Angry Chinese Blogger
 |
 |
Angry Chinese Blogger:
The news and views about China that the big media can't, or won't, tell you The is no single truth Menu: Home |
|
Entries By Country
   |
China: The Locust of Asia?
posted Saturday, 31 December 2005
When you ask people what comes to mind when they think about China, the answer will, undoubtedly, vary depending on who is asked. For example, if you ask a tourist they may say 'history'. If you ask a consumer, they will probably say 'cheap electronics'. However, if you ask an environmentalist, they might just respond by describing China as being like a swarm of locusts; descending on a location and consuming all natural resources, before moving on to the next feeding ground without a thought for sustainability or the harm that it causes.
Though this last response might sound bigoted, and more than a little harsh, it is not entirely inaccurate. At least not in some instances.
The Locusts of Asia?
For some time now, China has been well known as a nation on a destructive path of domestic over consumption. A nation where over-logging has brought flooding and desertification, where a penchant for rare delicacies and has borough many animal species to the brink of extinction, and where the trade in so-called 'traditional medicines' reads like an A-Z for poachers of endangered animals.
However, in recent years, a new trend has begun to emerge, which has not only pushed the boat out in China's consumption habits, but has pushed it out far beyond China's borders.
As China's demand grows, and its government moves to protect its dwindling domestic resources, many in China have been increasingly turning abroad for to satisfy their tastes.
After informally raiding its neighbors of Tigers and other animal for medicine and fir and, more recently, being found to be heavily involved with logging groups who are stripping large tracts of Indonesia for hardwood from which to make furniture and flooring, it now appears that China's has developed a liking for carved ivory.
Of course, trading in ivory has largely been illegal under international law since 1989, and China is not a land known for its profusion of elephant. Which is where Africa comes into the picture.
If information released by the International Fund for Animal Welfare is accurate, which it is believed to be, China is now both the world's single most significant destinations for illegal ivory, and the primary factor in the poaching of African elephants.
| "The major driving force for illegal ivory is demand in China" Jason Bell-Leask, Southern African Director, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). |
|
Big Business, Bad Businessmen
Recent reports indicate that up to 75% of all ivory that is poached in Africa now ends up in China, and that this situation is largely facilitated by China's substantial industrial and commercial presence on the continent; A factor which makes it easy for Chinese to obtain ivory at its source, and which provides the it with a substantial business and trade network from which to breed middlemen willing to source ivory, or to put buyers in touch with sellers, and vis versa.
| "There have been numerous ivory seizures in Africa which involve Chinese nationals so we know they are engaged in the trade as one feature of their [economic] presence on the continent." Dr Thomas Milliken, Conservationist |
|
According to reports, much the ivory in places such as Sudan is now being brought by Chinese industrial and oil. With some buying for their own personal use, but many more buying in order to re-sell it in China.
| "[Chinese businessmen and workers] are not buying small quantities, they are buying huge quantities to take back home" Dr. Esmond Martin |
|
Why?
As with many similar trends, the reason behind China's entry into the ivory market is simple; Wealth. With ivory decorations and jewelry augmenting, or even replacing, more common elements like Jade as the status symbol of choice among China's newly affluent upper and middle classes.
Old News
While reports of China's part in the ivory trade, by the IFWA, make for uncomfortable reading for both conservationists and China watchers, they come as little surprise to some, as they fall into line with earlier data gathered for such reports as the 'Elephant Trade Information System'; an international document on the state of the global trade in illegal ivory, which have previously reported that much of the the illegal ivory trade in Africa was being fueled by demand from China.
| "The data show that the volume of ivory seized declined from 1989 to 1994, then gradually increased from 1995 onwards .... If Chinese demand is removed, the trend line is essentially flat from 1994 onwards, indicating that this single market alone accounts for the increase in illegal trade in ivory in recent years" The Elephant Trade Information System |
|
IWFA reports are also backed up by data from Beijing, which show customs services, in Shanghai alone, as having made an average of 97 ivory seizures per year since 2000, including one instance in September 2002 when 3.3 metric tonnes of ivory was seized by at the Shanghai port of 外高桥 (Waigaoqiao), in 浦东 (Pu Dong).
In another prior instance, in August 1999, 6 men were taken into custody after 221 pairs of South African elephant tasks, weighing in at 2 metric tonnes, were seized by Chines officials.
A tale of two trends
Uncomfortably for China, a similar phenomena of coveting ivory was observer in Japan during it's economic boom time, with many newly wealthy Japanese seeking ivory as a status symbol during the 1970s and 80s, in the same way as them modern Chinese counterparts.
Japan's ivory fever was, however, largely killed off during the late 80s and early 90s, when the world wide ban on ivory trading came into force. Though the current ban which seems to have had little influence on Chinese demand for ivory.
The Numbers Game
Due to the covert and dispersed nature of ivory poaching, it is not currently known exactly how many elephants are killed each year to fuel the ivory trade. Conservative estimates put the figure at around 4000, though others go much higher; stating that between 6,000 and 12,000 elephants are killed by poachers each year.
China is currently believed to have as few as 150 Asian elephants remaining in the wild. Though some estimates put their numbers as high as 250. Most of these are believed to reside in 雲南 (Yunnan) province.
View Comments/Add a Comment (4)
1. Wuliao left...
Sunday, 1 January 2006 5:30 am
I can't help but notice the racial connotation of 'swarm of locusts'. Oh,
those I-am-so-righteous environmentalists.
2. ACB left...
Sunday, 1 January 2006 6:04 am :: http://angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com
Racial?
3. Wuliao left...
Sunday, 1 January 2006 6:42 am
Well, it's not about 'locust' but 'swarm'. That word reminds me of of
'yellow peril' and 'Chinese hordes'.
4. The Angry Chinese Blogger left...
Sunday, 1 January 2006 5:12 pm :: http://angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com
Actually, swarm was my word, not the environmentalists.