VLADIVOSTOK: Chinese medicine could be the death of the Amur tigers that symbolize the power and natural beauty of Russia’s far east.

Conservationists say the local authorities’ prescription for economic rebirth of the poverty-stricken region will make it harder to protect one of the world’s most majestic beasts.

“China uses virtually every part of the tiger, from the whiskers to the tail, for traditional Chinese medicine. Even the eyes,” said Sergei Bereznyuk, director of the Phoenix Fund in Vladivostok which is leading efforts to protect the Amur tiger.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 poachers, driven by the voracious demands of traditional Chinese medicine, hunted the Amur tiger to the point of extinction in a few years.

Predators came in many forms: the wealthy in search of the thrills of big game hunting; poachers seeking lucrative skins and body parts for China’s medicine men; destitute woodsmen trying to make ends meet after the demise of their traditional way of life.

Michiel Hoette, a Vladivostok-based Dutchman working to save the tiger, says development of the region’s economy is endangering the Amur tigers, the largest continuous tiger population in the world.

India has more tigers in the wild than Russia but their habitat is fragmented, unlike in the Primorye region which provides the perfect food base and cover for the big cat.

But it is facing large scale destruction by illegal logging which Russia’s Audit Chamber says cost the federal budget $20 billion a year in lost taxes and customs duties.

Logging by legitimate businesses and the Russian forestry department, sometimes carried out with little regard for the environment, has only aggravated the situation.

Meanwhile, new roads criss-crossing the sparsely-populated region and increased agricultural development are leading to new settlements, increasing pressure on the tiger population.

“Research shows that tigers that live close to roads just don’t live long. They are killed, so reproduction is less and mortality higher,” said Hoette.—Reuters