纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英非盟通过驴皮出口禁令中国中产阿胶梦碎

For years, Chinese companies and their contractors have been slaughtering millions of donkeys across Africa, coveting gelatin from the animals’ hides that is processed into traditional medicines, popular sweets and beauty products in China.

多年来，中国企业及其承包商一直在非洲屠杀数百万头驴，贪求从驴皮中提炼明胶，将其加工成传统药物、受欢迎的糖果和美容产品。

But a growing demand for the gelatin has decimated donkey populations at such alarming rates in African countries that governments are now moving to put a brake on the mostly unregulated trade.

然而，对明胶日益增长的需求使非洲国家的驴子数量以惊人的速度减少，以至于各国政府现在正着手制止这种基本上不受管制的贸易。

The African Union, a body that encompasses the continent’s 55 states, adopted a continentwide ban on donkey skin exports this month in the hope that stocks will recover.

本月，由非洲55个国家组成的非洲联盟通过了一项非洲大陆范围内的驴皮出口禁令，希望让驴子的数量得到恢复。

Rural households across Africa rely on donkeys for transportation and agriculture.

在非洲，农村家庭依靠驴子来进行运输和农业生产。

Yet donkeys only breed a foal every couple of years.

然而驴每隔几年才会繁殖一头幼崽。

“A means of survival in Africa fuels the demand for luxury products from the middle class in China,” said Emmanuel Sarr, who heads the West Africa regional office of Brooke, a nongovernment organization based in London that works to protect donkeys and horses.

“（养驴）在非洲是一种生存手段，却刺激着中国中产阶级对奢侈品的需求，”非政府组织布鲁克(Brooke)的西非地区办事处负责人埃马纽埃尔·萨尔说，该组织的总部设在伦敦，致力于保护驴和马。

“This cannot continue.”

“不能再这样下去了。”

China is the main trading partner for many African countries. But in recent years its companies have been increasingly criticized for depleting the continent’s natural resources, from minerals to fish and now donkey skins, a censure once largely aimed at Western countries.

中国是许多非洲国家的主要贸易伙伴。但近年来，中国的企业因消耗非洲大陆的自然资源（从矿产到鱼类，再到现在的驴皮等）而受到越来越多的批评。这样的指责过去主要针对的是西方国家。

“This trade is undermining the mutual development talks between China and African countries,” said Lauren Johnston, an expert on China-Africa relations and an associate professor at the University of Sydney.

悉尼大学副教授、中非关系专家劳伦·约翰斯顿说：“这种贸易正在破坏中国和非洲国家之间的共同发展对话。”

Some Chinese companies or local intermediaries buy and slaughter donkeys legally, but government officials have also dismantled clandestine slaughterhouses.

一些中国企业或当地中介收购和屠宰驴的行为是合法的，但政府官员也捣毁了一些秘密屠宰场。

Rural communities in some African countries have also reported increasing cases of donkey theft, although there is no estimate of how widespread illegal trafficking has been.

一些非洲国家的农村社区也报告了越来越多的驴被盗案件，但对非法交易的广泛程度尚无估算。

Ethiopia is home to the largest population of donkeys in Africa, according to the Donkey Sanctuary, a British advocacy group. During a research trip there in 2017, Dr. Johnston said that many locals had shared their anger at China, “because they’re killing our donkeys,” she recounted.

据英国权益组织“驴保护区”称，埃塞俄比亚是非洲驴子数量最多的国家。在2017年的一次调研之旅中，约翰斯顿博士说，许多当地人都对中国表示愤怒，“因为他们正在杀死我们的驴子，”她回忆道。

China’s donkey skin trade is the key component of a multibillion-dollar industry for what the Chinese call ejiao, or donkey gelatin. It is a traditional medicine recognized by China’s health authorities, but whose actual benefits remain debated among doctors and researchers in China.

中国的驴皮贸易是一个价值数十亿美元产业的关键组成部门，中国人称之为阿胶。这是中国卫生部门认可的一种传统药物，但其实际功效在中国的医生和研究人员中仍存在争议。

In recent years, what was once a luxury product became increasingly mainstream as incomes have risen among China’s middle and upper classes. Vendors of traditional Chinese medicine and health food companies have marketed ejiao (pronounced UH-jee-ow in Mandarin) as having potential benefits for people with circulatory, gynecological or respiratory issues.

