Gifts trade fuels boom in poaching

INCREASING Asian demand for ivory and rhino horn as gifts and hangover cures – not for traditional medicine – is fuelling a poaching boom, United Nations officials have said, demanding stiffer penalties for traffickers.

Wildlife crime and illegal forestry has become the fourth- largest cross-border type of crime in the world behind the illicit trade in drugs, arms and human beings, a UN conference in Vienna heard yesterday.

The World Wildlife Fund estimates the category is worth $17 billion (£11bn) a year and includes the poaching of rhinoceros and elephants for their horns and tusks, hunting of large cat species for fur, and illegal harvesting of trees.

John Scanlon, director-general of the Geneva-based Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, said: “China and south east Asia are the biggest destinations of these illegal products, but not because of the traditional medical uses. Growing uses include the giving of ivory as a high-value gift and rhino horn as an aphrodisiac, a cure for cancer, and hangovers.

“Traditional Chinese medical practitioners have discouraged its use for conservation reasons,” he added.