Celebrities join World Bank in saving tigers

Lesley Wroughton, Reuters 9 Jun 08;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hollywood celebrities Harrison Ford, Bo Derek and Robert Duvall on Monday threw their support behind a new global initiative by the World Bank to save tigers from extinction.

While the global development agency's main mission is to fight poverty in developing countries, it has rarely taken on wildlife conservation efforts of endangered species.

The new Tiger Conservation Initiative will bring together wildlife experts, scientists and governments to try to halt the killing and thriving illegal trade in tiger skins, meat and body parts used in traditional Asian medicines.

Ford, a long-time environmental activist, said efforts to protect tigers would only succeed if local communities were involved in conservation efforts.

"By committing to help wild tigers, the World Bank is sounding its intention to be a global leader in biodiversity conservation," Ford, the star of the latest "Indiana Jones" movie, told an event at Washington's Smithsonian National Zoo.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the decline in the number of tigers was "shocking" from over 100,000 a century ago to currently less than 4,000.

The clearing of large areas of forest land for urban development has added to their decline and disappearance from Central Asia, the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali, and most of China.

POACHING AT ALL-TIME HIGH

A World Bank report warned that "if current trends persist, tigers are likely to be the first species of large predator to vanish in historic times."

"Just as with many other challenges of sustainability, such as climate change, pandemic disease, or poverty, the crisis facing tigers overwhelms local capabilities and it is one that transcends local borders," Zoellick said.

"This is a problem that cannot be handled by individual nations alone, it requires an alliance of strong local commitment backed by deep international support," he added.

Zoellick said the World Bank would convene a series of discussions with countries, conservationists and the private sector to mobilize funding for tiger conservation, and launch studies on how better to protect the cats.

The World Bank chief said there were examples of where tigers had been brought back from the brink of extinction, such as in Russia and Nepal, but added that saving the world tiger population would not be an easy task.

"All those concerned may not agree but this does not mean we should stand on the sidelines and do nothing," he said.

John Seidensticker, chief scientist at the Smithsonian National Zoo's Conservation Ecology Center, said tiger poaching and trafficking in tiger parts and meat was at an all-time high and the biggest immediate threat to tigers.

"For wild tigers to live they must have much better security on their home ground," he said, also calling on countries to properly enforce laws to protect tigers.

This, Seidensticker said, required strong political will.

"We're at a tipping point and we're going to lose wild tigers but with the World Bank initiative wild tigers now have a chance," he added

Seidensticker said tiger conservation efforts needed to be more coordinated and focused, and the World Bank could help as a global institution.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Sandra Maler)

World Bank leads tiger conservation drive
P. Parameswaran, Yahoo News 10 Jun 08;

The World Bank launched Monday a joint project with conservation groups and Hollywood to help reverse the dramatic decline of wild tigers in Asia, in what is seen as the single most important act to save the Big Cat.

The Tiger Conservation Initiative will begin by consulting with countries that have tiger populations to assess financing needs for conservation, identify funding sources and mobilize resources to protect the animals, officials said.

"Just as with many of the other challenges of sustainability -- such as climate change, pandemic disease or poverty -- the crisis facing tigers overwhelms local capabilities and transcends national boundaries," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said at the launching at the National Zoo in Washington.

"This is a problem that cannot be handled by individual nations alone. It requires an alliance of strong local commitment backed by deep international support," he said at the event held in sweltering heat alongside the zoo's enclosure of Sumatran tigers.

Even before the launching, the Washington-based bank initiative came under fire from wary tiger conservationists in India, which houses the largest number of wild tigers.

They slammed the bank for backing projects such as highways and forestry plantations in India that had harmed wildlife.

To show that the bank was sensitive to the demands of such groups, Zoellick said Monday that the bank's "first" step in the tiger conservation drive was to review its own internal policy.

"First, we at the bank are going to initiate a review to our own independent evaluation group of our projects in tiger habitats to learn from the lessons of the past for our future engagement," he said.

Actor Harrison Ford, fresh off the success of his latest movie "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," and actress Bo Derek were at the event to put their celebrity status behind the tiger initiative.

"Acting together, we can put fangs in tiger security and commit the resources necessary to save wild tigers," said John Seidensticker, a world renowned tiger conservation biologist and head of the Smithsonian's National Zoo center for conservation ecology.

