Race to Save Tigers Not Yet Lost: Indonesia Official

Fidelis E Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 16 Mar 10;

A senior forestry official on Tuesday dismissed as premature an announcement by the UN’s wildlife trade body that efforts to save the world’s tiger populations were a failure.

“Indonesia is the only country that has managed to release tigers back into the wild, so it is too early to make statements like that,” said Darori, director general of forest protection and nature conservation at the Ministry of Forestry, citing two tigers released into the wild in Lampung last month and plans to soon release two more.

Willem Wijnstekers, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, said on Monday that 35 years of efforts to save tigers in the wild had “failed miserably” and that the big cat was closer than ever to extinction.

“If we use tiger numbers as a performance indicator, then we must admit that we have failed miserably and that we are continuing to fail,” Wijnstekers said in Doha, Qatar, where delegates from nearly 150 nations are gathered to vote on proposals to restrict or ban trade in endangered animals and plants.

Less than a century ago, more than 100,000 tigers roamed the world’s jungles and forests. Today, less than 3,200 remain in the wild with up to 93 percent of their habitats being lost to farming and settlement.

Several tiger species, including the Sumatran tiger, are now teetering on the brink of extinction. The Balinese and Javan tigers were driven to extinction in the 1930s and 1980s, respectively.

“2010 is the Chinese Year of the Tiger and the International Year of Biodiversity,” Wijnstekers said. “This must be the year in which we reverse the trend. If we don’t, it will be to our everlasting shame.”

But Darori said that with the government’s current rehabilitation programs, he was confident Indonesia would be able to reverse the decline of the Sumatran tiger population in the wild, although he conceded it would not be easy.

“They are just big cats and cats are normally easy to breed,” he said, “but it’s expensive to feed them if they’re kept at a zoo.

“But for those in the wild, it’s a bit challenging for us because their habitats are being destroyed, not to mention the high rate of illegal poaching.”

However, Hadi S Alikodra, a wildlife expert at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) in West Java, said the future did not look good for the Sumatran tiger.

“If you look at the numbers, then I’m very pessimistic because Sumatra’s forests — their habitat — are continuing to be destroyed at a rapid pace,” he said.

Hadi said the Sumatran tiger population had decreased by more than 10 percent every year since the 1990s, dropping steadily to reach just 300 left today.

Additional reporting from AFP