is the standard by which
utilitarianism measures goodness or moral worth. But human needs and
the needs of the natural environment are not necessarily similar or in
harmony; thus, any ethical theorysuch as utilitarianismwhich tries to
explain the preservation of the natural environment by means of the
satisfaction of human wants, need, and desires will be only contingently true: it will
depend on the factual circumstances, the actual desires of the human community at any given time. This
empirical limitation does not bode well for the security of the
preservationist argument.

Case ext

Other
Wildlife w/out borders is a US conservation program that
has partnerships with the Chinese government in the
SQUO
China is home to one-fifth of the worlds people, who are all living in a nation only
slightly larger than the United States. China's diverse ecosystems provide habitat
for about 10% of the Earths wildlife, some of which is found nowhere else, including
the giant panda and golden snub-nosed monkey. Chinas rapidly developing
economy and growing population are placing greater demands on its wildlife and
natural resources. In the past half century, 10 animal species and 200 plant species
have become extinct. Another 20 birds or mammals are on the verge of extinction;
some 400 more animal species are threatened or endangered, as are 4,000 higher
plant species. The Wildlife Without Borders-East Asia program works with the
Chinese government and other East Asian countries to promote dialogue on issues
of conservation of natural resources. The program coordinates technical exchanges
to address the illegal wildlife trade, protect giant pandas and other key species,
carry out the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and
preserve natural habitats. Examples include: Engaging forums for American and
Chinese biologists to exchange information on how to better manage wetlands and
terrestrial and aquatic habitat. Supporting USFWS staff to work with Chinese wildlife
managers in such places as the Chebaling National Nature Reserve in Jilin Province
and Futian Mangrove-Bird Reserve in Guangdong Province. Sharing lessons learned
from efforts to reintroduce the endangered black-footed ferret, improve Atlantic
salmon stock in New England and restore coastal wetlands in Oregon. Coordinating
with Japan on implementing a convention to protect migratory birds and birds in
danger of extinction. This work benefits species such as shorebirds and the critically
endangered short-tailed albatross. Supporting the work of the Saiga Conservation
Alliance in work across Russia, Mongolia and China to improve law enforcement and
monitoring of the critically endangered saiga antelope.

Only a zero tolerance policy solves- Harsher punishments and tighter

enforcement by the Chinese government means that the plan is the
only way
Williams 15
Ted Williams 5/20/15 On the internet, illegal wildlife and endangered species trade
thrives Yale Environment 360
The worlds largest online marketplace by far, eBay, is one of the few that makes a
serious effort to control wildlife smuggling by deleting ads for illegal products but only
the few it notices or hears about. Chris Nagano of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Endangered Species Division is a trained
lepidopterist. When I asked him if he sees any ads for illegal butterflies on eBay he replied: There are a number of imperiled

butterflies openly advertised on eBay, including some listed under the Endangered Species Act or protected under laws of countries
they inhabit. Some of these species are sold to collectors for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Ivory products are the most
popular wildlife items on Internet markets, despite a global ban on ivory sales imposed by the 180-nation Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The National Academy of Sciences, a body of scholars established by the U.S.
Congress, estimates that 100,000 elephants were killed by poachers between 2010. In less than ten minutes I found what looked
like five ivory trinkets on eBay. When I reported them to Ryan Moore, eBays senior manager of global corporate affairs, four were
confirmed and immediately deleted. A week later I told him about an ad for the critically endangered, globally protected Queen
Alexandras birdwing, the worlds largest butterfly with wings sometimes spanning a foot and males aglow with iridescent yellows,
blues and greens the holy grail of collectors. Next day the ad was gone. But such deletions scarcely make a dent. And

