The Black Market in China for Tiger Products

Abstract

China is an important source of demand for tiger products. Given most wild tiger populations are found in neighboring Asian states, criminal organizations have developed to procure, transport and distribute tiger products. Their organizational form adjusts to reduce the most significant transaction cost faced at each stage in the supply chain. Procurement is subcontracted to skilled local hunters. Tiger forms a minority part of a wider portfolio of wildlife harvested by poachers. Transport to the Chinese border is the largest cost and minimized by use scale economies to transport wildlife products in bulk. Successful criminal organizations have evaded detection for years. In China Tibet absorbs of the demand for skin, while bone is consumed as medicine in Eastern provinces. There is not an homogeneous black market in tiger parts in China. Harsh penalties in China for tiger trafficking favor networks that specialize in the distribution of just tiger bone, with few intermediaries and likely in secretive settings. Transaction costs limit the penetration of tiger parts to provinces that are proximate to range states. The ability of law enforcement agencies to reduce poaching to safe levels appears unlikely given the evasions strategies available to smugglers.