ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 3, 1994                   TAG: 9411030088
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Short

RARE-ANIMAL TRADE IMPERILS RHINOS, TIGERS AND BEARS

The illegal trade in rare animals is worth an estimated $5 billion a year, second only to the world drug trade, a British-based environment protection group reported today.

The Environmental Investigation Agency said that, as a result, rhinos, tigers and Asian bears all could be extinct by 2000.

It blamed governments in North America, Asia and the European Union for failing to enforce existing wildlife protection laws.

The warning came as delegates from 123 countries gathered in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

The report said the group used undercover investigations to reveal the dramatic decline in the numbers of many species.

Steve Trent, the group's deputy executive director, said in the report that the consumer boom in the developed world had stimulated the illegal world trade in rare animals, creating ``a black hole for endangered species.

``CITES and the international community must take immediate action to fight the illegal trade in endangered species, otherwise we will enter the 21st century having lost the rhino, tiger and Asian bear.'' 


 by CNB