WWF International

Adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the Convention on biological diversity has now been ratified by over 160 countries and forms the backbone of many of the biodiversity activities that have taken place over the last five years. However, despite the unprecedented success of this major international convention, many questions still remain unanswered and many uncertainties prevail.

Discussions in this report address bear farming in China, Hong Kong's gall bladder registration scheme, biological implications of the legal trade in bear gall bladder in Japan and Taiwan's efforts to monitor its domestic market for bear gall bladder. Recommendations are given to better understand, monitor and control the trade.

This work includes 140 pages of tabular data with supporting text and graphics, covering country species diversity, threatened species, national Red Data Book, major food crops, domestic livestock, marine resources, tropical forests, protected areas and systematics collections.

A focus on the use of tiger bone as a medicinal, this review compiles what is known of the current status of tiger populations, the uses and value of tiger bone and the global extent of the trade. It gives recommendations for tiger conservation based on the report's findings.