Free Market Environmentalism

Commerce for Conservation: A proposal to save the tiger

Sustainable Development Network, India - Save the Tiger Initiative, June 4, 2007

 

 

Commerce for Conservation

A proposal to save the tiger


Sustainable Development Network – Save the Tiger Initiative
June 2007



Save the Tiger Initiative of SDN welcomes comments, and invites organisations and individuals to endorse this statement, and join this coalition in an effort to secure the future of tigers.
Email:
TigerInitiative@gmail.com


Contents:

Introduction
The tiger in crisis
Improving incentives for in situ conservation
Reintroducing tigers
Economic Development and Conservation
Tigers – Better bred than dead
Trade restrictions make smuggling profitable
Demand for tiger products: a new opportunity for conservation
Control and Monitoring mechanism
Conclusion: Commerce for Conservation
Appendix 1: Sustainable Development Network Members


1. Introduction

Wild tiger populations are at crisis point across Asia. For over three decades, conservation policies have focussed on 4 Ps – Prohibition on hunting and trade, Protection of habitat, Promotion of awareness and Policing. If the future of Asian tigers is to be secured, it is time to re-evaluate these existing strategies, and to explore alternative conservation measures.

Two critical factors are missing from the conventional prescription – Property rights and Profit motive. Property rights in wildlife and wilderness areas could unleash the power of commerce for the cause of conservation. First, it allows local populations to profit from natural resources through opportunities like eco-tourism, giving people a stake in tiger conservation. It would also attract and encourage investment towards conservation. Secondly, investment in tiger breeding facilities could meet the market demand for tiger products in a cost effective way, greatly reducing the profitability of illegal trade.

By making in situ conservation of tigers more viable and making poaching less profitable, a mutually beneficial marriage of conservation and commerce could be achieved.


2. The Tiger in Crisis

Recent estimates by the Wildlife Institute of India put the number of tigers in India’s forests at between 1,500 and 2,000 – a sharp decline from the 3,500 estimated in 2002. This puts the global total at around 3,000 (assuming that India is host to 75% of the World’s wild tigers). But whether the total is 3000 or 7000 (the upper estimate sometimes given), the fact is that the wild tiger population is small and declining.

Several factors contribute to this decline in numbers and fuel the prospect of extinction of tigers in the wild. Loss of habitat is the most significant: a recent report by conservation groups noted that in the past decade areas known to be inhabited by tigers have declined by 40 percent. Human-animal conflicts are also very serious: In India, every year about two hundred people lose their lives or are seriously injured and countless domestic animals are lost due to wildlife attacks in rural areas.

Commercial poaching is a problem, though the exact scale remains unclear: there appears to be a gap between claims of poaching in India and the evidence of illegal trade in China; so where do these tigers come from? Another concern is the biological viability of small populations of tigers in isolated reserves scattered across India. Continuous inbreeding might contribute to genetic degeneration, undermining the viability of these isolated animals.

So, to summarise, the key threats to the tiger are:


3. Improving incentives for in situ conservation

Given the significance of habitat loss and human-tiger conflicts as factors, it makes sense to prioritise these in addressing the issue of wild tiger conservation.


Habitat loss occurs primarily as a result of people converting forest into agricultural land (for crops or pasture). As their habitat declines, so tigers are forced into closer proximity to humans, which increases the threat of tigers attacking or killing people or domestic animals – with predictable responses from threatened people.

People convert forest to agriculture because they lack other ways of producing food or otherwise earning a living. One way to reduce the incentives for conversion is to increase the value of the forest as forest to the people who live there. Various measures might achieve this, but most importantly local people must have a greater stake in the conservation of the forest in its natural state.

At present, the forest is of little value to people who live there unless it is converted to agriculture. But the rights of the people to the forest and the wildlife and other natural resources therein are at best weak and at worst unrecognised. If the local people were allowed to own the forest regardless of the uses to which it is put, they would have incentives to increase the intensity of agriculture, which would reduce the amount of forest that is converted, and they would also have incentives to obtain greater value from the forest as forest, for example by selling rights to view – and in exceptional cases even hunt – tigers. At present, some of the poorest people live amidst rich natural assets, and such an arrangement is naturally unsustainable, in addition to being grossly unjust.