although eBay has installed filters to catch words like ivory, smugglers dance
around them. First, they called ivory fauxivory. When filters caught that ruse, smugglers called ivory ox bone until
filters picked up that, too. Each time eBay programs an alias into its filters another pops up. In the apt analogy of the companys
regulations and policy boss, Wolfgang Weber, kicking wildlife smugglers off eBays international sites is like playing the game
Whack-a-Mole. Private citizens like me and even large NGOs are hampered in our investigations because we can only flag
whats illegal or looks that way. We cant procure hard evidence by buying the actual contraband because wed be violating national
and international laws. Not so with retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent Ken McCloud. Before he left the service in
2007, McCloud was in charge of all eBay investigations for the agencys eight regions. In 2011 he took on an assignment for his
then-employer the Burlingame, California-based Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, which is not your typical humane outfit in
that it is wildlife-savvy. McCloud got permission from his former Office of Law Enforcement colleagues to buy wildlife contraband on
eBay. The sellers would say, Dont worry. We do this all the time. Weve got contacts with Customs. I just started ordering illegal
items offered overseas that eBay had already warned sellers about, he says. Id write the sellers through eBay and say, Is this
illegal and are we gonna get in trouble for it? Theyd write back and say, Dont worry; we do this all the time. Weve got contacts
with [U.S.] Customs. The correspondence was juicy and blatant. When I used to go undercover to work our educated U.S. poachers
and smugglers, it would take me at least a month to get them to trust me. These guys on eBay would open up the second I showed
any concern. Theyd give me examples of how they paid people off. Everything I bought came in falsely labeled. When eBay
officials came to Burlingame in 2011 to view the enormous display of eBay contraband McCloud and Peninsula Humane Society &
SPCA president Ken White had set up in a conference room, they were blown away and horrified, to borrow Whites words. It
looked like a black-market silent auction, as one of Whites staffers put it. Soon thereafter eBay flew McCloud to its Salt Lake City,
Utah, office for a day to teach screeners wildlife identification. Until last May, McCloud was sending eBay pages-long lists of
contraband he and his volunteers found advertised on its sites, along with the specific laws being violated. Here are four examples
of thousands: Ocelot is an endangered species and CITES Appendix I and if shipped to the U.S.A. will be in felony violation of the
Lacey Act. Siamese Croc., endangered species, CITES App. I & felony Lacey Act & Money Laundering. Real python skin CITES
App. II purse offered in international commerce and in violation of felony Lacey Act. Real lynx coat offered in international
commerce in violation of CITES and felony Lacey Act. As McClouds listings of illegal ads poured in, eBay deleted many of them. But
filter dodging continued. Ken White describes eBay as a good company with a desire to do right, but one that still offers a
tremendous amount of illegal animal products. White and McCloud werent interested in doing a sting. They wanted to work with,
not against, eBay; and for a brief time they did. The company even provided modest funding; but White says he needed lots more.
As far as we ever heard from eBay they were thrilled with how we were helping make their marketplace better, says White. But
they wouldnt allow us to talk about the problem through the media or even through grant requests for the financial support we
believed was available. Were a large humane society with a $13 million operating budget, but thats After a report found 4,304 ivory
links on eBay, the company banned ivory sales from its international sites. nothing in their world. So we ran out of money and had to
shut down the program. This was an opportunity for a huge corporation to set an example. But eBay was unwilling to allow us to
tell the story. Not only am I disappointed that they pulled the plug on our program but that it didnt become a model for the way
corporate America can work with environmental and animal welfare organizations. When I asked eBays senior manager for global
regulation, Mike Rou, for a response, he referred me back to White. Internet traffic in wildlife was accelerating the extinction process
even a decade ago. In 2004 the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) launched an investigation called Caught in the Web
that documented massive online marketing of live endangered and protected species and their parts including elephants, rhinos,
sea turtles, tigers, lions, falcons, gorillas, parrots, and serval cats. Three years later, another IFAW investigation, Bidding for
Extinction, focused on eBay sites in the U.K., U.S., Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, France, and China. IFAW reported that
of those [2,275] items we investigated, more than 90 percent breached the stated ivory listing policies of the respective eBay

Any U.S. business that helps sell wildlife or wildlife parts unlawfully obtained
from any nation (or in the U.S. and transported between states, if the value is at least $350) can be prosecuted
for felony violation of the Lacey Act. This fact and all the bad press provided by yet another IFAW investigation in
websites.

2008 were apparently not lost on eBay. That investigation, Killing with Keystrokes, revealed that of 5,159 elephant ivory listings on
7,122 online links in eight countries, 4,304 were offered by eBay. Almost simultaneously with the reports release, the company
banned ivory sale from its international sites. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesnt have a cyber crimes unit, but IFAWs findings
inspired it to launch undercover stings in 2011 and 2012 called respectively Operation Cyberwild and Operation Wild Web. In the
second and more ambitious sting, agents from the service, 16 U.S. states, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia hit the Internet hard
for two weeks. They didnt pay much attention to eBay because it had made an effort to police itself. They focused instead on other
sites like Etsy (apparently getting a reaction because Etsy followed eBays good example in 2013). Nor did they pay much attention

Saving endangered
species requires more than misdemeanor indictments against the worst online
markets. riddled U.S. ivory laws with so many loopholes theyre nearly impossible to understand, let alone enforce. The team
to ivory because lobbying by big-game hunting interests, most notably Safari Club International, has

didnt go after the sites themselves. Instead, it targeted traffickers, making 154 busts. Crimes included selling everything from skins
of tiger, leopard, and jaguar to whale teeth, walrus tusks, elephant ivory, dangerous invasive fish like piranhas, walking catfish, and
live snakes and migratory birds. The team knew it wouldnt catch any big-time smugglers, but it also knew the power of publicity
and how to work the media. Everyone cited was prosecuted amid a blizzard of press releases and smartly maestroed media feeding
frenzies. For a while traffickers got the message. Forty-eight hours after Operation Wild Web shut down, it had been mentioned 335
million times on the Internet. The State of Florida, an enthusiastic participant in Operation Wild Web and with a cyber crimes unit,

