FAKE FUR FOR CEREMONIAL ATTIRE TO REDUCE POAHCING OF LEOPARDS|動保團體力倡 南非教派用人造皮取代豹皮

The South African Shembe church announced that they will swap out leopard skins used in ceremonial dress for synthetic furs imported from China. This century-old South African religion has long considered leopard skin as a symbol of power and royalty. However, alarmed by the rapid decline in the big cat population, conservationists successfully persuaded the religious leaders to replace the endangered leopard skins with fake one. Dressed in a traditional leopard skin outfit, over a thousand Shembe church members danced at an annual religious gathering in South Africa. The Shembe church is an African-initiated church mixing Christian and traditional Zulu beliefs. The leopard serves as a totem species in the church, a symbol of prestige and power of leadership. During the ceremony this year, many followers wore fake leopard skins instead of genuine pelts, reflecting an effort by conservationists to reduce poaching of the threatened animal. ==TRISTAN DICKERSON Furs for Life Leopard Program Manager== The ultimate would be that we start seeing leopard numbers increasing as well as the demand for these leopard skins reduced. But that will take time, I mean it's all about data collection. However, we have started a process - the people who can't afford a fur, will get our (fake) fur, you know. An estimated 1,500 and 2,500 leopards are killed annually to meet the Shembe demand for skins, and some 15,000 real pelts are currently circulating in the religious community. Therefore, conservation group Panthera stepped in and launched the "Furs for Life" project in 2013, hoping to reduce demand for the real thing by their fake fur campaign. However, change does not come easy, as some Shembe leaders were resistant to changing an old custom at the behest of outsiders. ==GUY BALME Panthera Leopard Program Director== It was just essentially being able to develop a realistic enough looking fake skin, which would be accepted by the church. So, what followed then were many months, in fact years of discussions with the leadership on how best to roll this program out, working out which skins were preferred by the church, which patterns, males and female leopards, big spots, small spots. So far, over 14,000 fake leopard skins have been given to Shembe followers for free and demand for real leopard pelts has dropped by 50 percent because of the campaign. Although some followers settled for a fake fur, they still hope to buy a real one, selling at around US$ 370. ==KHOLWANI NXUMALO Shembe church member== I chose this one (fake leopard skin) because the original one (real leopard skin) is too expensive, so when the time comes I will get the original one (the real one). Leopards around the world are diminishing by habitat loss, illegal hunting for their skins, high mortality rate of cubs, and other factors. Even a relative stronghold of the big cat, South Africa is currently thought to have fewer than 5,000 leopards. Luckily, as leopard conservation awareness increases, more and more effort is being made to save the endangered species. TRANSLATED BY：ARIEL HSIEH