Intelligence training to help save India's tigers

08/08/2008 11:42:40 August 2008. A specialized intelligence training course for police and customs officers fighting to save the wild tiger has been launched by the UN.

The officers will train colleagues in countries that are home to the big cats, teaching them sophisticated new skills in intelligence gathering in an attempt to crack-down on the criminal networks trading illegally in big cat skins and body parts.

Tiger crime summit
The second measure is a summit that will see senior enforcement figures from police and customs brought together to discuss wildlife crime and ways they can work together to tackle it. The international community has already pledged funds for the projects.

Tigers, snow leopards and leopards
Debbie Banks of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said: "This is a real step forward. Targeting the individuals who control the trade, the money and contacts, is key to the future of wild tigers, snow leopards and leopards. This is about serious crime and these new initiatives will help countries develop a serious response."

She continued: "It is important to remember that tigers, and other Asian big cats, can breed and recover, but we need to protect them and their environments from exploitation. Enforcement of laws is the way to do that."

India calls for halt to tiger farming
In a separate intervention, India used the recent CITES meeting to renew its call to stop the controversial practice of tiger farming for trade and to phase out commercial tiger breeding centres.

EIA's recent investigations into the Asian big cat skin trade in China revealed that persistent offenders in Linxia, Gansu Province, continue to ply their trade in full view of enforcement officials. The Chinese delegate to CITES stated that the forest police will be dispatched to look into the findings of EIA's recent report, "Skin Deep".
The decisions to hold ‘enforcement summits' made at the Standing Committee to the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Geneva, have been welcomed by international campaign groups.