liked the sting so much that it does repeats about every eight months. The ban on ivory imposed by eBay has had mixed results. In
2013, IFAW found that ads for endangered wildlife products in Australia, most on eBay, had increased 266 percent since 2008. A
year later it documented a 48-percent increase in apparent ivory items offered by eBay in the U.K. On the other hand, IFAWs team
leader for wildlife cyber crime, Tania McCrea-Steele, told me this: The ivory ban is working well on eBay sites based in Canada,
Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. That progress doesnt amount to much globally, and such voluntary measures
clearly arent a solution. Last year IFAW looked at 280 online markets across 16 countries. In just six weeks it found ads for 33,006
endangered animals and their parts. About one-third were for elephant ivory. So what is the solution? Regional field offices of the
Fish and Wildlife Service have had serious discussions with prosecutors about charging eBay under a section of the federal code
called Causing an Act to be Done. But Rhino PR posterConservation groups are mounting campaigns to persuade Vietnamese
consumers that buying rhino horn is decidedly uncool. But such efforts are likely to succeed only as part of a broader initiative to
crack down on an illicit trade that is decimating African rhino populations. READ MORE its probably not a smart move for the U.S. or
any other CITES nation to take legal action against eBay. The services big artillery piece Lacey Act felony prosecution would
likely be ineffective against a company that attempts, however unsuccessfully, to delete illegal items. According to Joe Johns,

prosecution under Lacey Act

misdemeanor provisions which require only proof of negligence, not knowledge
and intent might well succeed. But thats a BB gun. To save endangered species,
CITES nations need to move with more than misdemeanor indictments against the
worst online markets. Consider the mountains of wildlife contraband available on eBay, one of the very few sites that
makes a good-faith effort at control, then imagine what traffic is like on those that dont. Global Internet
marketplaces need to be required by legislation to ban all wildlife
products, regardless of species, and all imitation ivory products. Thats
the only way to shut down illegal trafficking and significantly slow the
accelerating extinction rate.
environmental crimes chief for the U.S. Attorneys office in central California,

International pressure is mounting, but China is holding out for

now by pointing at US hypocrisy- only the plan solves
Toomey 15
Diane Toomey 1/20/15 How Tiger Farming with China threatens the Worlds Tigers
Yale environment 360
The number of tigers living in the wild has dropped to the shockingly low figure of
3,200, down from 100,000 a century ago. But nearly as shocking is this statistic: An
estimated 5,000 to 6,000 tigers are being farmed today in China, their bones
steeped in alcohol to make tiger bone wine, their meat sold, and their skins turned
into rugs for members of Chinas wealthy elite. International conservation experts
say that this trade, officially sanctioned by the Chinese government, poses a direct
threat to the worlds remaining wild tigers because increased availability of these
bones and pelts fuels demand that actually strengthens the incentive to poach wild
tigers. Judith Scott Henrichsen Judith Mills Among the leading critics of tiger
farming is Judith Mills, a veteran of undercover investigations exposing illegal
wildlife trade. In her new book, The Blood Of The Tiger, Mills who has been
campaigning for tiger conservation for two decades while working for the World
Wildlife Fund, TRAFFIC, Conservation International, and Save the Tiger Fund
makes a passionate case against tiger farming. In an interview with Yale e360, Mills
explains how these magnificent creatures are bred like cattle for their body parts,
how tiger farms further stimulate demand for wild tigers, and how some
conservation groups have chosen not to confront the Chinese government about the
farms, allowing them to operate unchecked. Yale Environment 360: In 1993, bowing
to international pressure and the possibility of sanctions, China imposed a ban on all

