Focus on India as world meets to save tiger

Olga Nedbayeva Yahoo News 24 Nov 10;

SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP) – As Russia hosts an unprecedented summit on saving the wild tiger, much of the attention is focusing on India, home to nearly half of the big cats but also a leading centre for poaching.

Experts here said that despite positive steps, India is struggling to deal with poaching, with poor villagers willing to kill and sell tigers for just 100 dollars and the rangers charged with protecting the animals under-paid and poorly equipped.

"Poaching is the major threat, number two is habitat destruction," said Satya Prakash Yadav, an official with India's environment ministry taking part in the summit of 13 nations in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.

India is home to 1,411 tigers of the estimated 3,200 still living in the wild but also to 54 percent of poaching and trafficking cases. According to a recent report by the Traffic International non-governmental organisation, more than 1,000 tigers have been killed in the last decade in Asia.

"People living around the tiger reserves are always poor and if you come offering them a big price for the tigers they will take it," said Sejal Worah, the director of the World Wildlife Fund's Indian branch.

"The poacher gets only 100 dollars but the price of all the parts could be a 100 or 200 times more than that."

Much of the poaching is fuelled by demand for tiger parts in Thailand, where there are far fewer of the wild cats, she said.

Good laws are in place to protect tigers in India, but enforcement has been lax, said Vivek Menon, the director for Southeast Asia for the International Fund for Animal Protection (IFAW), which has trained more than 7,000 rangers in India, a third of the country's anti-poaching force.

"We have seven years in prison, not fines, if you kill a tiger.... What more do you want? India has very good laws. But the problem is the implementation in such a big country," he said.

"For many years, nobody went to jail. Before, the judiciary never convicted. That has changed in the last five-six years and this is a good step."

India's federal government launched a tiger protection programme in 2007 with several million dollars allocated to urgent measures to cut down on poaching.

Among other efforts, the government recently began hiring retired soldiers to work on tiger reserves.

But Worah said the rangers are working in difficult conditions, hampering their efforts.

"It's difficult and thankless work," she said. "Often they are not paid for months and they are badly equipped. Sometimes they don't even have boots or raincoats."

Another effort has seen Indian authorities displace villages located in reserves to install tigers in the area. India is expected to commit during the summit to creating protected zones for tigers free of infrastructure, roads and people -- a move that is likely to engender controversy.

"In a country like India it is difficult to reserve a zone and to say this is only for tigers and not for anything or anyone else. We don't have the kind of space that Russia has," Worah said.

"Social problems are competing with the tigers. It is a fight every day. But it is not a fight we are losing. We make two steps forward for every step back," Menon said.

Animal-rights groups say the tiger population in India has fallen from 5,000 to fewer than 2,000 in the last five years, despite the allocation of 32,000 square kilometres (12,800 square miles) of sanctuary space.

Still, experts said India has scored some successes in its efforts to save the tiger and they hope the country is on the right track.

"Many of the success stories we talked about even here at the summit are from India," Worah said.

"India is not a bad example, it's just a realistic example," Menon said.

Tigers 'close to catastrophe': Russian PM
Olga Nedbayeva Yahoo News 23 Nov 10;

SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP) – The world's last wild tigers are "close to catastrophe", Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned at an unprecedented summit aiming to save the animal from extinction.

The global tiger summit in Saint Petersburg, the first ever meeting of world leaders devoted to saving the fabled beast, agreed a plan aiming to double the numbers of wild tigers between now and 2022.

The Russian strongman said that the world's population of wild tigers had declined by a factor of 30 over the last century to 3,200 individuals while their habitat area was only seven percent of what it was before.

"The situation of the tiger is close to catastrophe," Putin told an audience of top officials and heads of government including Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

"It is a tragic and deplorable result," said the Russian premier, who has personally championed protecting Russia's remaining population of wild tigers in its Far East.

Putin underlined the importance of the meeting, billed as the final political chance to work out a plan to save the tiger.

"We are not thinking about upcoming elections but about future generations, to whom we should leave what we have admired," he said.

"No-one can reproach us for talking rubbish, when the heads of government have met to speak about a big cat," he added. "We have put the tiger on the agenda of the international community."

Putin has made no secret of his love for tigers, famously fixing a radio collar to a wild tiger in the Far East of Russia in 2008.

"Nature has sent us calls of alarm in the hope of being heard," he added. Putin also proposed offering families of tigers to Iran and Kazakhstan, where the tiger became extinct in the last half century.

The summit received a high-profile boost earlier when it emerged that Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio pledged one million dollars to save the tiger, and was scheduled to attend the meeting.

"Leonardo DiCaprio today committed one million dollars to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for urgent tiger conservation efforts," the WWF said in a statement.

The WWF also confirmed reports that "DiCaprio will also attend this week's summit." It was not immediately clear whether he had already arrived in Saint Petersburg.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick said the institution hoped to provide about 100 million dollars to save the wild tiger by supporting wildlife habitat protection and stopping the illegal trade in tiger body parts.

