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Controversial report
On October 7th the Swiss German television programme Rundschau released an extremely controversial report denouncing an exotic skin outlet in Indonesia. Decontextualized images of lizards in bags with their legs tied and snakes seemingly being skinned alive were almost unbearable to watch. The Swiss watch industry was targeted. The Swatch Group released a statement, as did the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) and the Geneva Time Exhibition (GTE). Everyone else made a call to their local strap supplier to check that they were covered, and that was that! End of scandal. Well maybe not…
An orchestrated campaign
So far this television report has been contained to Switzerland, but what if the international media decide to broadcast the subject? And what if consumers worldwide start to get upset and boycott products? It won’t be enough to just say that straps come from a reputable source. Brands will need to be able to prove where their straps come from and prove that the animals have been killed humanely. This is where things get complex; skins pass through many hands before they are bought by the leatherworker to be crafted into watch straps. A skin may originate in Indonesia, for example, go to Singapore for a first tanning process, then a second tanning in Italy, before being finished in France and delivered to a leatherworker in Switzerland, making traceability an urgent priority.
Many animal activists are fighting for a total ban on the use of animal products, but controlled use of animals is not only beneficial to sustaining the survival of some of the world’s most threatened species, but also helps conserve ecosystems, protects other wildlife and provides an essential form of revenue for many of the world’s regions.
What is CITES?
One treaty which is committed to the controlled use of the world’s endangered species is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) with its secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland. CITES is a agreement that was adopted in 1973 and whose Secretariat is provided by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It works with nations worldwide to ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. A name well known in the watch industry, every exotic watch strap that leaves Switzerland must be accompanied by an import and export permit. The veterinary office of Switzerland has put in place an express service to deliver permits in 24 hours for watch manufacturers who ship watches worldwide every day. Around 100,000 permits are delivered every year. If a strap arrives at its destination without a permit, a very nice customs officer in a brown uniform will politely cut off the strap with a pair of heavy duty scissors. For most watch brands, knowledge of CITES ends with these images, which is unfortunate as CITES is probably the only international programme working to ensure that there will be enough exotic straps for the watch industry in the future.
“We are here to make sure that the trade in wild animals and plants is sustainable for the long-term and is conducted in accordance with our requirements, ” explains CITES Communication and Outreach Officer Juan Carlos Vasquez. “CITES documents and permits are the visible part of the system, like visas in your passport, but it is everything behind this, the years of scientific research, thousands of jobs and most importantly thousands of years of nature evolution that need sustaining.
“There is an incredible opportunity for the big brands to step up and take the lead by engaging and incorporating sustainability into their business strategies,” says Vasquez.
The CITES Secretariat is open to discussion with watch industry leaders to help them find solutions to protect themselves and their consumers from illegal players and ensure that the skins they are using are not depleting the world’s biodiversity. It is also ready to offer courses to the industry’s buyers on how to buy intelligently and it is always open to discussion about easing the red tape connected to international trade.
The animal welfare debate
One common misconception about CITES is that the convention deals with issues of animal welfare. This is not the case. CITES focuses primarily on conservation and the overall effect of the volumes of trade on the species that it protects.
No animal should suffer unnecessarily and companies that tolerate, or turn a blind eye, to such practices are taking great risks. This doesn’t mean that we need to eliminate the trade of such products to ensure welfare treatment. “Eliminating trade is not a solution for species whose populations are in good shape thanks to good conservation programmes. The minute a ban is put in place for an abundant species, illegal players spring up and the remedy becomes more perverse than the problem we are trying to solve,” notes CITES’s Vasquez. It may sound counterintuitive but sustainable use of animal products is good for species conservation and good for business. However, over-exploitation and cruelty to animals has no place in business. The watch industry could wait for more regulations to be enforced, maybe from national veterinary services, but these things take time. The best and fastest solution would be for the watch industry to acknowledge the problem, verify that the exotic skins used for their straps come from reliable sources that meet the industry’s criteria, insist that all animals are killed using humane methods, and look into systems of traceability for their supplies.