trade of tiger bones used in traditional Chinese medicine. But at the same time the
breeding of captive tigers was beginning to get off the ground in that country. How
did you first become aware of tiger farming in China? Judith Mills: I first went to
China in 1991 because I was investigating the trade in bear gall bladders. And while
I was on that trip I was taken to a mink farm that had a handful of tigers in cages.
And there the staff showed off a handwritten ledger that was filling up with orders
for tiger bone from This is about products looking for a market rather than a market
looking for products. medicine companies. So thats how I became aware. e360:
Ostensibly, these farmed tigers were going to be used in programs to reintroduce
tigers in the wild, but you write that the explosive growth of tiger farms in China had
nothing to do with conservation and everything to do with business. So what were
the owners of these farms at this point banking on? Mills: Basically, a tiger farm is a
feed lot for tigers where theyre bred like cattle for their parts to make luxury goods,
such as tiger bone wine and tiger skin rugs. This is about wealth, not health.
Traditional Chinese medicine no longer uses tiger bone, nor wants to, because it
wants to go global and it does not want to be blamed for the extinction of wild
tigers. Furthermore, polls in China show that most Chinese people dont want tiger
products or tiger farming. Many of them believe that it actually punishes Chinas
international image. So this is about a handful of investors poised to launch a multibillion-dollar-a-year business, primarily in tiger bone wine, but also from tiger skins,
tiger meat, etc. This is about Enlarge tiger farming chart Environmental
Investigation Agency The number of farmed tigers in China has risen dramatically
since 2000. products looking for a market rather than a market looking for products.
e360: You just alluded to the tiger bone wine. Under current Chinese law is that
illegal? Mills: I think this is one of the ways in which I and other members of the
conservation community fail to connect the dots. When China banned the tiger bone
trade in 1993 we thought that meant the end of the tiger trade and the end of tiger
farming. In 1994, I noticed the number of tigers on farms was actually increasing.
And today there are 5,000 to 6,000 tigers on farms in China; some of them with
active wineries. What we didnt understand until very recently is that ban in 1993
did not supersede Chinas wildlife protection law, which was crafted in the 1980s
and actually mandates the farming and consumption of tigers and other
endangered species. e360: So while technically tiger bone wine may be a product
thats illegal, purveyors of it feel confident that they can sell this wine out in the
open without any government crackdown? Mills: We in the conservation community
have been trying to get clarification on this for twenty years. The State Forestry
Administration, which is in charge of tiger protection and also tiger farms, has been
quite opaque and not at all straightforward on answers to these questions. It is clear
that they have allowed some sort of limited legal trade in tiger bone wine and tiger
skins and it is also clear that because the State Forestry Administration allowed
these farms to go from fewer than 100 animals in If even a tiny fraction of Chinas
1.4 billion people seek wild tiger products we could lose wild tigers overnight. 1993
to perhaps 6,000 today that there is some sort of tacit promise that trade will be
open. The reason the United States and other countries were threatening trade
sanctions against China in the 1990s was because Chinas consumption of tiger
parts and products was endangering tigers throughout their range. The problem
with tiger farming is that it stimulates demand for tiger products, which stimulates

poaching of wild tigers because products from wild tigers are considered superior,
more prestigious, and theyre exponentially more valuable. Some people are
actually investing in these products from wild tigers as they would invest in gold or
rare art. And looking at it mathematically, if even a tiny fraction of Chinas 1.4
billion people seek wild tiger products we could lose wild tigers overnight. e360: So
just to reiterate, were not talking about the use of a product in traditional Chinese
medicine, steeped in tradition and then Westerners imposing their value system on
a culture. You are saying that were talking about a manufactured demand for luxury
goods. Mills: In 1993 I would say it was just what you said an imposition of
Western values on the traditional Chinese medicine industry. But since that time the
industry itself has led campaigns in the United States, in Australia, and even in
China against the use of tiger products. And tiger farming has basically stayed alive
and stimulated a demand that was all but dead by the mid-1990s. e360: Whats in it
for the government to support these farms? Mills: Thats an excellent question. The
State Forestry Administration actively promotes tiger farming. It has invested
money in tiger farms and The State Forestry Administration has invested money in
tiger farms and wineries on tiger farms. wineries on tiger farms. I dont know
whether officials who are promoting tiger farming are doing it out of allegiance to
the wildlife protection laws mandate or if they themselves have some vested
interest. I will say that they certainly protect tiger farming with a great deal of
vehemence. So, again, I think this is a question that the international community
needs to ask and it is one of the reasons why I wrote this book. I would like to know
if President Xi Jinping knows whats going on with tiger farming and this ministrys
promotion of tiger farming. e360: Talk about the condition that farmed tigers are
kept in. Mills: They are not unlike the conditions in any battery farms that raise
cows, pigs, chickens. They are kept in small cages, the females are bred and their
cubs are taken away from them almost immediately so that they can breed again.
And the males run around in herds. Anyone who is familiar with wild tigers will know
that in the wild these are solitary animals. So basically they are raised in very untiger-like conditions and in many cases they arent fed properly. e360: In 2007, the
U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted that
tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts and that tiger farming should be
phased out. Since then, what has CITES done to pressure China to carry out that
resolution? Mills: That decision has been steadfastly ignored by Chinas State
Forestry Administration. In 2010 [Russian President] Vladimir Putin hosted a tiger
summit and at that tiger summit talk of tiger farming was forbidden. e360: What do
you mean by forbidden? Mills: Forbidden. NGOs, the World Bank, and probably
country delegations were warned against mentioning tiger farming by the State
Tiger Thomas S./Flickr Wild tigers persist in less than 7 percent of their historic
range, now totaling 3,200 worldwide. Forestry Administration. There has been a
steady campaign of threats and intimidation that has resulted in censorship and/or
self-censorship on the part of the people who should be speaking up rather loudly
about this threat to the survival of wild tigers. e360: In your book you write about
the undercover work carried out by the NGO the Environmental Investigation
Agency, which exposed government-sanctioned trade in tiger skins, as well as this
booming business in tiger bone wine. EIA investigators even found evidence that
tiger bone wine was a popular gift for winning favor from government officials. EIA

