Will Indonesia's Last Tigers Survive?

Tasa Nugraza Barley, Jakarta Globe 1 Mar 10;

TasIt’s not just the Chinese who are celebrating the Year of the Tiger — the World Wildlife Fund has launched its own 2010 Year of the Tiger campaign to protect the endangered big cat.

The goal? To double the number of tigers living in the wild by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.

According to WWF figures, the number of the wild tigers has fallen by more than 95 percent over the past 100 years, leaving only 3,200 tigers in the world compared to 100,000 in the early 1900s.

For the current campaign, the WWF is working with countries that have wild tiger populations. Tigers can be found in Asia’s remaining forests, living in countries across the south, southeast and east of the continent.

WWF Indonesia launched the campaign here on Feb. 12, focusing on the protection of Sumatran tigers.

Desma Murni, communications manager for the forest and species program at WWF Indonesia, said that of the original nine tiger subspecies in the world, three were now extinct — the Caspian, Bali and Javan tigers. The remaining tiger subspecies are Siberian, Bengal, Indochinese, Sumatran, South China and Malayan.

“It’s a shame that we have lost two tiger subspecies in Indonesia,” Desma said.

Based on research conducted by a number of institutions, including the WWF, the Bali and Javan tigers vanished in the 1930s and 1970s, respectively, due to aggressive hunting by humans.

Sumatran tigers, the only remaining wild tigers in Indonesia, live in the jungles of Sumatra Island, from Aceh in the north to Lampung in the south.

But there are only around 400 of these tigers remaining in the wild and the WWF has classified them, along with the South China tiger, as “critically endangered,” meaning that immediate steps must be taken to prevent their extinction.

“We’ve lost two tiger subspecies [in Indonesia] and we definitely can’t afford to lose the Sumatran tigers too,” Desma said.

The Sumatran tiger is the smallest subspecies of tiger at around 2.5 meters long. Males usually weigh from 100 to 140 kilograms, while females weigh from 75 to 110 kilograms.

Desma said WWF Indonesia had implemented a range of programs to save the Sumatran tiger, including cooperating with city governments to restore national parks in forest areas.

WWF Indonesia said it would use the Year of the Tiger campaign to garner greater support for its programs from private companies and the public.

“Public workshops will be conducted during 2010 to educate people about the importance of saving Sumatran tigers,” Desma said.

She said WWF Indonesia would also work to educate the legal sector about how to better respond to wildlife crimes. The group will help train police officers, customs officials and prosecutors to respond to they types of crimes.

“Many law enforcers still don’t understand how to classify such a crime or how to handle it,” Desma said.

She said immediate action was needed to check the decline in the Sumatran tiger population, but warned it wouldn’t be easy.

“That’s because their jungles have been badly damaged and people still hunt them,” she said, adding that the continued loss of natural habitat meant wild tigers didn’t have enough prey to hunt.

“Because the jungle keeps shrinking, these tigers often accidentally enter villages where people will kill them because they are seen as a threat,” she said.

During the campaign launch, musician Nugie said people could take simple actions to help save the Sumatran tiger. “An environmentally friendly attitude, such as limiting the use of paper will help prevent the destruction of the forests,” he said. “That way, we can all help protect the tigers.”

Desma said she was confident that despite the many challenges, the Sumatran tiger could be saved from extinction. She said there was strong evidence that the tigers would breed if they had enough food and a habitat safe from hunters.