Demand for exotic creatures widespread.

In September, the Chinese government invited law enforcement officers from Southeast Asia's Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) to meet with local counterparts to address the cross-border illegal wildlife trade. Conservationists applauded the historic move but say there is still much to learn. "It's hard to gauge to what degree the trade may be getting better or worse," says Steven Galster of Thailand's PeunPa Foundation. "This is because monitoring of the trade has gotten better, revealing more flow and leading to more seizures."

Asia is a global hotspot for the illegal trade in wild animals and plants, according to TRAFFIC, a global monitoring network. Factors contributing to the trend include regionally high biodiversity, low public awareness of the problem, and inadequate government attention to addressing it. Eating certain rare animals, such as snakes, pangolins, turtles, and salamanders, is a status symbol for many Chinese. And endangered species products like bear bile, tiger bones, and pangolin scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine and can fetch a high price on the market.

But China is not the only country that has an illegal wildlife trade problem. "Americans are some of the world's biggest purchasers in exotic pets," says Galster. He notes that the trophy trade--for tiger skins, rhino heads, and other rarities--is quite large, as is the U.S. market for traditional Chinese medicine. "All in all, China is the number one consumer of wildlife in the world, followed probably by the United States and the EU," Galster concludes.

A new TRAFFIC study, The State of Wildlife Trade in China, describes steps China is taking to reduce wildlife trafficking. The country has been at the forefront of efforts to control the illegal trade in tigers and other big cats, thanks to a 1993 trade ban, and it recently developed new standards to help buyers avoid illegally sourced wood. In 2006, China strengthened its oversight of the endangered species trade and clarified the roles of specific government agencies in overseeing it.

But much more can be done, says Galster. "Awareness ... needs to expand into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before health, education, and enforcement agencies in China are mandated and unleashed to bring wildlife trade and consumption way down," he says.

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Wan Ziming, director of the Chinese State Forestry Administration's Enforcement and Training Division, emphasizes the need for greater international cooperation. "Everyone is blaming China for consuming Southeast Asia's wildlife and wants China to solve the problem," he said. "The fact is, we are trying but we can't do this alone. We need to work together with other countries, [and] with ASEAN-WEN, to stop the illegal trade."

The illustrations for this Eye on Earth section were created by students in Glenna Lang's advanced illustration class at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Eye on Earth is produced in collaboration with the Blue Moon Fund (www.bluemoonfund.org).

Stories are posted continually at www.worldwatch.org/eyeonearth.