presented this evidence at a CITES meeting in 2013 and the reaction was
underwhelming. Tell me what happened. Mills: I believe that CITES and the NGOs
that orbit CITES have become afraid to speak up about this issue because of threats
from Chinas State Forestry Administration. e360: The nature of those threats? Mills:
Threats such as, If you want to have a program studying wild tigers in China you
will not mention tiger farming at CITES. Or if you bring this up at CITES we will kick
everyone in your China office out of the country. I dont know the exact nature of
the threats to government bodies or to the World Bank, but I do know that threats
have been made. e360: At a CITES meeting a few months ago tiger farming was
discussed and a number of recommendations were adopted having to do with tiger
farming. Tell me a about those resolutions and if you see this as progress. Mills: I do
see it as progress. I was heartened to learn that CITES had found the courage to
begin pursuing the decision against tiger farming For a long time there have been
ministries within the Chinese government that are uncomfortable with tiger
farming. again. But I was taken aback when I learned that China had been given
the chairmanship of the working group overseeing the standing committees orders
regarding tiger farming. I look forward to the outcome of that working group to see
whether or not meaningful progress will be made or if it will be just another
opportunity for the State Forestry Administration to work around the decision
against tiger farming. I really believe that we may lose wild tigers because of this,
and its unconscionable that it hasnt been talked about properly since 2007. e360: I
also find it interesting that at that meeting China admitted for the first time that it
has legalized the trade in tiger skins. Mills: Yes, so that was a harrowing moment. Of
course, EIA has been saying this for years. What worries me about that admission is
that I believe that China may be readying itself to lift its ban on tiger trade, which
also is a ban on trade in rhino horn. And as you may know, China is hoping that
CITES will approve a deal in 2016 that would allow South Africa to sell rhino horn to
China legally. China has already begun farming rhinos and I fear that this same
scenario is going to unfold for rhinos. And a fully reopened Chinese [tiger] market
will have an insatiable demand and, again, wild products are exponentially more
valuable. I dont see how the remaining 3,000 or so tigers can last long in the face
of that kind of demand. e360: In your estimation are there forces in the Chinese
government that might be pushing for an emphasis on conservation? Mills: Well,
there is some very good news coming out of China in that there is a growing
movement made up of Chinese people, without any Western backing, to change the
law and to take out the mandate for farming and consumption of tigers and other
endangered species such as bears, etc. For a long time there have been ministries
within the Chinese government that are uncomfortable with tiger farming. But these
ministries have been reluctant to speak out in defiance of the State Forestry
Administration. One of my great hopes in China comes from the efforts of WildAid
and its very successful enlistment of power brokers, opinion makers, and celebrities
in China who are now speaking out and reaching a broad audience in China with a
message that when the buying stops, the killing can too. e360: In your book you
write about the successful campaign to discourage the eating of shark fin soup in
China. So you see lessons in that campaign that might apply to the tiger trade?
Mills: I absolutely see hope in the example of shark fin soup, and I see hope actually
in the China/U.S. agreement on climate. e360: How so? Mills: First, one of the

excuses the State Forestry Administration uses for not complying with the CITES
decision against tiger farming is the fact that the United States has at least 5,000
captive tigers and nobody knows exactly where all those tigers are or what happens
to them when they die. And so China and other countries frequently ask why should
China phase out tiger farming when the United States has not dealt with its captive
tiger problem. I think thats a legitimate question. And so what I see in the climate
agreement is a template for a China/U.S. agreement on tigers, where each of them
would pledge to address their respective tiger problem that is contributing to
greater or lesser degrees to the pressure on wild tigers. e360: What needs to
happen in the next couple of years in order to save tigers in the wild? Mills: I would
venture to say that most people on the planet dont know that the world is in
danger of losing our wild tigers to these farms. And so I think the most important
thing right now is to talk about the problem. But I think its also very important that
NGOs find the courage to get back in the ring. I think its very important for the
United States and other countries to find the courage to ask China if there is a
commitment to commodify tigers that goes all the way up to the top, to President Xi
Jinping, or is this just an old-school mandate thats left over from the 1980s that
needs to be and can be changed. Otherwise were ceding the existence of wild
tigers.

