MEDICINES derived from some of the world鈥檚 most endangered animals, including tigers and rhinos, are flooding into Australia and New Zealand despite regular seizures by customs officials. TRAFFIC, the trade-monitoring arm of the World Wide Fund for Nature, reported last week that the products, which are banned under international law, are openly sold in Asian communities in both countries.
The Australian Nature Conservation Agency, which is responsible for making sure that Australia complies with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), does not dispute the findings. 鈥淭his is a problem in any country with a Chinese community,鈥� says Hank Jenkins of the ANCA. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 far from clear how many of the products actually contain what they say they do.鈥� A large proportion of medicines purporting to contain tiger bone or rhino horn, for instance, are fake.
In February, TRAFFIC sent a Cantonese-speaking undercover agent to traditional medicine shops in Asian communities in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in Australia, and to Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand. All five cities have large Chinese communities.
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In Australia, two-thirds of the 119 outlets visited by the agent sold products which claimed to contain extracts from animals protected under CITES. Half of the shops visited sold products purportedly from musk deer and saiga antelope. The next most frequently found extracts were allegedly from leopard, tiger, bear and rhino. Of 30 premises visited in New Zealand, half sold illegal products.
Debra Callister, director of TRAFFIC Oceania and coauthor of the report, says the products enter Australia hidden among legal imports or in deliberately mislabelled packages. 鈥淢ost come through the mail or in shipping containers,鈥� she says. An analysis of government figures by TRAFFIC showed that between July 1991 and March 1995, 42 917 items containing extracts from one or more CITES-listed species were seized by the authorities.
鈥淥ur covert survey shows that, despite these seizures, goods are still reaching the shelves,鈥� says Callister. 鈥淐learly more needs to be done.鈥�
Her report recommends that Australian law be changed so that anybody found with products contravening CITES must prove that they did not know the products were illegal. 鈥淎t the moment people can plead innocence and get away with it,鈥� she says.