COP 11, CITES, Nairobi, Kenya, April 10 – 20, 2000

Call the Fashion Police

Thoughtless western demand for “shahtoosh,” the luxurious fabric made from the fine wool of Tibetan antelopes called chiru and woven into expensive shawls, continues to threaten the survival of the species (see AWI Quarterly, Winter 1998).

As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tries to crack down on illegal shahtoosh commercialization in America, some of the wealthy buyers show ignorance, others resentment. Discussing potential confiscations in a November 1999 Vanity Fair story, “O.K. Lady, Drop the Shawl,” one New York socialite is quoted saying “‘I’m an animal-lover. I don’t want to do anything illegal. I feel duped.’” Publicist Peggy Siegal hyperbolically expressed fear of the “closet police,” coming into homes and removing shahtoosh garments. Apparently, at a dinner party with New York Governor George Pataki, one Middle Eastern princess exclaimed, “‘there are no endangered species. This shahtoosh thing is all fiction of the animal rights fanatics.’”

Fighting to save clearly endangered Tibetan antelopes throughout their range, especially in China, is an enormous and dangerous endeavor. Chinese authorities are waging war against poachers and appear to be aggressively targeting the well-armed bandits who increase chiru kills in order to increase the size of their bank accounts.

A May 13, 1999 report from the Environment News Service highlights the crackdown as one poacher was killed and two were wounded in a shootout with wildlife law enforcement agents that resulted in 42 arrests and “the confiscation of more than 1,000 pieces of Tibetan Antelope skin.”

China Daily reports that the Chinese State Forestry Administration (SFA) “have smashed 17 rings of poachers and apprehended 66 members.” It has also confiscated “a total of 1,685 Tibetan antelope skins and 545 heads.” On May 26, the SFA, in coordination with provincial government representatives, destroyed many of the confiscated items in a huge bonfire. Speaking at the awareness-raising burning, Zhang Jianlong, director of SFA’s department of wild fauna and flora conservation, noted the role that market demand has on driving the trade: “It is a few rich people from these countries, who are blinded by fashion, that are buying cashmere products made from Tibetan antelope hides.”

To enhance the global effort to protect the chiru and end the trade in shahtoosh, an international workshop was held from October 12 to 14, 1999 in Xining, China. The Governments of China, France, India, Italy, Nepal, the United Kingdom and the United States were represented along with representatives from various non-governmental organizations.

The consensus statement that came out of the meeting, the “Xining Declaration,” recognizes that the consumer market for shahtoosh is one of “the fundamental reasons leading to the continued large-scale poaching of wild populations of Tibetan antelope;” and the participants agreed “that the total eradication of production of and markets for shahtoosh and its products is the key to the survival of the Tibetan antelope.” To this end, delegates appealed for greater wildlife law enforcement in shahtoosh consumer countries and an expanded program of public awareness and education about the deadly conservation risks of buying shahtoosh. Manufacturing countries are urged to crack down on domestic processing plants and do more to shut down the internal trade and smuggling out of the countries.

But even after this Declaration was signed, antelope poaching for shahtoosh continues. China Daily reports on January 18, 2000 that four major poaching cases surfaced between December 1999 and January 2000 involving over 700 pelts. The Xinhua News Agency reports that an additional “828 Tibetan antelope furs were seized in Hoh Xil, a nature reserve in far western China, and two poachers were arrested” on February 19, 2000 during an anti-poaching drive. According to Ming Ruixi, an official from Forestry Police Bureau in Qinghai Province, the most important way to stop poaching is to root out the market for shahtoosh that clearly drives the trade. Citizens across the globe must be educated to the plight of the chiru and the devastating impact of purchasing shahtoosh.

In October 1999, the Tibetan Plateau Project (TPP) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) filed a joint “petition” with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to list the Tibetan antelope as an endangered species pursuant to provisions of the Endangered Species Act. A Tibetan antelope ESA listing would restrict the import, export, and interstate transport and commerce of shahtoosh within the U.S.

Implementation of CITES alone is inadequate for preventing the sale of shahtoosh products in the U.S., because the Convention only prohibits the trade (import and re-export) of shahtoosh (CITES 1975). Establishing the case that suspected shahtoosh smugglers are responsible for importing or conspiring to export shahtoosh products that may be in their possession is more difficult than meeting the ESA standard of proving that a suspect may have offered shahtoosh for sale in interstate or foreign commerce.