Asian Elephants Reported at Risk from Chinese Demand for Skin

A British-based wildlife group says rising Chinese demand for products made from elephant skin is leading to unlawful killing of the animals. It says the rising demand is creating an even greater threat to Asia's wild elephants than the illegal trade for their ivory.

In a report this week, the group Elephant Family said the threat to Asian elephants is greatest in Myanmar, also known as Burma. But it warned that the animals could completely disappear in half of the areas where they now live if conditions worsen.

The report said the threat is greater than that from the ivory trade because hunters are targeting any elephant, and threatening those living in poorly protected areas.

Elephant Family said its studies showed that the animal's skin is ground down into fine particles and sold in China as a cure for stomach pain. It said the skin can also be shaped into beads for use in jewelry.

Elephant-based products are sold in stores, markets and increasingly over the internet. The group reports that some sellers produce videos of workers in Myanmar and Laos cutting up elephant remains to prove the authenticity of their products.

Belinda Stewart-Cox of Elephant Family spoke with reporters in Bangkok. She noted that her group started watching Asian elephants in 2014. Since then, she said, there has been "a major increase of the advertising, advertising campaigns and apparent sales" of the animals.

Researchers identified 50 individual Chinese traders selling through social media. They said product information is written in Chinese, prices are given in Chinese currency and sales completed in Mandarin.

The report also said that China's State Forestry Administration has apparently approved permits for some products that contain elephant skin.

It said "at a time when China has shown commitment to ending its domestic trade in elephant ivory, it would be troubling and perverse to find that, at the same time, it is creating a new, legal demand for elephant skin products."

Stewart-Cox said her organization has reached out to Chinese officials and worked closely with Myanmar officials to raise the issue.

She said, "I think we should pull together on this.There is no time. Myanmar is losing too many elephants, too fast."

Elephant Family puts the current size of Myanmar's wild elephant population at about 2,000. Myanmar's Forest Department is said to have found that wild elephant deaths there have risen in recent years, from 26 in 2013 to at least 61 in 2016. Elephant Family says most of those deaths resulted from illegal hunting.

Stewart-Cox said, "You can get quite a lot of skin off a single elephant. And if you get a single killing of 25 elephants, which is what happened one time in Myanmar, that's a lot of skin."

She said the ivory trade is less of a threat to Asian elephants because only males have tusks.

She said dealers in elephant skin are more of a problem because "this trade is targeting males, females, juveniles and that means that no elephant is safe."

I'm Jonathan Evans.

Kaweewit Kaewjinda wrote this story for the Associated Press. George Grow adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.