Any lifting or easing of the current ban on trade in tigers in China is likely to be a death sentence for the endangered species, says the Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC).

Xu Hongfa, director of TRAFFIC East Asia China Programme, said on Wednesday that Chinese business owners who stand to profit from the tiger trade are pressuring the Chinese government to overturn the 1993 ban.

The business owners want the government to allow domestic trade of captive-bred tiger parts for use in traditional medicine and their skins for clothing, Xu said.

"Overturning the ban and allowing any trade of captive-bred tiger products would waste all the efforts that China has invested in saving wild tigers. It would be a catastrophe for tiger conservation," said Xu.

Experts from the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and TRAFFIC said the Chinese ban has been essential in preventing the extinction of tigers by curbing demand in what was historically the world's largest consumer of tiger parts.

In compliance with the resolutions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the ban has virtually eliminated the domestic market for tiger products in traditional medicines.

"In the early 1990s, we feared that Chinese demand for tiger parts would drive the tiger to extinction by the new millennium. The tiger survives today thanks in large part to China's prompt, strict and committed action," said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC.

Enforcement measures range from public education campaigns and promotion of effective substitutes for tiger medicines to severe punishment for law breakers, the report shows.

As a result, undercover surveys by TRAFFIC found little tiger bone available in China. Less than 3 percent of 663 medicine shops and dealers claimed to stock it, and most retailers were aware that tigers are protected and their trade is illegal.

However, a TRAFFIC survey documented 17 instances of tiger bone wine for sale on Chinese auction websites, with one seller offering 5,000 bottles. Demand for the skins of the big cats is also increasing in some regions.

"Allowing trade in tiger parts to resume, even if they are from captive-bred tigers, would inevitably lead to an increase in demand for such products," said Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF's Global Species Program.

WWF and TRAFFIC also want the government to impose a moratorium on all tiger breeding; destroy stockpiles of tiger carcasses; and increase public awareness of the current trade ban.