China and WWF Discuss Chinese Traditional Medicine
10/29/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: China joins WWF vision for a sustainable future
Source: WWF Press Release
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 29, 1999
Conservationists and Chinese officials will meet this weekend in an
unprecedented three-day symposium to discuss the use of wild plants
and animals in traditional Chinese medicine, the international
conservation organization WWF announced today.
The symposium, Healthy People, Healthy Planet: An International
Conference on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Wildlife Conservation,
marks the first of its kind to be organized by the government of
China. WWF and the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine
are joint organizers (1).
"This conference is an unprecedented opportunity to work together not
just on endangered species issues but on a sustainable future," said
Jim Harkness, WWF China Programme Office Representative. "We want to
help the industry build in 'green' standards in the new millennium to
benefit both China's economy and the planet."
China has joined Singapore in announcing plans to modernize
traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in hope of cornering a large part
of the world's fast-growing consumption of natural medicines. TCM
uses a wide variety of plants and animals, making a balance between
medicinal wildlife use and wildlife conservation critical.
The conference will bring together TCM practitioners and researchers,
international wildlife experts and government officials to discuss
the complex issues of medicinal trade in wildlife at a time when some
key medicinal species number very few in the wild. WWF and its
wildlife trade monitoring programme, TRAFFIC, have long been at the
forefront of encouraging TCM specialists and conservationists to work
together.
Most recently, an outreach and education programme was undertaken
within the TCM community in San Francisco, USA in an innovative
partnership with the American College of Traditional Chinese
Medicine. More than 100 companies joined the effort, urging consumers
and retailers not to buy or sell TCM products that claim to contain
endangered species.
WWF and the college hope China will lead the way in ensuring green
standards in the global TCM market.
"We are simply asking for wildlife conservation measures to be built
into new TCM infrastructures," said Peter DeBrine, Director of
Species Campaigns at WWF-US. "Green standards present a win-win
situation for both wildlife and TCM, which is what this meeting is
all about."
For further information:
Li Chao, WWF China Programme, tel. +86 10 6591 5732-37
Bobbie Jo Kelso, WWF International, tel. +41 22 364 92 88, mobile +41
79 447 4991
NOTE TO EDITORS:
(1) The symposium will be held 30 October - 1 November at the China
World Hotel in Beijing. A press conference will be held on 1 November
at the close of the symposium to announce results.