It’s probably not a surprise that I’m a big fan of Free Market Environmentalism (FME). FME is caricatured by detractors as laissez faire oil refineries sitting on wetlands. But in the real world, it (like much of Libertarianism) should instead be understood as recognition that for many ends – in this case environmental – applying / directing market forces can be a better means of achieving that goal.
FME often stands in stark contrast to prevailing currents in conservation / ecology which attempt to use government & regulation to eliminate markets altogether. FME advocates assert that this approach is a recipe for potentially even more destructive black markets – especially when coupled with rampant public sector corruption as is found in India.
TCS‘s Barun Mitra has a great little article on India’s dwindling tiger population & how FME could be applied –
…in the US trade of live tigers is permitted, tiger numbers are in excess of 15,000, where in India, their numbers have dwindled to around 3,500. The problem is that Indian wildlife is seen as nationalised property and placed outside the discipline of the marketplace. While many call for more stringent action to stop the illegal trade in wildlife and for more prosecutions of poachers, this ignores the fact attempts to stem supply have merely driven up price through illegal trade… Under the present system of prohibition, forest dwellers have no interest in protecting tigers, poachers and traffickers have a field day. Unscrupulous traders profit from selling spurious tiger products. The high profitability attracts the criminal mafia. …The babus wielded the power, smugglers oiled the wheels, blackmarketeers made a killing and the law enforcers took their cut.
Mitra includes the following stat which many, admittedly, might find repulsive –
The tiger, top of the food chain in its ecosystem, would also be at the top of the economic ladder because of its market value. There is a demand for virtually every part of the tiger. The total value of tiger parts from its nose to its tail could easily come to USD 40,000.
Distateful, perhaps, but it may be the best way to save Simba.
There’s an analogy to legalizing drugs and prostitution– is your stance the same there, or is that missing nuance?
Dig the alliteration, though Simba’s a lion 😉
The FME approach for tigers raises some issues.
Would deregulating a portion of the tiger trade fuel an increase in demand for parts, which would result in more poaching anyway? The price of current tiger parts keeps the hands of many would be buyers away. Unless the tiger farm systems are large enough to satisfy existing and an increase in demand, poaching won’t really stop. Of all the countries that have tigers, India has done the best job in securing it (not as much lately I guess).
Just yesterday I was watching Discovery Times and a piece on Bald Eagles. The US Govt supplies dead eagles to Native Americans for their traditional Pow Wow costumes. Although Bald eagle feathers were not part of the costume, they supplimented the supply of Golden Eagle feathers with them. With the popularity of the circuit increasing, the legal supplies cannot keep up, resulting in a slaughter of 50 eagles in BC Canada.
Under the present system, India has not invested enough its national park/sanctuary system like the United States has. From tourism investments alone locals would be able to see a benefit in conserving their showcase of wildlife. If the Indian Govt. won’t invest in an effective tourism infrastructure, they should take their gloves off and let private industry do it. Even in the United States, poaching is still a problem. Traps and stings are frequently setup by the Govt.
Just a note, Simba means lion in Kiswahili.
opps sorry I didn’t read Manish’s comment
A similar approach was used for curbing ivory trade in Africa –
http://www.perc.org/publications/opeds/ivorytrade.php
No, its not going to work. All these tiger poachers only think short term. Before you know it all these Bengal tigers will end up in Shangai – and SM will have an extensive coverage on how to get hold of Tiger penis aphrodisiac in China Town.
The Chinese eat their testicles to make themselves virile.
Has anyone ever seen a tiger kill a crocodile?
Wanna see it?
Let me know.
Interesting post, Vinod.
Aren’t tigers solitary creatures that roam the forests killing my brethren in the Sundarbans? I’m having a hard time imagining what this “farm” would look like, although if it’s a huge corporatized park / sanctuary type of thing, that seems more plausible. Or how these farms are going to be more profitable than the black market trade, which they would need to be in order to actually accomplish anything.
Antyway, this hardly seems like an ideal long-term solution but maybe it’s the best that can be done, given that we don’t seem to care all that much about animals and it would be hard to create a political system that includes their voice 🙂 Poor tigers 🙁
No and no, but I would like a detailed and graphic verbal description! In the style of a heavy-weight championship fight commentary, please. 🙂
Cincinnati Bengal
I have a link for a clip from a nature-wildlife programme. You wont believe your eyes. Before, if you asked me who would win if it was Tiger versus Crocodile I would have to say: Croc, no doubt, those lizards are descended from Tyranno Sauras Rex and have body armour. You cannot test a Croc. Those eyes, those teeth, those scales….
But then I saw this clip, and trust me, there can be no doubt now that the Tiger is the meanest, baddest, dopest mutthafukka of the animal world.
Before I saw this clip, I though the Lion was King. No more. Tigers have it. They are the baddest fukkin killers on Earth. The way this tiger wastes this Crocodile, its amazing, awe inspiring.
I bow before Tiger.
Okay, now I want to see it. Bring it on, PB.
