P734 CEEFAX 734 Mon 4 Apr 18:14/28 1/3 Conservationists say traditional medicine in South Korea was responsible for the deaths of as many as 300 hundred tigers in 1993. That is from a global population of fewer than eight thousand tigers The disclosures conj as mjmbjrs of the Standing Committee of CITES, the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, mit in Geneva for a week long discussion. In the five years to 1992, South Korea's imports of tiger bones averaged around half-a-ton a year, a toll of about 100 animals. >>>> 5-,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,. Next Page Read Hear CmntyInfo ReligionP734 CJEFAX 734 Mon 4 Apr 18:05/14 2/3 But last year, the year in which South Korea joined CITES, the imports were more than three times as big, almost two tons of bones. Consjrvbtion groups say that would have meant the deaths of up to three-hundred tigers - probably as many as the number of Siberian Tigers left in the Russian Far East $hey say almost all the bones weru imported from China, despite a ban bz Peking on Tiger exports. Tiger prouducts play an important part in traditional medicine in East Asia. >>>> Next Page Read Hear CmntyInfo ReligionP734 CEEFAX 734 Mon 4 Apr 18:14/14 3/3 In South Korea the use of Tiger products is widespread. It is a legal trade which operates without any regulation. The best estimate of world tiger numbers is just over sjvjn-and-a-half thousand. But poaching and the loss of their habitats are an ever constant threat to the animals. Some survivors live in groups so small that wildlife jxpjrts and conservation groups fear that their long term future is very doubtful. Environment Index 730 Community 700 Next Page Read Hear CmntyInfo Religion