Posted on 01 February
2011
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The Year of the
Tiger in the Chinese lunar calendar comes
to an end on Wednesday having yielded big
results for its namesake – an unprecedented
swell of public and government support to
save tigers in the wild, including a historic
global recovery programme.
The International Tiger
Forum, held in St. Petersburg, Russia in
November 2010 marked the first time an international
summit was convened to focus on a single,
non-human species. The Forum produced the
Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP),
a collaboration between the 13 countries
that still have wild tigers. It has set
a goal of doubling wild tigers by the next
Year of the Tiger in 2022.
“The recovery programme
is a big boost for tigers,” said Mike Baltzer,
Head of WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative.
“But it is only the
beginning. We must now join the tiger countries
and our partners worldwide to ensure the
momentum from the Forum and this past year’s
tiger conservation achievements continues.
Tigers have already run out of time. The
recovery must not lose steam.”
Wild tiger numbers are
down to only 3,200, with scattered populations
across 13 countries having lost more than
93 percent of their historic range. Just
100 years ago, an estimated 100,000 tigers
roamed across Asia.
As the recovery program
takes shape, progress has already been made
to save tigers in the wild. This includes:
Korean Pine, a critical
tree in the Russian Far East was awarded
official protective status, ending its logging
in Amur tiger habitat A new wildlife conservation
bill was passed in Malaysia, providing significantly
higher penalties and mandatory jail time
for wildlife crime, with poaching of tigers
and trading in their parts now receiving
maximum punishment India announced it’s
39th tiger reserve (Sahyadri), with another
eight new reserves in development Indonesia’s
Ministry of Forest placed a moratorium on
conversion of virgin forest and peat swamp
forest on the island of Sumatra for the
next two years, thus protecting prime Sumatran
tiger habitat Cambodia formally designated
Selma Forest a protected area, creating
a new and vital protected area as part of
the Eastern Plains Tiger Landscape Protected
Area Complex The South Asia Wildlife Enforcement
Network (SAWEN) was established, strengthening
anti-poaching and wildlife trade law enforcement
efforts in the tiger countries of Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India and Nepal “These represent
major decisions to save tigers that will
go a long way in supporting the recovery
programme,“ concluded Baltzer. “Let’s not
forget, however, that we need to take the
next step and turn Year of the Tiger commitments
into success. This year must be the year
of action.”
Accomplishments already
in 2011 have illustrated this point:
In late January WWF assisted the government
of Nepal in the country’s first successful
relocation of an injured tiger to a new
home in the one of the country’s premier
national parks.
In the past week, WWF
released a corporate declaration, with internationally
known companies such as Hewlett Packard
and Tetra Pak affirming their support for
tiger conservation, by stating in part that
they will “strive, through our business
practices, to avoid or minimize, impacts
of our natural resource sourcing on tiger
habitat, by implementing responsible purchasing
policies and, where possible, to improve
landscapes for wild tiger populations.”
On Jan. 25, the journal
Conservation Letters published a paper by
WWF Chief Tiger Scientist Eric Dinerstein
and other colleagues and WWF staff concluding
that tiger numbers can triple in certain
areas if poaching, illegal trade and habit
loss are reduced.
As the Year of the Tiger gives way to the
United Nation’s International Year of Forests,
the tiger’s forest habitat will continue
to link it to Asian and international biodiversity
conservation efforts.
Throughout this year,
WWF will be running a Living Forests Campaign
that will combine cutting edge science,
new perspectives from partners and decades
of on-the-ground experience to help address
the joint challenge of saving forests and
tigers.
“The tiger is an indicator
species for healthy forests, and 2011 has
already seen strong continuing support for
tigers and their habitat,” said Baltzer.
“As Year of the Tiger closes, we must redouble
our efforts and ensure this magnificent
species continues to roar into the next
Year of the Tiger in 2022.”