Alligator skins
One of the most famous alligator farming/ ranching industries is to be found in Louisiana in the United States and is one of the world’s most recognizable conservation success stories. The management programme harvests eggs from the wild to provide stock for the farms, and then releases 12 per cent of alligators back into the wild. This system protects large numbers of alligators from various mortality factors such as flooding, storm surges, drought, predation and cannibalism. Every skin is identified with a serially numbered and bar coded CITES tag that remains attached to the skin throughout the tanning and finishing processes (travelling with each skin across continents until the manufacture of the product) indicating exactly when and where the alligator was farmed.
Since the inception of the programme in 1972, over 6.7 million alligator eggs have been collected from the wild, over 800,000 farm-raised alligators have been sold (estimated at US$509,000,000) with part of the money being reinvested into research, conservation, education, marketing, industry development and CITES activities.
The American alligator is not an endangered species; it is listed on Appendix II of CITES’s endangered species because it is similar in appearance to other more endangered crocodilians, such as the Nile crocodile which has greatly benefited from management under CITES. The populations of Nile crocodiles were previously in real trouble, however the ranching of the Nile crocodile is of great importance, especially in places like Zimbabwe and is the origin of many skins or products coming into Switzerland. The skin is also considered extremely valuable.
The GTE and the FH take a stand
Following the broadcast of the Rundschau film, the Geneva Time Exhibition (GTE - show of 60 watch brands held from January 16th to 21st in Geneva) and the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) have been encouraging their respective members to acknowledge the situation and check the sources of their straps. “We sent a press release to all our partners and received positive echoes from the brands in return,” shares Florence Noël, Director of the GTE show. “Brands such as Pierre DeRoche only use Mississippi alligator, but shared with me that they would consider not using exotic animal skins if they couldn’t verify their source,” she continues. Some brands, such as Tempvs Compvtare, also exhibiting at the GTE show, have made a point from their inception never to use any animal products in their collections.
Food for thought
For those who saw the Swiss German television report (available on the Europa Star website), it is difficult not to be shocked by the sensational images that were broadcast. However, we must remain attentive to certain elements of the report.
Firstly, the film switched back and forth from the Indonesian rural outlet to the shop windows of luxury watch brands without any proof that they were linked in any way.
Secondly, the film shows the CITES permits for the skins as if to accuse the treaty of not controlling the animals’ wellbeing, without any apparent understanding that the CITES treaty is designed to ensure the sustainability of the species, being exported, and has no control over what happens within the borders of any country.
Thirdly, each country, each nation, each culture, has a different relationship to animals. The rural relationship to animals is very different from that of many urban people – why else would Indonesians have been happy to let a film crew in if they were ashamed of what they were doing? Certain images showed animals moving after they had supposedly been killed. Many animals continue to move minutes after they are clinically dead (think of the chicken that continues running after it has had its head chopped off).
And lastly, images showed snakes being hit over the head, which obviously appears barbaric on screen, but is actually one of the most humane ways to kill a snake rapidly.
These are all facts that watch brands and their retailers should know, facts that they need to communicate to their customers correctly, facts that should make them proud of contributing to biodiversity conservation, but encourage them to be more attentive to a part of their business that could change the way we protect nature. “‘Business as usual’ won’t work anymore; the planet cannot support it and the people won’t allow it. I hope that good things will come out of this report and businesses will stand up and take action,” concludes Vasquez.
What the watch industry can do to help
The watch industry needs to inform itself about the provenance of its straps and the ways in which the animals were killed. If the watch brands take action and become more demanding, this will put pressure on those working in the skin trade, farms, ranches and governments to take initiatives to better protect animal wellbeing and the environment, like the great programmes that have been set up in Louisiana and Zimbabwe. There is no need for watch brands to stop using exotic animal skins, on the contrary, but if they do not start to pay attention to this important part of their business, there is a risk that it could turn around and bite them.
For more information including the Swiss television report (in German and French) see below:
Source: Europa Star December - January 2011 Magazine Issue
