Myanmar bear poaching driven by Chinese demand for bile

Coconuts Yangon spoke to the author of a new study who hopes greater understanding of the bear bile industry will help stop the trafficking of Myanmar’s bears.

A new study initiated by the wildlife trade monitoring organization TRAFFIC has revealed that bear poaching in Myanmar is primarily driven by demand for the animals’ gall bladders.

The study, titled Assessing the illegal bear trade in Myanmar through conversations with poachers: Topology, perceptions and trade links to China, analyzed data collected in interviews with 40 self- declared poachers from 23 towns in Myanmar across nine states and regions. The study was published in the journal Human Dimensions of Wildlife earlier this month.

Myanmar listing the states where the bear poacher survey was conducted. Black squares are centers of trade in bear parts and arrows show the flow of trade in bears as indicated by respondents and information from traders (from Foley et al., 2011; Nijman, 2015; Shepherd & Nijman, 2008; this study).

The interviews were conducted by the Myanmar NGO Friends of Wildlife as part of a yearlong study of the bear trade in the country. 38 of the 40 poachers said they hunted bears to obtain the gall bladders. They were driven to a lesser extent by demand for bear paws and cubs.

The study says most of the demand for bear gall bladders and paws comes from China, where many people believe bile from the gall bladder of a bear can help treat diseases, including cancer. This has put pressure on Myanmar’s Asiatic black bear population, which is a “protected species under Myanmar law, and the sun bear, which is a “totally protected species”.

Despite their protected status, a lack of enforcement leaves Myanmar’s bears vulnerable to poaching. This lack of enforcement is also the reason the poachers were willing to share their experiences with researchers, according to one of the study’s authors.

“In general people are happy to talk about their [poaching] experiences, even if they are, strictly speaking, illegal. Enforcement of species protection laws is mostly absent in Myanmar, so there is no real reason not to talk about it,” said Vincent Nijman, an anthropology professor at Oxford Brookes University, in an interview with Coconuts Yangon.

The authors hope the study will help disrupt the bear trade, even while Myanmar authorities remain uncommitted to enforcing anti-trafficking and wildlife conservation laws.

“Despite bears being a protected species in Myanmar, it is clear that bear poaching across the country continues without fear of repercussion and that at least part of this is driven by demand from across the border,” said Nijman.

“Understanding the intricacies and economics of the international wildlife trade is paramount if we want to curb the illegal trade,” he said.

An insert from a 2008 study co-authored by Vincent Nijman and TRAFFIC’s Southeast Asia director Dr. Chris Shepherd.

Much of the bear bile in the Chinese market is extracted from battery bears, which are kept in captivity, often for years, to have their bile regularly harvested. However, the availability of farmed bile in China does not necessarily bring down the poaching of wild bears in Myanmar, Nijman points out.

Demand for Myanmar bears will go down if farmed bile can satisfy the market and if farmed bile remains as desirable as wild bear bile, he said.

“However, if not all demand can be met by the farms or if there is a preference for wild bear bile, this may put additional pressure on wild bear populations. These pressures may be greatest in countries [with weak laws] such as Myanmar,” he said.

The study, whose authors also include Htun Oo and Nay Myo Shwe, identifies Chinese nationals and Burmese nationals of Chinese descent as playing key roles in the local bear trade.

An insert from a 2008 study co-authored by Vincent Nijman and TRAFFIC’s Southeast Asia director Dr. Chris Shepherd.

However, the authors do not recommend a crackdown on poachers.

“Instead of focusing on poachers, we recommend that authorities focus on disrupting trade networks and markets. Cooperation with neighboring countries, especially China, is needed to stem the flow of bear parts,” the report says.

Nijman expanded on this idea: “In our view, for now, the best way to proceed is to start with shutting down the markets, addressing the open trade in bear parts in Myanmar and going after the traders and middle men.”

“It is not cost-effective to try to stop the bear trade by focusing on the poachers only. When there is less demand for bear parts, when it is more difficult to openly sell bear parts, when there is more risk involved in trading bear parts because of increased enforcement, will there be less incentive to go after bears in the first place,” he told Coconuts Yangon.

He also pointed out that this strategy does not pose a great risk to poachers’ livelihoods.

“I am not concerned about the livelihood of the bear poachers – each individual poacher we spoke to caught only one or two bears a year, so in terms of income, bears are not significant,” he said.

He added: “Also, I would rather see bears not going extinct and having some poachers earning a bit less money than losing bears altogether (after which, of course, the poachers can no longer poach bears anyway).”

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