The driver of illegal wildlife trade in China is not cultural but

economic- it is the perfection of anthropocentric and neoliberal
alignment- the elites of China are literally investing in
extinction
Platt 15
Platt, John. (John R. Platt covers the environment, technology, philanthropy, and
more for Scientific American, Conservation, Lion, and other publications.) "China's
Wealthy Are Banking on Extinction." TakePart. Take Part, 24 Mar. 2015. Web. 09 Feb.
2016.
Right now, in warehouses scattered across China, the carcasses of hundreds of dead
tigers sit steeping in vats in a mixture of rice wine and herbs. In weeks, months, or
even years, the resulting tiger-bone wine will be packagedoften in bottles shaped
like living tigersand sold for between $80 and $300, according to reports from the
Environmental Investigation Agency and other international conservation
organizations. The longer the bones steep in the rice wine, the higher the price the
bottles will fetch. Chinas elite are purchasing many of the most expensive bootleg
bottles, either to give as gifts, as displays of their own wealth, or for their future
value, much in the same way that people invest in precious metals, according to J.A.
Mills, author of the new book Blood of the Tiger, which details her 20-year career
investigating wildlife crime. She said one of the major driving factors in the illegal
wildlife trade is now Chinas ber-elite, who are investing in these items as a new
asset class. Quoting reports from undercover investigators working in the field,
Mills said people are banking on extinctionbuying products hoping that wild

species will soon disappear. These items will become priceless if these species
become extinct, she said. Banking on extinction is the newest, most deadly threat
to the survival of wild tigers and other endangered species. Siberian tiger-bone
wine is displayed for sale at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, China. (Photo: Hong
Wu/Getty Images) Investing in Extinction Tigers, elephants, rhinos, bears, and even
a few tree species have become new kinds of collectible investments, similar to fine
art and antiques, several experts said. As more collectors have entered the market,
killing endangered species has grown increasingly profitable. Ivory wholesale prices,
for example, have shot up from $564 per kilogram in 2006 to at least $2,100 today.
Ivory prices have been skyrocketing, said Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia regional director
for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. When I go to ivory markets, people
literally tell me This is a good investment. Market buyers, she said, have recently
come up with a new name for ivory: white gold. A New Trend Until a few years ago,
traditional medicine played the biggest role in driving Chinas illegal wildlife trade
owing to the belief, not supported by science, that certain animal parts hold
curative powers. Things began to change in 2008. Though the international ivory
trade was banned in 1989, seven years ago the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species allowed a onetime sale of 105,000 kilograms of ivory to China
and Japan. That kicked off a buying frenzy for culturally valuable ivory carvings that
the initial supply could not satisfy. It also inspired the start of a deadly new poaching
crisis that today threatens African elephants with extinction. Poached ivory can
easily enter the market because customers dont know what is legal and what is
illegal, Mills said. Within two years, conservation organizations began to notice that
wildlife products were being sold for wealth, not health. One of the most blatant
examples occurred at the end of 2011, when IFAW officials got word of a major
auction planned just down the street from their office in Beijing. Through our
investigations, we found that one auction house was about to sell off 400 bottles of
tiger-bone wine in a hotel pretty much next door to our office, said Gabriel. We
walked over there during our lunch break and investigated the preview. In addition
to the tiger-bone wine, they also found numerous rhino horns and ivory carvings.
All but the ivory was illegal under Chinese law. The discovery of the auction created
an international outcry. As a result, China issued a notice to auction houses that the
sale of tiger bones and rhino horns remains illegal. Auctioneers pulled endangered
species from their offerings, a move that reduced their sales by $322 million in
2012. But the trade did not stop. It just became less visible. You rarely see
endangered species for sale in physical shops in major cities, said Zhou Fei, head
of the China office for TRAFFIC, the international wildlife trade-monitoring network.
Instead, the trade has gone online. More recently, they have moved from websites
to social media, Fei said, noting that ivory tusks, rhino horns, bear gall bladders,
hornbill beaks, and other products now turn up for sale on art collection websites,
online forums such as Baidu Tieba, the mobile phone app Wechat, and even
Facebook. A small ivory ring can fetch about $1,000 in these markets. A full rhino
horn can sell for $100,000 or more, according to the IFAW. Items are sold under
code names: African materials or white plastic for ivory, red for hornbill beaks,
striped T-shirt for tiger skins, and black for rhino horns. Some sales, according
to investigators, are hidden in chat rooms that cannot be accessed unless someone
invites you. Without that introduction, the doors remain locked to prying eyes. The

