The governments of these countries are not responsible for the actions of the
people. Many of the remedies that are used (ground up seahorse, Siberian tiger
bones and genitals, etc.) are a cultural thing. You can't boycott an entire
country for their culture.
        On the note of the seahorses, I remember reading about a woman from the UK
who studied the seahorse in the Philippines. Apparently the Philippines are
one of the largest exporters of seahorse to China and other far eastern
countries. She worked with the locals on a small island for quite a long time
to work out a way to help preserve them. She set up a system to teach the
locals to ID the sex and level of maturity of the seahorse. The fishermen
would collect their amount for the night and then separate them. They created
a cage in the water where they would put the pregnant males until they gave
birth. Also they would put juveniles in the cage.  There was a person who
would volunteer to take care of the cage and check it every night. It also
worked on the honor system and they would take however many they put in. The
methods worked very well and the populations around that island began to
rebound. However they had a problem where people from neighboring islands
would come over and raid the cages. In these area, a single seahorse brings in
the amount of money as a weeks worth of fishing does so there is a serious
financial drive to collect them. I would believe that this is common
throughout the indo-pacific rim and in other third world countries. Its the
same principle as the rhino and elephant poachers in Africa.. it's the money.
Education could help some of the problems in these areas but who is going to
pay for it and take the time to do it.
        I wish I could remember the publication I read it in (It was probably a
National Geographic or Smithsonian *grrrr* though it also could have been one
of the TLC shows or Discovery ones)
(doing everything I can to avoid finishing my lab reports)
Sarah Watson