Stephen Mills - naturalist, author, wildlife film-maker and Special Consultant to EIA - provides an insight into the work of EIA
When I published my book on Tigers in 2004 I felt optimistic about their future, especially in India. I’d just finished a joyous TV filming trip in Bandhavgarh and Kanha, where we had clocked up 88 sightings in a month and filmed 10 different Tigers in a single morning. But a year later many of us were in despair. A wave of Tiger poaching for skins had culminated in the complete depopulation of Sariska Tiger Reserve and the decimation of numbers in Panna, Ranthambore and several lesser known reserves.
In the summer of 2005, EIA teamed up with local investigators from the Wildlife Protection Society of India to find out where so many skins were going. Their journey ended in Tibet and their subsequent photographs, films and reports astonished the world. What they discovered was a new fashion amongst Tibetans to demonstrate their status and wealth by wearing whole Tiger skins at their huge openair horse festivals. There were hundreds of fresh skins on display. Consequently, the Dalai Lama, disturbed that Buddhists might be driving a market that was bringing one of the world’s most endangered and charismatic animals close to extinction, urged his people to stop wearing the skins. And how did they respond? In widespread displays of remorse they burned them. By some reckonings, some $2 million worth of tiger skins have gone up in smoke.
The problem is not yet solved. Poaching continues and when EIA/WPSI returned to Tibet and China in August 2006, they found that, while far fewer Tibetans were wearing skins, some of the slack had been taken up by wealthy Chinese. What the story illustrates, however, is the value of up-to-date, accurate information. Gathering such data is what EIA does best, often undercover, often in dangerous or difficult situations. In recent months EIA agents have been threatened, arrested and imprisoned without charge, had their tyres slashed and much worse.
The environmental crimes that EIA tries to expose can poison the roots of government and affect the lives of millions of people. This is large scale organised crime, netting billions of dollars a year and second only to drugs and arms smuggling in its capacity to rob or damage the world community. This is why EIA tries always to engage with governments to achieve change, if necessary behind the scenes but always with inviolable data. In November 2005, for instance, EIA suspected a number of Chinese companies were smuggling huge amounts of illegally produced CFCs (Chloroflurocarbons) that destroy the earth’s stratospheric ozone layer. Through a clever sting operation, investigators were able to film the entire smuggling process. Instead of going for a public blitz, EIA took the film and report to the Chinese authorities and the Montreal Protocol, the treaty that governs the phase out of CFCs. The result is that China has clamped down on the smugglers, put new regulations in place and taken a lead in establishing major new regional co-operative customs initiatives.
Unfortunately, avoiding publicity, though sometimes strategically essential, keeps us poor. EIA’s whale and dolphin campaign has, for example, managed to persuade over 3,000 supermarkets in Japan to stop selling whale meat. This helps to disprove the claims of a heavy demand for the product by which Japanese whaling tries to justify itself. But the supermarkets asked EIA in return not to publicise this agreement widely, with the result that the campaign remains one of our most under-funded albeit effective arms.
Founded in 1984 and with fewer than 30 employees, EIA punches far above its weight. Apart from tigers, ozone and whales, EIA works on ivory smuggling (it was instrumental in getting the ban on the international ivory trade agreed in 1989) and illegal logging in South-east Asia. In the last year EIA has tracked illegally sourced hardwoods to the shop floors of leading UK and European DIY chains and provided data that led to the biggest crackdown on timber smugglers in Indonesian history. We greatly value our relationship with Naturetrek and the chance it gives us to befriend so many likeminded people. In a suffocating world even travel is no longer an innocent activity. Each of us has to make travel count and Naturetrek customers can do that by supporting organisations like EIA that work every day for a better environment.
Last year Naturetrek's EIA tours raised over £8,000 to assist the charity. Fund-raising tours planned for 2007 (10% going to EIA) include:
Wild India — Panna National Park (10 days)
departs 2nd Mar & 23rd Nov ’07 Cost: £1,795
India’s Big Game (9 days — Kaziranga)
departs 22nd Feb & 15th Nov ’07 Cost: £1,795
Borneo’s Orang-utans (11 days)
departs 7th Sep ’07 Cost: £2,195
You can help support the EIA gain greater protection for threatened and endangered species and their habitats. To find out more visit their website.