In order to improve incentives for in situ conservation, it is imperative that those populations living in proximity with tigers:

If these conditions are met, the local people will be able directly to benefit from their conservation efforts. They will, in effect, have a stake in the natural wilderness and wildlife resources, which will offset the risks of living in proximity with dangerous animals and create incentives to cooperate against poachers. It will also attract investors for a range of consumptive and non-consumptive environmental products.


4. Reintroducing tigers

Most tiger habitats are fragmented and isolated, hosting very few animals. Genetic degeneration due to continuous inbreeding could become the most serious biological threat to the long term survival of tigers in the wild. Relocation, selective breeding and reintroduction of tigers in designated tiger habitats would be necessary to renew the genetic pool of tigers. This process will also be useful for some of the tiger reserves in India where tiger numbers seem to have fallen to perilously low levels, or even non-existent.

Given the challenge, China and India, two of the largest tiger range countries, now have an opportunity to cooperate for the cause of conservation.

 

5. Economic Development and Conservation

General economic development reduces pressure on natural resources as alternative economic options become more profitable. During the industrial development of countries that are today relatively wealthy, demand for agricultural land fell as labour- and capital- intensive industries rose. As a result, the pressure on forests and other natural resources declined, making the restoration of many natural habitats politically and economically possible. With rapid economic growth in recent decade, China’s environment seems poised to benefit from development dividend – consider the following:

-Rapid industrial growth has drawn millions of rural Chinese away from their villages

-Some of the villages in South China are experiencing rapid depopulation

-The prospect for recreating tiger habitats in some of these areas seem quite bright

-The lower potential for man – animal conflict enhances the chances of survival for some of the wildlife

 

In India, with a higher proportion of people living in close proximity to environmental resources, the need to make these resources economically valuable to the people is far greater.

6. Tigers – Better bred than dead

Captive and controlled breeding of endangered species is an important tool for promoting conservation. The United States, with no indigenous tiger species, is host to more captive tigers – around 10,000 (in zoos or as pets) – than currently are estimated to live in the wild in the rest of the world. Paradoxically, Indian zoos are advised not to breed tigers freely because they are large and costly to maintain. This exclusive focus on in situ conservation in India has undermined the role of ex situ conservation in promoting the former.

Some salient facts regarding the feasibility of tiger breeding:


7. Trade restrictions make smuggling profitable

There is a limit to how long and how well trade restrictions can function in the face of continued effective demand. More often than not, attempts to restrict trade merely push it underground. The artificial scarcity created by trade restrictions raises prices, providing criminals with incentives to smuggle animals and animal parts. Evidence from across the world shows that when trade is outlawed, only outlaws trade!

-The value of illegal trade in wildlife is estimated at over US$ 10 billion a year.
-The imposition of various trade restrictions, including those under CITES, has led to the emergence of an elaborate underground network of poachers, smugglers and traders.
-By artificially limiting the supply of legitimate tiger products, trade restrictions have made poaching and smuggling far more profitable.
-Since local populations have no stake in tiger conservation (quite the opposite, even), they have no incentive to cooperate with law enforcement to prevent poaching.


8. Demand for tiger products: a new opportunity for conservation

Demand can be viewed either as a threat, or as an opportunity. Demand clearly exists for tigers in both consumptive uses (hunting, as well as trade in tiger pelts, bones and other body parts) and in non-consumptive uses (ecotourism). The imposition of restrictions on trade in tiger parts is predicated on the assumption that demand is a threat. However, these restrictions have had the opposite effect to that intended – they have driven up the profits from illegal poaching and trade, while reducing the viability of legal farming.

