Research overview: tiger farming and the captive-trade debate

Thousands of tigers are held in captive breeding operations, particularly in parts of East and Southeast Asia, fueling a long-running debate over whether legal or illegal trade in captive-bred tiger parts helps or harms wild tigers. This overview surveys research on the issue. One view holds that a captive supply could relieve poaching pressure on wild tigers by satisfying demand, while the dominant conservation position argues that captive operations stimulate and legitimize demand, provide cover for laundering wild-sourced parts, and are cheaper to poach from the wild than to breed. Studies examine trade dynamics, the economics of farming versus poaching, and enforcement challenges. The overview frames tiger farming as one of the most contentious questions in big cat conservation, where the prevailing evidence and CITES guidance oppose commercial trade from captive tigers as a danger to wild populations.