THE HAGUE, June 7, 2007 (AFP) - With fur back in fashion, the illegal fur trade is also on the rise, wildlife crime experts said Thursday June 7th at a world forum in The Hague on regulating wildlife commerce.

A member of the Jammu and Kashmir Wildlife Department sorts garments made of animal skins in May 2007 - Photo : Rouf Bhat/AFP

"Unfortunately, fashion takes cycles and fur is back in," said John Sellar, a wildlife crime expert on the secretariat of the 171-nation Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

"The situation in Western China is that there is a serious level of illegal trade in leopard, snow leopard and tiger skins," he said.

The illegal fur trade had been on the decline when fur was deemed outmoded by fashionistas -- but with fur back on the catwalks, the illegal trade is picking up, too, he said.

Another real fashion victim is the Tibetan antelope or chiru. Its undercoat is known as Shahtoosh, a prized wool considered to be the most warm, soft and fine. The wool can only be obtained by killing the antelope and it takes three animals to make a one by two metre (3.3 by 6.6 foot) woman's shawl.

Models present a fur collection in Tokyo in April 2007 Photo : Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP

In a recent haul, wildlife crime officers in Switzerland seized several of such luxury shawls from a store in the St Moritz ski resort where they were selling for up to 20.000 dollars (15 000 euros) a piece, Sellar said.

According to wildlife organisations, the Chiru population has dropped from more than one million at the turn of the 20th century to some 75,000 today due to poaching.
Sellar stressed that the illegal trade in wildlife was hard to stamp out because of high profits, the low risk of getting caught and relatively leniant sentences if people are apprehended.

"Border agencies have to prioritize and wildlife trade is just one of the issues they deal with in addition to the trafficking of narcotics, people and weapons," said Peter Younger, wildlife crime officer at international police organisation Interpol. It was difficult to put a figure on wildlife crime revenues, Sellar said.

He stressed there were certain areas of wildlife trading where organised crime were present, like the Russian mafia's involvement in the caviar trade, but added that it was difficult to get a clear picture.

"We simply don't know. There is such a huge variety we are dealing with a range from tourists who take something they did not know was listed as an endangered species to organised crime."