If tigers and tiger habitat could be owned by people who currently share their habitat, and if those people were able to engage in commerce in relation to tigers (offering ecotourism services, selling tigers and tiger parts, etc.), existing demand could then be met more effectively – turning the threat into an opportunity for sustainable use.

Various species – including domestic farm animals such as cattle and pigs, as well as more exotic species, such as reindeer in Scandinavia, blackbucks and bison in the US, vicuna in Argentina, crocodiles in Australia, and many others – have escaped the prospect of extinction through sustainable use.

Safari parks in Southern Africa illustrate the financial attraction of tourism and hunting. In the US, nature tourism (fishing and hunting included) generates over US$ 100 billion in economic activities annually. Tigers, alive as well as dead, are sought after and could therefore offer similar opportunities:

 

9. Control and Monitoring mechanism

For commerce to be successful, a rule-based, transparent and competitive market environment is critical. In view of the range of tiger products, it is necessary to have a control and monitoring mechanism in place to prevent illegal trade:


10. Conclusion: Commerce for Conservation

Commerce and conservation do complement each other quite effectively when the appropriate institutional environment exists. Rather than posing a threat, the demand for consumptive uses of tigers could aid its conservation in the wild. The ex situ breeding of tigers could meet the demand for tiger products, as well as help renew the gene pool of the tigers in situ. It would be a tragedy if the world were to lose an iconic species from the wild because of our failure to appreciate the complementarities between in situ and ex situ conservation programmes. There is no reason for a species as charismatic and rich in cultural symbolism as the tiger to die out like a pauper. It is still possible to turn the threats to tiger conservation into opportunities. By harnessing the power of commerce, the tiger can easily walk away from the spectre of extinction.

Appendix: Sustainable Development Network members

Ag Bio World Foundation
USA

www.agbioworld.org

Africa Fighting Malaria
South Africa
www.fightingmalaria.org

Alternate Solutions Institute
Pakistan
www.asinstitute.org

ARCH-Vahini
Gujarat, India


Asociación de Consumidores Libres
Costa Rica
www.consumidoreslibres.org

Association for Liberal Thinking
Turkey

www.liberal-dt.org.tr

CEDICE
Venezuela
www.cedice.org

Centre for Civil Society
India

www.ccsindia.org

Centre for Environmental Studies
Liberalni Institute
Prague, Czech Republic
www.libinst.cz


Centre for New Europe, Belgium
www.cne-network.org

CEPPRO, Paraguay

China Sustainable Development Research Centre

Capital University of Business and Economics


Circulo Liberal
Uruguay
www.circuloliberal.org

Community Resources Institute
Kenya

Fundacion Atlas 1853
Argentina
www.atlas.org.ar

Fundacion Libertad
Panama
www.fundacionlibertad.org.pa

Free Market Foundation
South Africa
www.freemarketfoundation.com

Instituto Ecuatoriano de Economía Política
Ecuador
www.ieep.org.ec

International Policy Network, UK
www.policynetwork.net

Imani – the Centre for Humane Education
Ghana
www.imanighana.org

INLAP
Costa Rica
www.inlap.org

Instituto de Libre Empresa

Peru
www.ileperu.org


Instituto Liberdade
Brazil
www.il-rs.com.br


Instituto Libertad y Progreso
Colombia
www.ilyp.net

Institute of Public Affairs
Australia
www.ipa.org.au


Inter-Region Economic Network
Kenya
www.irenkenya.org


Institute for Public Policy Analysis
Nigeria
www.ippanigeria.org

Libertad y Desarrollo
Chile
www.lyd.cl

Liberty Institute
India
www.libertyindia.org
www.InDefenceofLiberty.org

Lion Rock Institute
Hong Kong
www.lionrockinstitute.org

Manushi
India
www.manushi-india.org

Research Center for Entrepreneurship Development,
Vietnam
www.rced.com.vn

RSE - Centre for Social and Economic Research
Iceland

http://www.rse.is/

Zambia Institute for Public Policy Analysis
www.zippazambia.org

Author: Save the Tiger Initiative is undertaken by the Sustainable Development Network

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