Thursday 21 October 1999

Investigations by TRAFFIC, the WWF-funded wildlife trade monitoring network, reveal that socialites in Europe are among the most voracious consumers of shahtoosh, even though a survey in September found that shahtoosh shawls were no longer readily available over the counter in London, Paris, Milan and Berlin. Seizures of shahtoosh in the mid 1990s in a number of European countries seem to have moved the illegal trade underground and on to the internet.

"The growing demand for shahtoosh has left a trail of blood from the Tibetan plateau to the celebrities who wear them" declared Stuart Chapman, WWF's International Conservation Officer. "Up to five Tibetan antelope are killed to make just one shahtoosh shawl. The fashion elite has fuelled a demand which now threatens the very survival of the species. This illegal trade must stop - an endangered species such as the Tibetan antelope should not be sacrificed for the sake of vanity."

International trade in shahtoosh has been prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) since 1979. However, it was not until the late 1980s that the world's fashion elite ignited a demand that has caused the poaching of as many as 20,000 chiru a year.

A new TRAFFIC report - Fashion Statement Spells Death for Tibetan Antelope - explains the link between the "mass killing of an endangered species on the Tibetan Plateau with the shawls that some celebrities use to drape over ball gowns" added Stuart Chapman.

Most chiru are found in China, where numbers have fallen from an estimated million at the turn of the century to fewer than 75,000 in 1999. Under the Chinese wildlife protection law, the chiru is afforded the highest level of protection, and trade in chiru parts is strictly prohibited without government permission.

In India, trade in chiru products is prohibited everywhere apart from the states of Jammu and Kashmir, where shatoosh shawls have been dowry items for centuries. However, in contrast with the recent craze for shatoosh on the Western market, this activity poses little threat to the survival of the species.

The TRAFFIC report makes the following points:

Consumers should refuse to buy or wear shahtoosh. Pashmina is an excellent alternative, but it is important to be certain that shahtoosh products are not being labelled as pashmina. If in doubt of a shawl's origin, don't buy it.
Friends of consumers can discourage demand for shahtoosh by spreading the truth. Wearing shahtoosh is supporting the likely extinction of the chiru, the smuggling of its wool, and the murder of those trying to protect the species.
The international community should fund efforts to enhance and expand anti-poaching efforts throughout the Tibetan antelope's range.
The governments of the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir should make the manufacture and trade of shahtoosh illegal.
All countries should stop internal trade, export and import of shahtoosh products.
Law enforcement authorities should develop and share reliable laboratory methods for identifying Tibetan antelope hair in shahtoosh products.
Concerned governments and conservation organisations should launch information campaigns aimed at shahtoosh consumers, explaining the serious implications - for both Tibetan antelope and consumers - of buying, selling and wearing shahtoosh. Even travelling with a shahtoosh of one's own can be illegal.

(Click here)shahtoosh.pdf
to download a copy of the TRAFFIC report Fashion Statement Spells Death for Tibetan Antelope in pdf format.