Wildlife Alliance

For Immediate Release

Smugglers Apprehended in Russia with Bear Paws, Tiger Pelt

September 5, 2007 

September 4, 2007 (Vladivostok, Russia) – Border police and Federal Security Bureau have collaborated in the arrest of a band of smugglers attempting to ship 480 bear paws as well as a tiger pelt and skeleton across the Russian-Chinese border.

Russian border police and federal security agencies found the smugglers on August 17th, attempting to cross the border by boat across Lake Khanka, 300 kilometers from Vladivostok. The smugglers – Chinese nationals – were working to feed the vast underground market for wildlife products in the People's Republic, where wildlife products are sold widely for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as luxury goods as status symbols. Chinese wildlife consumption has driven smugglers to develop illegal wildlife trade routes via Southeast Asia, Tibet, and the Russian Far East, and even as far as Africa and Europe. Khanka Lake is considered one of the most complicated and important routes for contraband between Russia and China. 

The value of the goods is estimated at $36,000 in Russia. This would have been far higher in China's thriving illegal wildlife trade markets. The bear gall bladders, whose bile is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, would have been smuggled separately, as the value of the bile exceeds that of the paws. The paws are from Himalayan black bears (Ursus thibetanus), recognized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature -World Conservation Union (IUCN) as globally Vulnerable due to habitat loss and poaching. The tiger pelt is from the Critically Endangered Amur (Siberian) tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), now found only in the Russian Far East. Both species are regulated by the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which both Russia and China are signatory.

The seizure was first reported to the international community by the Phoenix Fund, a leading Russian wildlife conservation organization. Phoenix also requested that Russian authorities start official CITES procedures on the case. According to Phoenix Fund director Sergei Bereznuk, "This and previous seizures demonstrate the weakness of Chinese arguments that legalizing tiger farming and trade in tiger parts will eliminate smuggling tiger derivatives into China. There are bear farms in China, but bear poaching and smuggling has not decreased. We appeal to the international community to support wild tiger conservation and to prevent legalization of trade in tiger parts in China." Government and commercial interests in China have advocated for legalizing the sale of farmed tigers and tiger products.

Michael Zwirn, Director of U.S. Operations for Wildlife Alliance, one of Phoenix Fund's partners, observes, "The most frightening thing is that we know that wildlife smugglers are rarely caught, due to weak enforcement. If one operation can move the remains of 240 bears, how many shipments escape undetected?"

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Wildlife Alliance is an international conservation organization whose mission is to protect and preserve wildlife, forests and oceans for future generations. Our field operations, formerly carried out under the name WildAid, train and equip park rangers to fight crimes against nature, and prevent poaching and illegal habitat destruction in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Russia and the Western Pacific through collaboration with governments and communities. We improve the management of protected areas, support sustainable development initiatives, and empower countries to enforce transboundary wildlife regulations. For more information, please visit wildlifealliance.org.