Growing Middle Class Is a Growing Problem The prices for the most elaborately
carved elephant tusks and rhino horns have grown so high that only Chinas ultraelite can afford to buy them. They are not the only buyers, however. The middle
class aspires to becoming wealthy, Gabriel pointed out. They are still buying
smaller items such as ivory jewelry or trinkets in the hope that their value will
increase. Endangered Species, Then and Now Although they are only acquiring
smaller items, the effect of Chinas estimated half a billion middle-class consumers
adds up. When you look at China, everything is magnified, said Julian Newman,
campaigns director for the EIA, who has been investigating the illegal wildlife trade
since 1997. Even a small percentage of the population obviously has a big numeric
impact. More Than One Way to Invest While some people buy these products to
hold on to, many others use them as a different kind of investment. The high price
of ivory, tiger-bone wine, and other items makes them valuable in Chinas gift-giving
culture. In other words, they are great for bribes. Weve had many, many traders
say that some of their customers want to provide ivory tusks or tiger-bone wine to
government leaders or business contacts to create a chance of doing business,
said Newman. In one notorious recent example, a Chinese businessman was
arrested for electrocuting and eating a tiger at a banquet. Here, the specter of
traditional medicine lingers. Tiger-bone wine has medicinal use, Gabriel said, but
at current prices, they dont buy it as a medicine. They buy it as a way to bribe
officials. Culture Matters One final element driving trade is wealth combined with a
return to tradition. Newman points to the recent surge in sales of old-style furniture
called hongmu, made from rosewood trees, several species of which grow in South
America, Africa, and Asia. Its a style of furniture the emperors used, he said. It
has become very fashionable again. The illegal trade in rosewood species from
around the world now threatens several species with extinctionas well as the
species that depend on the trees in the wild. Here, too, theres speculation. The
price of rosewood has gone up so high now that a single cubic meter is worth over
$50,000, Newman said. People are sitting on the wood, storing it away, and
waiting for the price to go up if certain rosewood species go extinct, EIA
investigators have found. Moving Forward Reducing the demand and consumption
of endangered wildlifeand saving some of these species from extinctionwill
require multiple approaches. As Zhou said, We need to address all of the parts in
the puzzle: international pressure, behavior change, government leadership,
capacity building in law enforcement, and revision of existing laws. Those forces
have been at work in the recent reduction in demand for shark fins. Zhou said he is
also hopeful that the demand for ivory will soon decrease, and recent polls suggest
that this is already starting to happen. Newman acknowledged that persuading
people not to buy wildlife products is a long-term approach thats not going to
happen overnight. Meanwhile, though, he praised recent efforts to track down and
punish the criminal enterprises responsible for poaching as well as the people within
China who are working to change the existing laws. Its Chinas law, so it needs to
be changed by Chinese people, he said. Elephants, rhinos, and tigers may not have
many more years to wait for change. We havent got that much time for some of
these species, Newman said.

Foreign intervention is key- it galvanizes

Carter 14 Leo Carter is a first year Masters student in Global Policy Studies at
the LBJ School. After receiving a BA in English and Asian Studies at Rice University in
2009, Leo spent three years in China,. 11/2/14 Gaps in Chinas Wildlife Laws
Global Wildlife Conservation Group
Chinas recent efforts to control the trade of illicit animal products both into the
country and within its borders are a positive development. As I mentioned in a
previous post on Chinese wildlife enforcement measures, China has one of the best
track records in Asia when it comes to border enforcement and seizures. Successful
seizures and arrests, however, bely surging demand for and consumption of
products like elephant ivory and rhino horn. The rate of growth of this illegal market
shows that enforcement an public awareness campaigns are not perhaps as
successful as they are touted to be. In this posting I will be looking at the legal
framework for wildlife conservation and the loop-holes exploited by ivory and tiger
bone traders in China. Chinas wildlife conservation legislation is centered around its
1988 Wildlife Protection Law. While its intentions are good, ambiguous language
and goals, limited protection, and decentralized responsibility for enforcement and
monitoring have made wildlife protection efforts a difficult battle for Chinese
conservationists. The official position of 1988 law maintains that the principle
purpose of wildlife is for human domestication and consumption. State agencies
regulating domestic ivory trade have the conflicting missions of preserving
traditional ivory carving heritage and cracking down on post-ban ivory products.
Furthermore, captive animals are afforded almost no protection under the law,
encouraging poachers and trappers to capture breed animals illegally. This also
results in the inhuman standards at facilities such as bear bile and tiger farms that
have been only recently come under critical scrutiny in the West. Complicating
enforcement further, the laws stipulate that the already cash-strapped provincial
and regional governments are responsible for funding their protection campaigns
and deciding the punishments for infractions. This ambiguity and lack of centralized
authority can lead to lax oversight and potentially corrupt practices between
enforcers and poachers. Agencies as diverse as the State Forestry Administration
and the State Administration for Cultural Heritage are all designated certain specific
roles in regulating the trade. Buck-passing by agencies and law enforcement with
overlapping responsibilities has become commonplace in China. Ambiguous
legislation and delegation of authority allow for local level officials to interpret the
laws to best serve their self interests. Even though Chinese law carries some of the
stiffest penalties in the world for high-order wildlife traffickingincluding life
imprisonmentthese penalties are rarely if ever implemented. Indo-Chinese tiger
cubs (Panthera tigris corbetti) born at Hanoi Zoo, Vietnam. Young tigers, Hanoi Zoo,
Vietnam. Hanoi zoo breeds endangered Indochinese tigers although it has little
room for them and is not part of any international breeding programme. Early 2008
zoo officials admitted selling the bodies of tigers that had reportedly died of natural
causes to animal traffickers. There has been a sharp increase in the keeping of
tigers in Vietnam, raising fears that the animals are being farmed to supply the
trade in body parts used in traditional medicine. source:
www.nationofchange.org/2015/wp-content/uploads/IllegalWildlifeTrade.jpg China

