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China Backs Tortoise in Race to Protect Endangered Species

China has long been a major consumer of wild animals, fueling the international trade in ivory, tiger parts and shark fin.

But at this year’s meeting of the 177 countries that have signed the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), a group that meets every three years to restrict or ban the trade of endangered animals, China has cast itself in the unfamiliar role as a champion of conservation.

European Pressphoto Agency
A chef prepares to cook a tortoise during a cooking contest in central China's Hubei province.

Of the roughly 70 animal species that have been nominated to receive greater protection under the convention, 40 are on the list as a result of proposals submitted jointly by China and the U.S.

What creatures have mobilized China’s diplomatic energies so earnestly? Freshwater turtles and tortoises.

“In many ways I think China is almost the centerpiece of this meeting,” said Teresa Telecky, director of wildlife at the Humane Society International, prior to the forum kicking off on Sunday. “Firstly China has all these turtle and tortoise proposals. But it’s also a consumer of so much illegal trade. China will be on everyone’s lips.”

China has made proposals to CITES in the past, albeit never on such a scale. At the last three meetings China hasn’t made any wildlife proposals. In 2002, like this year, it moved to protect several species of turtles and tortoises.

Why are turtles and tortoises at such risk? Because an increasingly affluent China is eating more and more of them. According to the joint China-U.S. proposals, China’s farms produce hundreds of millions of turtles for consumption, but that’s proving not to be enough.

“An analysis of turtle import and export data by China shows a shift from net exporter to net importer, which indicates either domestic demand is increasing or the domestic resource is decreasing or both,” said the proposals (pdfs here and here).

That demand has helped deplete turtle populations not just in China but throughout Asia, and as far away as the U.S. according to Ms. Telecky.

“Trade in Asian turtle species continues to follow a boom and bust pattern in which exploitation and trade shift from one species to another when a species becomes so depleted or rare that it is no longer commercially exploitable,” the proposals said.

But while China sees the value in protecting turtles and tortoises by regulating their trade, it’s been less willing to take on the hot button issues that dominate the global debate on animal conservation.

China’s turtle proposals are “certainly a welcome event,” said Ms. Telecky. “But China has a history of digging in its heals” on other issues.

European Pressphoto Agency
A bear is seen in the bear farm of Guizhentang pharmaceutical company, which makes tonics made from bear bile, in Hui’an county in southeast China’s Fujian province on Feb. 22, 2012.

Last year CITES awarded a "certificate of commendation" to the Chinese government agency tasked with wildlife law enforcement for work to stop the illegal trade of animal parts. But a CITES study last year also found that China is the only country in East Asia where demand for ivory is still expanding in line with household incomes.

China still permits the legal harvesting of bile from moon bears, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine, but is a painful process for wild bears typically kept in extremely confined spaces. And a recent report by the Environmental Investigation Agency says that the trade of farmed tigers, which is legal in China, provides cover for the trade of wild tiger parts.

China’s State Forestry Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This year’s bevy of CITES proposals might be an attempt by China to be a more responsible stakeholder in the international system, cooperating with other governments on an issue that’s neither politically sensitive nor likely to generate much opposition. And clearly the frogs and tortoises of the world need someone to protect them from…well, China. But there’s a number of other wild animals that need their main consumer to embrace their plight if a win by the tortoise is to signal a fundamental shift in the country’s attitude toward animal protection.

-- Dinny McMahon



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