John Berry, the zoo's director, described the World Bank-led initiative as "the single most important act for tiger conservation in history."

Tiger poaching and trafficking is at an all-time high amid exploding economic growth in Asia.

Tiger numbers have declined from more than 100,000 a century ago to around 4,000 today, driven by loss of prey and habitat due to uncontrolled development and poaching for the black market trade in tiger skins and bones.

"The decline in the numbers of tigers is shocking," Zoellick said, adding that because of poaching, tigers in many supposedly "secure" reserves across Asia had simply been wiped out.

"Tigers are disappearing from Central Asia, and from East and South Asia," he said.

The International Tiger Coalition (ITC), comprised of 39 member groups aiming to stop trade in tiger parts and products, asked the World Bank to have "open and frank" dialogue with countries on tiger conservation.

"This process is crucial in avoiding further damage to tigers brought by poorly planned development projects," said Grace Ge Gabriel, the ITC spokeswoman. "Nothing short of global action will bring back wild tigers."

The World Bank is planning to host a "Year of the tiger" summit in 2010 to provide a forum for those involved in tiger conservation to review the status of the wild tigers and their habitant.

It will be a "opportunity to hold our feet to the fire," Zoellick said.

Harrison Ford Endorses New Global Tiger Initiative
Christine Dell'Amore, National Geographic News 9 Jun 08;

A new World Bank-led tiger conservation initiative will draw on the collective might of the world's nonprofits, governments, and local citizens to prevent tigers from completely "slipping away," experts announced today at a press conference with Indiana Jones actor Harrison Ford.

The predators have plummeted from 100,000 to 4,000 in the past century and now occupy only 7 percent of their original range.

The "urgent, immediate threat" of poaching continues to whittle down that number, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank Group, told a press briefing at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

The new initiative will take a hard look at existing projects in tiger habitats, review existing efforts to combat the trade in illegal tiger parts, and develop alternative funding for saving tigers, among other strategies.

In addition, a 2010 "Year of the Tiger" summit will bring together the many groups and individuals working to preserve the big cat.

"If wild tigers are to be saved, they must be seen as more valuable alive than dead," Zoellick said.

Because tigers are at the top of the food chain, their health is an "indicator of biodiversity and a barometer for sustainability," he added.

Partner organizations include the International Tiger Coalition, the National Zoo, and the Global Environment Facility.

Illegal Trade

The "great preservers of the past"—inaccessibility and poverty—no longer shield tigers from humans, who are poaching and trafficking the animals at an unprecedented rate, said John Seidensticker, a conservation biologist at the National Zoo.

As Asian economies flourish, the demand for tiger meat and parts for traditional Chinese medicine and trophies has wiped out most of the tigers living in reserves. (See a photo of an illegal tiger skin for sale in Myanmar [Burma].)

The big cats, which once prowled most of Asia, have already disappeared from Central Asia and almost all of China.

In the face of development pressures, the new initiative should also focus on how to balance habitat conservation with the needs of local people in countries where tigers still roam, experts said.

Actor Harrison Ford, vice chair of the board of directors of the nonprofit Conservation International—one of the groups that will participate in the new plan—emphasized that local people should have a say.

"I recognize that these projects work more efficiently and more sustainably when local communities are involved," Ford told National Geographic News. "That's the general reality of the situation."

"I've seen how conservation outcomes are scaled up when a variety of people … pool together to apply their influence," he said.

Promising Steps

In general, tigers can recover if their habitat is protected, conservationists say.

Siberian tigers in the Russian Far East have bounced back to a stable population of about 500 thanks to vigorous conservation efforts.

And ASEAN-WEN, a network of Asian countries committed to halting wildlife crime inside their borders, is a promising first step, said the Zoo's Seidensticker. The network complements the international treaty CITES, which bans illegal trafficking of endangered species.

But tigers will rebound only with strong political will and only if everyone involved—from local people to governments—demands that they survive, Seidensticker said. Conservation projects largely remain underfunded and low-priority in many tiger-inhabited countries.

"A world without tigers would be a world without hope," Seidensticker said. "It would be like a clear night sky without stars."