signed on with CITES in 1981. Currently its only major reservations include those on
captive breeding. Alligator and tiger farms operate with the official purpose of reintroducing these severely endangered species into their original habitats.
According to their own estimates, of the four sub-species of tiger native to the
Chinese mainland, only 40 50 remain in the wild. In a letter to the Secretary
General of the 16th Conference of the Parties in Bangkok, the director of the CITES
Management authority of China states: The policy on banning of trade in tiger bone
had been implemented in China since 1993. The stockpile of tiger bones obtained
before 1993 are being kept sealed and the tiger parts coming from captive bred
tigers are strictly regulated. Not only does the presence of a government sanctioned
tiger product trade offer poachers legal cover, but ineffective and inconsistent
certification methods often make it impossible to determine which products are
indeed legal and which are not. Another study points out that, wild-sourced parts
would consistently undercut the prices of farmed tigers that could easily be
laundered on a legal market. Their survey also indicates that despite awareness of
the environmental impact and the illegal status of tiger consumption, 43% of
subjects had consumed products containing tiger. It is clear that half-measures
towards wildlife conservation in China have only served to further inflate the already
world-leading illegal wildlife market. The legal sale of pre-ban wildlife products has
provided sufficient cover in a poorly regulated domestic market to allow illegally
smuggled products to supply rapidly growing demand. In China, government bans
and tougher enforcement may be the only viable option for reducing illicit trade.
Because of Chinas particular sensitivity to its global reputation, greater
international diplomatic pressure on China to clean up their markets at home should
be considered.

However this legislation is halted due to funding and

enforcement concerns
Li 07
Li, Peter.(Peter J. Li is an assistant professor of political science at the University of
Houston-Downtown, Texas, USA.) "Enforcing Wildlife Protection in China." <i>China
Information</i> (2007): 86-89. <i>Animallawconference.org</i>. 2007. Web. 15
Feb. 2016.
The inclusion of anticruelty articles in the Wildlife Protection Law is advocated by
Chinese critics. As the first law professor teaching animal welfare laws in China,
Song Wei supports the introduction of minimum welfare standards as implemented
in the EU countries. These standards, the so-called Five Freedoms, outlaw
conditions that subject animals to pain, suffering, severe space deficit, food
deprivation, and behavioral abnormality. He believes that penalties for violation of
the minimum requirements should be written into the Wildlife Protection Law or
other special welfare laws. Another scholar proposes the provision of anticruelty
clauses in the Wildlife Protection Law so that the law can classify harm done to
wildlife species into two categories: intentional harm and negligent harm.
Furthermore, such harm should be categorized into that with grievous and that with
minor consequences. Another view supports the drafting of a comprehensive animal

welfare law,97 which is favored by most animal advocates and legal experts. Yet, it
is also most resisted by the business interests and frowned on by government
officials. In early 2004, a Beijing municipal governments draft of animal welfare law
relating to lab animals was forced to be withdrawn only a few days after it was
published on a government web site.98 The concern of the opposing officials and
scholars was the level of difficulty in enforcing the law and the resulting damage to
the integrity of the citys laws. The proposal of a comprehensive animal welfare law,
to Chinese officials in August 2004, was too progressive and too early for China.99
In view of the current resistance to comprehensive animal welfare legislation, the
Wildlife Protection Law should be the place to include anticruelty provisions. As
discussed earlier, local governments have no incentive to fund nonproductive
activities. Worse still, damage caused by the protected species often takes place in
economically underdeveloped parts of the country. Local governments in these
regions are already financially strapped. Chinese critics argue that it is
unreasonable and unrealistic for the local authorities to shoulder the bulk of the
expenditure for wildlife protection. They recommend that the Wildlife Protection
Law should provide for special funds for wildlife protection. The use of the money
should be judged in accordance with the specific situations where the damage is
incurred. A compensation mechanismwith the central government responsible for
most of the damagesshould be established.100 The special funds can also be
used for handling emergency situations such as SARS and the bird flu outbreak.
State special funding serves other important objectives. It will help to provide for
the creation of a specialized rank of officials for wildlife protection and also to fund
nature reserve management. Furthermore, it will eliminate the need for
conservation institutions to exploit the objects of protection to finance their
operation. Wildlife protection cannot act as a player in the market economy