近年来，随着中国中产阶级和上层阶级收入的增加，这种曾经的奢侈品逐渐变得主流。传统中药销售商和保健食品公司都在推销阿胶，宣称它对循环系统、妇科或呼吸系统有问题的人具有潜在的益处。

Ejiao-based food products have flourished: pastries made with ejiao, walnuts, sesame and sugar have become a popular snack across China; a well-known brand of a tea beverage has targeted young consumers with ejiao milk tea.

以阿胶为原料的食品蓬勃发展：用阿胶、核桃、芝麻和糖制作的糕点已成为全国各地流行的零食；一个知名茶饮料品牌针对年轻消费者推出了阿胶奶茶。

Cathy Sha, a 30-year-old resident of Guangzhou, the commercial hub of southeastern China, said that months of taking ejiao might have helped with recurring respiratory issues and cold sweat. Whatever the benefits, she said in text messages that she planned to keep consuming ejiao, a common practice among users of traditional Chinese medicine.

30岁的凯西·沙（音）居住在中国东南部的商业中心广州，她说，服用阿胶几个月可能对她反复出现的呼吸道问题和出冷汗有所帮助。她在短信中说，不论起到了什么作用，她都打算继续服用阿胶，这在使用传统中药的人当中很普遍。

China’s ejiao industry now consumes between four million and six million donkey hides every year — about 10 percent of the world’s donkey population, according to Chinese news reports and estimates by the Donkey Sanctuary. China used to source ejiao from donkeys in China. But its own herd has plummeted from more than nine million in 2000 to just over 1.7 million in 2022.

根据中国的新闻报道和“驴保护区”的估计，中国的阿胶产业现在每年消耗400万到600万张驴皮，约占世界驴数量的10%。中国曾经从本土的驴身上获取驴皮。但中国自己的驴数量已从2000年的900多万头锐减到2022年的170多万头。

So over the past decade China started turning to Africa, home to 60 percent of the world’s donkeys, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

因此，在过去十年中，中国开始将目光转向非洲，根据联合国粮食及农业组织的数据，世界上60%的驴来自非洲。

Donkeys are highly resistant to harsh climate conditions and can carry heavy loads for a sustained period of time, making them a prized resource in some areas in Africa. Yet unlike other four-legged mammals, they are very slow to breed and efforts to raise donkey breeding to industrial levels, including in China, have shown limited success.

驴对恶劣的气候条件有很强的抵抗力，可以长时间驮运重物，因此在非洲的一些地区成为珍贵的资源。然而，与其他四条腿的哺乳动物不同，驴的繁殖速度非常缓慢，将驴的繁殖提高到工业化水平的努力成效有限，在中国也是如此。

The decline in some countries has been sudden and sharp. Kenya’s donkey population declined by half from 2009 to 2019, according to research by Brooke. A third of Botswana’s donkeys have disappeared in recent years. Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and other countries have also seen their stocks decline at a high rate.

一些非洲国家的驴数量突然急剧下降。根据非政府组织布鲁克的研究，肯尼亚的驴数量从2009年到2019年减少了一半。近年来，博茨瓦纳的驴少了三分之一。埃塞俄比亚、布基纳法索和其他国家的驴数量也在迅速下降。

Beijing has been unusually quiet about the African Union’s ban on donkey hide exports, even though it has criticized other measures to stop the flow of goods into China, including restrictions recently imposed by the West on the export of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China.

北京对非盟的驴皮出口禁令异常沉默，尽管它批评了其他阻止商品流入中国的措施，包括西方国家最近对向中国出口半导体制造设备施加的限制。

Neither China’s mission to the African Union nor its Ministry of Commerce responded to requests for comment.

中国驻非盟代表团和中国商务部均未回应置评请求。

Some African countries, like Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Tanzania, have already implemented nationwide bans on donkey skin exports. But porous borders and lax implementation of fines have made it difficult to stem the trade.

埃塞俄比亚、科特迪瓦和坦桑尼亚等一些非洲国家已经在全国范围内禁止驴皮出口。但是，边境管理松懈和罚款执行不力使得阻止驴皮贸易变得十分困难。

For instance, in West Africa, donkeys are being trafficked from landlocked countries before they are slaughtered in often gruesome conditions in border areas with nations that have access to the sea. The pelts are then exported through cargo ports.

