I'm hoping I can pull off an expedition to Kunming and Xishuangbanna (Yunnan) in Late July. Currently the paper work has all been submitted. This time round, part of the trip will be pertaining to poaching and smuggling of wildlife. In this case, the focus is back on tigers. Yunnan borders several SE Asian range states for tigers and has a history of being a transit point or destination for tiger parts.

I think one of the problems with wildlife poaching is that its traditionally been seen as a conservation (i.e. biology) problem. One of the key things we need to grasp is that black markets for wildlife also have a strong economic dimension. People aren't poaching tigers and leopards because they're bad people. They're not doing it because they're misinformed. They're doing it because crime pays. Wildlife poaching is an economic activity that is profitable to its participants.

Sundarban Tiger - Source: Shutterstock


Poachers hunt animals because it works for them. They may have particular skill sets and knowledge that makes them adept at hunting. And the risks aren't off-putting. The frequency with which big-cat poachers get caught and prosecuted isn't high. Likewise smugglers are doing it for similar reasons. They're adept at transporting contraband over big distances and international borders.

So, we do need to understand how these criminal organisation operate at the economic level. How is they source their products, locate their customers and organise its distribution? What are the risk-reducing strategies they adopt? What is it that is driving the demand for tiger parts and the like? There are a lot of suggestions that seem reasonable, that also don't withstand a lot of scrutiny. It's been suggested that rich Chinese businessmen are the main customers for tiger skins. Well, with perhaps 300 tigers a year being poached, we can be pretty certain that the vast majority of rich businessmen aren't buying tiger skins. As a trait of the average consumer of tiger parts, this needs a lot of refinement.