Here is the clip. I think its a guy in a croc suit 🙂
The article appears to be written by someone who doesn’t appear to know much about tigers or the tiger trade in the US.
There are 8 differenct subspecies of tigers (3 are extinct, 1 more is very close).
The vast majority of 15000 tigers in America are mainly traded between and bread in small roadside
“petting zoos” or private collecters.
They genrally don’t care enough, or don’t have the resources to maintain the integrity of the tiger subspecies. result you end up with various genetically indiscriminate hybrids.
Even worse is that a lot of these private owners specifically breed female Tigers with male Lions to produce Ligers. The rationale behind this is that Ligers grow up to be much larger than either Tigers or Lions.
Also a significant number of female Ligers are fertile (forget everything you learnt about species in highschool bio) so you end with even more genetically messed up hybrids which end up being mixed in with the pure tiger subspecies.
By contrast the majority of tigers in India are from the Bengal Tiger subspecies.
3000 pure bengal tigers living in their natural habitat are genetically much more valuable (to me anyways) than 15000 genetically mixed tigers living in cages in America.
Free market enviornmental ideas put out by organizations like the CATO institute are a lot like socialist economics, in that they both sound great in theory but fail in practice.
awesome video…. tiger just aint bad muttafukka.. its the most beautiful royal awe inspiring animal… in my next birth i wanna be born a tiger. any poacher who tries to kill me is going to regret the decision for the remainder of his short life.if any mf who wants to eat my balls instead of just buying viagra, i will smash his skull and break his neck and pull his innards out do tiger claw kung fu with him.
Thanks Abhi.
Makes me wish I was a Tiger.
Dont fukk with me Crocodile I’ll fukkin kill you!!!!
Thanks for the analysis, epoch. Something about my life recently keeps making tigers and ligers and tigons and the such keep coming up; maybe it’s the multiple identity thing. Anwyay, do you happen to know what the preferred approach(es) among people who care more about tigers than ideology is(are)?
PB, that video was pretty cool. I can’t believe that was just over food, too. I wouldn’t f@#k with a crocodile if my life depended on it.
btw i saw an interesting documentary the other day that the tigers in the great Hindi-speaking hinterland don’t eat people, but the ones in Bangladesh do. Makes me think they might be Pakistani soldiers that, trapped in the wilderness, never heard about the end of the war.
Tiger is a crock of shit, I wish I was a whale…
(I’m only kidding, I love tigers… it’s the lyric, though)
Other Versus’s I would like to see:
Shark v Gigantic Killer Squid
Tarantula v Scorpion
Gorilla v Man
Panther v Leopard
Lion v Tiger (I reckon Tiger would have it. Until I see a Lion killing a Crocodile, there is no doubt who is the bad Muthafukka)
Gigantic Boa Constrictor v Gorilla
Giraffe v Zebra
Elephant v Whale
King Kong v Godzilla
Ant v Ant Eater
Monkey v Human Child
DesiDancer v ANNA
What??!?! Get off the crack, boy! I’ve got nothing but love for ANNA 🙂
I’d maybe pretend to slap fight and then we’d wind up at Kati Roll or Cosi having a chat instead…
that, and ANNA could probably make crocodile lunchmeat out of me 😉
Nothing to beat the tiger video, but still, how about this Bad-Ass?
Being a Bengal myself, I’ve always had love for the tiger 🙂 .
However, the tiger isn’t the meanest cat out there… it’s not the lion either. It’s actually both, kind of. That’s right, I’m talking about the liger . Contrary to popular belief, ligers bred in captivity are done so accidentally, not purposely for their skills in magic.
These mean sonofabitches are the offspring of male lions and female tigers… since they don’t have the growth inhibiting gene that lions inherit from their mothers, ligers are bigger than either lions or tigers, some weighing nearly 1000 pounds! It doesn’t end there: they run up to speeds of 50 mph and are natural swimmers like tigers (lions hate the water). I’m pretty sure that they can take on any land-dwelling creature with ease.
Oops, somebody beat me to the liger thing. My bad.
We should first understand what we are implementing Free markets assume that all the players are equally good and able to make the best decisions. Free markets do not guarantee survival of the commodity. For cars, taco holders.. they are great. Even for drugs, they are kindaa coool. But Tigers… making Tigers a commodity does not necessarily give a guarantee for their survival. So, intervention is necessary if the aim is to guarantee the survival of Tigers.. well.. at least thats what I think. (thanks Reuben)
Hello, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my article on tiger attracted so many comments. For your information, I had a similar piece in The Indian Express in March 2005, and a longer article in the Far Eastern Economic Review, June 2005. Comments and criticism are always welcome. Thanks, Barun
For real? I thought they were all contorted and f@#ked up–like congenitally obese and the such.
PB: an octopus kills a shark (thanks, Saheli).
How would FME be applied to an animal not as ‘cool’ or commercially useful as the tiger ? May be a fruit bat or civet ?
i h8d this