Thirteen tiger range countries including Bhutan met in Bali, Indonesia for the three-day Pre-Tiger Summit Partners Dialogue this week and agreed on a rescue declaration to save tigers from extinction.
The summit’s declaration will be further discussed at the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg in Russia from September 15 to 18, later this year. The Global Tiger Recovery Program is based on national plans developed by the tiger range countries (TRCs).
According to the WWF Tiger program leader, Michael Baltzer, individual governments have come with strong national plans to help tigers recover in numbers in their countries, but they cannot do it by themselves.
“These governments now must collectively lay the groundwork for a global plan to save wild tigers ahead of the Tiger Summit in Russia,” he said.
According to WWF, the wild population of tigers of all species in the world has fallen from about 100,000 to an estimated 3,200 over the past century and early estimates suggest that the cost of implementing the global tiger project will be more than US$ 350mn and even more if the target of doubling tiger numbers within 12 years is to be met.
According to a draft national tiger recovery program, Bhutan is unique in having tigers at an altitude of 4,100 meters. Bhutan also has plans to monitor cross border movement of tigers and establish cross border administrative coordination mechanisms for joint petrol and policing for wildlife trade.
Threats to the tiger include massive habitat fragmentation and destruction, loss of prey, poaching and illegal trade. Tigers are also lost due to retaliatory killing when they come into conflict with villagers living around tiger habitats.
To protect tigers, WWF and Bhutanese wildlife authorities are working together to establish anti-poaching units and strengthen anti-poaching law enforcement. In addition to poaching, WWF and its partners are addressing human-wildlife conflict by setting up a compensation fund for local farmers whose livestock are often killed by tigers.
Tigers found at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Park in Bhutan are shorter with bushy fur and a facial structure that resemble the Siberian Tiger of Russia. This, according to the Nature Conservation Division’s chief forestry officer, Dr Sonam Wangyel, could be because of a natural adaption or a level of inbreeding taking place.
However, in the absence of a nationwide tiger survey in Bhutan it is difficult to know with certainty where tigers are found in the country. But sightings have been reported in various protected areas.
This pre-meeting is a follow up to earlier governmental meetings on tiger conservation. The first in Kathmandu, Nepal in October last year, recommended a series of 15 global actions that needed to be taken to change the trajectory of tigers from extinction to recovery, as well as commitments from several tiger range countries.
The Kathmandu meeting was followed by the first Asian ministerial conference on tiger conservation held in Hua Hin, Thailand, in January 2010, and which adopted the goal of doubling the number of wild tigers by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.
Other 12 countries who attended the meet were Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
World tiger experts and representatives from NGOs, the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI)/World Bank, and donor agencies such as USAID, AUSAID and GEF were some of the participants.
The summit’s declaration will be further discussed at the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg in Russia from September 15 to 18, later this year. The Global Tiger Recovery Program is based on national plans developed by the tiger range countries (TRCs).
According to the WWF Tiger program leader, Michael Baltzer, individual governments have come with strong national plans to help tigers recover in numbers in their countries, but they cannot do it by themselves.
“These governments now must collectively lay the groundwork for a global plan to save wild tigers ahead of the Tiger Summit in Russia,” he said.
According to WWF, the wild population of tigers of all species in the world has fallen from about 100,000 to an estimated 3,200 over the past century and early estimates suggest that the cost of implementing the global tiger project will be more than US$ 350mn and even more if the target of doubling tiger numbers within 12 years is to be met.
According to a draft national tiger recovery program, Bhutan is unique in having tigers at an altitude of 4,100 meters. Bhutan also has plans to monitor cross border movement of tigers and establish cross border administrative coordination mechanisms for joint petrol and policing for wildlife trade.
Threats to the tiger include massive habitat fragmentation and destruction, loss of prey, poaching and illegal trade. Tigers are also lost due to retaliatory killing when they come into conflict with villagers living around tiger habitats.
To protect tigers, WWF and Bhutanese wildlife authorities are working together to establish anti-poaching units and strengthen anti-poaching law enforcement. In addition to poaching, WWF and its partners are addressing human-wildlife conflict by setting up a compensation fund for local farmers whose livestock are often killed by tigers.
Tigers found at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Park in Bhutan are shorter with bushy fur and a facial structure that resemble the Siberian Tiger of Russia. This, according to the Nature Conservation Division’s chief forestry officer, Dr Sonam Wangyel, could be because of a natural adaption or a level of inbreeding taking place.
However, in the absence of a nationwide tiger survey in Bhutan it is difficult to know with certainty where tigers are found in the country. But sightings have been reported in various protected areas.
This pre-meeting is a follow up to earlier governmental meetings on tiger conservation. The first in Kathmandu, Nepal in October last year, recommended a series of 15 global actions that needed to be taken to change the trajectory of tigers from extinction to recovery, as well as commitments from several tiger range countries.
The Kathmandu meeting was followed by the first Asian ministerial conference on tiger conservation held in Hua Hin, Thailand, in January 2010, and which adopted the goal of doubling the number of wild tigers by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.
Other 12 countries who attended the meet were Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
World tiger experts and representatives from NGOs, the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI)/World Bank, and donor agencies such as USAID, AUSAID and GEF were some of the participants.
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