Legal gaps
A new report lays bare how legal gaps in tiger range countries still fuel trafficking — and the real question is why nobody acted sooner. After the Global Tiger Summit in 2010, governments promised zero tolerance. Zero tolerance. Yet 15 years later, traffickers still exploit loopholes. Where were WWF, WCS, GTI, and especially the Global Tiger Forum? These watchdog organisations watched the same failures repeat while laws remained toothless.
The report Law of the Tiger reviews legislation in 12 range states and finds loopholes everywhere: no regulation or prohibition of captive facilities (tiger farms), no coverage of hybrids, and no clear criminalisation of brokerage or online trade. These legal gaps allow smugglers to move skins and bones -while governments boast about tiger numbers.
Between 2000 and 2022, over 3,300(!) tigers were seized in trade, 85% inside range countries. With only 5,700 wild tigers left, complacency is complicity. Unless these legal gaps are closed and enforcement made real, tiger poaching will continue unchecked.
The legal gaps article:
Based on TRAFFIC, International.
Photo credit: TRAFFIC.
