All images by the ICZ

 

 

Medicinal tigers

Future project of the ICZ

The Institute of Critical Zoologists is proposing to develop tiger farms to promote the conservation of wildlife resources as a form of medicine and spectacle. This proposal is based upon the premise that biodiversity is best preserved by commercialization. Medical farming may possibly be the most positive and widespread economic incentive for the conservation of tigers in Asia.

Maintaining a species survival will be more profitable as a sustainable resource, whether as a spectacle for tourists, coffee for Star Bucks free trade, ingredients for skin lotion, quarry for big-game hunters, or raw material for pharmaceutical firms. Our medicinal tiger farm model closely follows the wildlife ranches in Africa.

 

In Zimbabwe, to promote the conservation of the wildlife resources found on communal lands, private game reserves have been established where revenues from hunting are paid to local communities. Recreational hunting is now the most positive and widespread economical incentive for the conservation of large mammals in Zimbabwe.

Jeffrey A. McNeely, "Economic Incentives for Conserving Biodiversity:
Lessons for Africa," Ambio 22 (1993): 147.

 

Since poachers have decimated the wild tiger population, commercial captive breeding of tigers appears to be smart resource management. Huge financial resources has been allocated for wild tiger preservation to date and the results has been disappointing.

In early July last year, the ICZ organized a symposium in China discussing the benefits of tiger farming in aiding in-situ conservation efforts in India, Russia and other parts of Asia where the last wild tigers are still known to thrive. The symposium looks at the current framework of tiger farms in China and Thailand.

The Institute of Critical Zoologists is currently studying the framework of China's tigers farms and will release the results of the research in early May 2010. It will then announce its ten year plan on a series of medicinal tiger farms based around Asia with the support of several chinese pharmeutical companies. The tiger farms planned would be twice as big as the current ones in China. It is believe the economy generated by the medicinal tiger farms would successfully set aside permanent reserves with stronger security patrols.

 

Guilin Liangjiang Guilin Liangjiang International Airport, 2007

 

Copyright 2008, Institute of Critical Zoologists