例如，在西非，有人从内陆国家贩运驴子，然后在与有出海口的国家接壤的边境地区，这些驴以往往令人毛骨悚然的方式被屠宰。最后，驴皮通过货运港口出口。

“Traffickers look for exit ways, like ports, which we must fight to keep closed,” said Vessaly Kallo, the head of veterinary services in the West African coastal country of Ivory Coast.

西非沿海国家科特迪瓦的兽医服务负责人维萨里·卡洛说：“走私者会寻找可以通向海外的渠道，比如港口，我们必须努力关闭这类渠道。”

In some countries where donkey skins are legal, they also have been used to smuggle protected items like elephant ivory, rhino horns or pangolin scales that are wrapped in the skins, according to an investigation by the Donkey Sanctuary.

根据“驴保护区”的调查，在一些驴皮贸易合法的国家，驴皮也用于走私受保护的物品，比如用它包裹象牙、犀牛角或穿山甲鳞片。

Governments have also faced pressure from farmers who raise donkeys and who reap a significant profit from the donkey skin trade. Botswana banned the export of donkey products in 2017, but backtracked a year later as a result of intense lobbying by farmers and instead set export quotas.

一些政府还面临着来自养驴农民的压力，后者从驴皮贸易中获得了丰厚的利润。博茨瓦纳在2017年禁止出口驴产品，但一年后在农民的大力游说下又撤销了，改为设置出口配额。

Pressure to limit the trade in donkey skins is mounting elsewhere. Since December, Amazon no longer sells donkey meat and other food supplements containing ejiao to customers in California to comply with that state’s animal welfare law.

在其他地方，限制驴皮贸易的压力也越来越大。自12月起，亚马逊公司不再向美国加州的消费者出售驴肉和其他含有阿胶的食品，以遵守该州的动物福利保护法。

U.S. Representative Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia, has repeatedly introduced a bill that would ban the production of ejiao and prohibit the sale and purchase of products with that ingredient.

来自弗吉尼亚州的美国民主党众议员唐·拜尔曾多次提出一项法案，寻求禁止生产阿胶，禁止销售和购买含有阿胶成分的产品。

In Africa, it is unclear yet how the continentwide ban might help save donkeys: African states now have to implement the ban through national legislation, a process that will take years. And national law enforcement agencies may not have the resources or will to tackle the illegal trafficking of donkey pelts.

在非洲，目前还不清楚非洲大陆的禁令会如何帮助拯救驴子：非洲各国现在必须通过国家立法来执行禁令，而这一过程将耗时数年。而国家执法机构可能没有足够的资源或意愿来应对驴皮的非法交易。

Some African countries, like Eritrea and South Africa, had long been reluctant to embrace a ban, arguing that they had the right to decide how to use their natural resources, said Mwenda Mbaka, a leading animal welfare expert from Kenya, and a member of the African Union’s body for animal resources.

肯尼亚著名动物福利专家、非洲联盟动物资源机构成员姆文达·姆巴卡说，厄立特里亚和南非等一些非洲国家长期以来一直不愿接受禁令，宣称它们有权决定如何使用本国的自然资源。

But he said the declining number of donkeys has reached a crisis level.

但他说，驴数量的减少已经到了构成危机的程度。

Last September, Mr. Mbaka took dozens of African diplomats on a two-day retreat in Kenya to raise awareness about animal mistreatment and the dangers that depleted donkey populations pose to rural households.

去年9月，姆巴卡带领数十名非洲外交官在肯尼亚举行了两天的研讨会，以提高人们对动物虐待行为，以及驴群数量减少给农村家庭的危害的认识。

He showed the diplomats images of donkeys illegally slaughtered in the bush and emphasized that without donkeys, some of the heavy work they do would likely fall on children or women.

他向外交官们展示了在灌木丛中驴子遭非法屠宰的照片，并强调，如果没有驴，一些繁重的工作很可能会落在儿童或妇女身上。

It didn’t take long to convince his audience, Dr. Mbaka said. “Once they saw the evidence, they were on board.”

姆巴卡博士说，说服听众并不难。“一旦他们看到证据，就会加入进来。”