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JAPAN’S government has surprised the US and Canada by proposing that
the North American black bear be listed as a threatened species. Its Ministry
of International Trade and Industry (MITI) wants to list Ursus americanus
on Appendix 2 of CITES. Hunters kill the bear for its gall bladder, a highly
prized item in the pharmacopoeia of the Far East. It can fetch more than
$10 000 a kilogram. Japan’s plea comes at a time when the US government,
conservationists and lending institutions are increasing pressure on developing
countries to preserve their wildlife and its habitat.

The Japanese request was unexpected because the country is a major consumer
of products derived from threatened wildlife. Much of the ivory from African
elephants goes to Japan. Japan also remains the largest whaling nation in
the face of protests from Western conservation groups.

Conservationists in the US agree that the black bear may be threatened
in several parts of the country. If the signatories to the convention agree
to list the bear on Appendix 2, the US and Canada will have to issue permits
for the export of each shipment of live bears or parts of bears. Parties
to CITES also would have to publish annual reports containing details of
all transactions in the species.

Japan must add a supporting statement with its proposal. Western conservationists
report that Japan’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare opposes restrictions
on imports of bear parts to protect the local industry in folk medicine.
Without detailed data on the effects of trade on populations of black bear,
the proposal may run into difficulty.

Officials at CITES point out another reason for listing the bear on
Appendix II: traders may confuse gall bladders from North American species
of bear with those of the Asian species, which is rarer. As a result, the
trade in American black bears can conceal trade in the rarest species.

Typically, hunters remove the gall bladders from the freshly killed
bears, tie them to prevent leakage, and freeze them. The hunters then dry
the gall bladders and sell them to exporters. Traders grind them to a powder,
which fetches more than $10 000 per kilogram. Its ingredients include cholesterol,
bile acids including tauroursodesoxycholic, taurine and cholic acids.

Practitioners of traditional medicine administer bear gall preparations
to patients suffering from liver, stomach, and intestinal disorders in the
kampoyaku medicine of Japan. In South Korea, where some 3600 hanyuk clinics
use the product, people value it as a cure for inflammation and for purifying
the blood.

According to the Materia Medica of Medicinal Properties, gall bladders
from bears alleviate spasms, clear heat from the body and ‘detoxify fire
poison’. The Chinese have used it since the 6th century. Traditional doctors
in Chinese medicine also claim that the product is helpful for treating
haemorrhoids and to purge the body of certain types of parasites.

Conservationists blame the oriental medicinal trade for the calamitous
decline of many species, including the musk deer, the black rhino and the
Asiatic black bear, which is a native of central and southeast Asia. This
bear was listed on Appendix 1 of CITES in 1979, which prohibits commercial
trade but allows scientific trade.

According to Tom Milliken of the group TRAFFIC, which monitors trade
in wildlife, demand for bear gall caused an acute scarcity of Asiatic black
bears in both Japan and Korea. ‘Consumers of bear gall bladder now must
rely almost exclusively upon foreign imports,’ says Milliken.

In recent years, Japan’s role as a consumer of bear gall has been somewhat
overshadowed by other Asian consumers, especially South Korea. As South
Korea’s appetite for bear gall grew over the past decade, Japanese media
reported that South Korean importers were scouring Japan’s wildlife markets
for live specimens, ostensibly for South Korean zoos. Even owners of ‘pet’
bears in Japan were reportedly inundated by telephone calls from prospective
Korean buyers. Prices peaked at more than $2000 per animal.

Demand for gall bladders from American bears emerged in the early 1980s,
according to wildlife officials. Game wardens at the California Department
of Fish and Game began an undercover investigation in northern California
in 1981. They found a sophisticated market involving hundreds of hunters
with trained dogs, South Korean middlemen travelling the countryside looking
for poachers with fresh kills, and shops trading in traditional medicine
who served clients in American cities and abroad.

Undercover agents seized hundreds of gall bladders and levied numerous
fines. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) then acknowledged the problem
and discovered more poaching across the country.

Black bears dwell in forested habitats and thrive where large tracts
of deciduous and coniferous forest remain relatively undisturbed. Biologists
believe that there are some 200 000 black bears in 23 states in the US and
many parts of Canada. But in certain areas, such as the southeastern US,
populations face extinction. The bears reproduce slowly: a mature female
produces only one to one-and-a-half cubs a year, on average, a rate which
makes the species very vulnerable to hunting.

Various states allow people to hunt the bears under differing rules.
Pennsylvania, for example, permits hunters to kill what they estimate are
20 per cent of the state’s black bears each year. But Michael Pelton, a
biologist at the University of Tennessee, says: ‘In the southern Appalachian
mountains, where illegal take is greater than the harvest, such levels are
unsustainable.’ For example, in North Carolina, with an estimated black
bear population of 3000 and a legal take of 550, the total number killed
was probably closer to 1200.

Wildlife officials say they have uncovered only the tip of the poaching
iceberg. John Gavitt, an agent with the FWS who helped to coordinate the
poaching investigations, says: ‘We really have no idea how big this thing
is nationwide nor do we understand the complexities of the medicinal market
in this country.’

A listing on CITES could stimulate more biological investigations of
the North American species and reduce trade, Gavitt says. Otherwise, the
bear could end up like the rhino or the musk deer.