"We have little margin for error. This summit is highlighting the last chance for this incredible animal," he said.

Sheikh Hasina said that after the summit the world now stood united in efforts to save "these magical creatures".

Poaching, often in pursuit of tiger parts destined for the lucrative Chinese medicinal market, and habitat destruction have caused the drastic weakening of the world's tiger population over the last years.

Russia is the only country to have seen its tiger population increase in the last years from 80-100 in the 1960s to around 500, a success seen by some as helped by Putin's support of the animal.

Some experts however cast doubt at the summit over the value of the radio-tagging project that Putin has spearheaded, raising concerns that it could end up harming the animal.

"They see people close up, have no fear of them, and then become easy targets for well-equipped poachers," said Yuri Zhuravlev, a zoologist who specialises in the Russian Far East.

Along with Russia, 12 other countries host fragile tiger populations -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam.

Russia, China pledge to save the tiger
* Putin, Asian nations approve efforts to save tiger
* Goal to double wild tiger population by 2022
* Just 3,200 tigers remain in wild-experts
Alissa de Carbonnel Reuters AlertNet 23 Nov 10;

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday agreed with other Asian nations to try to double the world's wild tiger population by 2022 and save it from extinction.

Just 3,200 tigers now live in the wild, down from 100,000 a century ago, and those that remain face a losing battle with poachers who supply traders in India and China with tiger parts for traditional medicines and purported aphrodisiacs.

Putin, whose country is one of 13 that are home to the world's last wild tigers, hosted a "tiger summit" with Wen and representatives from other Asian countries, the highest level meeting ever held to try to save a single species.

"It is very important to save this wonderful, imperial creature -- the tiger -- for future generations," Putin said, adding that its situation worldwide was approaching a catastrophe.

His spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a programme to double the number of free-roaming tigers by 2022 was approved on Tuesday.

Initially, $350 million will be spent over the next five years, according to coordinators the World Bank and conservation organisation WWF.

But implementation will be key and without tough measures to halt poaching and deforestation by the 13 nations, which also include India, Thailand and Indonesia, tigers could cease to exist in the wild by that time.

"Here is a species that is literally on the brink of extinction," said WWF's director general Jim Leape. "If we cannot succeed now, if current trends continue, by 2022 we will have only scattered remnants of the populations left."

A series of measures were approved to double the wild tiger population by 2022, which include preserving tiger habitats by prohibiting building work in breeding places, a collaborative crackdown to eradicate poaching by using global police agency Interpol and the United Nations, and to continue seeking funds.

Putin, who was given a tiger cub for his 56th birthday, has tried to court Russia's growing environmental movement by throwing his weight behind efforts to save the tiger, that roams across the vast forests of Russia's Far East.

An ex-KGB spy who sports a macho image, Putin referred to Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi's quote: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

TIGER TRADE

But conservation groups say governments and activists have failed to stop the poachers.

"The tiger population around the world has been dwindling away and the tiger conservation community has been putting in a lot of effort, but we're not succeeding," said John Robinson, chief conservation officer of the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

"If nothing changes radically we are going to see a lot of tiger populations blinking out," he told Reuters.

Wild tiger numbers have tumbled 97 percent in the past decade and up to four of the nine tiger subspecies have vanished.

A marker of the summit's success will be the launch of a consortium to fight wildlife smuggling, said John Sellar, chief enforcement officer for the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

"The key thing is enforcement," he told Reuters. "The situation is now so serious that if we don't get enforcement very soon then the money that we're spending in other areas, one could almost say, is flushing down the toilet."

India is at the centre of the trade with the most seizures of tiger parts, followed by China, where nearly every inch of the tiger fetches a high price, with pelts sold for as much as $35,000, according to black market database Havoscope.

Russia's Putin seeks deal to save the tiger
* Putin to host tiger summit with Asian leaders
* Goal to double wild tiger population by 2022
* Just 3,200 tigers remain in wild-experts
Alissa de Carbonnel Reuters AlertNet 23 Nov 10;

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will try to thrash out a deal with Asian leaders on Tuesday to double the world's wild tiger population by 2022 and save it from extinction.

Just 3,200 tigers now roam free, down from 100,000 a century ago, and those that remain face a losing battle with poachers who supply traders in India and China with tiger parts for traditional medicines and purported aphrodisiacs.

Putin is trying to turn the tables on the poachers by hosting a "tiger summit" with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and representatives from other Asian countries, the highest level meeting ever held to try to save the species.

"Here is a species that is literally on the brink of extinction," the director general of conservation organisation WWF, Jim Leape, told the conference. "If we cannot succeed now, if current trends continue, by 2022 we will have only scattered remnants of the populations left."

The leaders are expected to agree a $350-million programme coordinated by the World Bank and WWF to double the tiger population by 2022.

But implementation will be key and without tough measures to halt poaching and deforestation by the 13 nations that are home to the planet's last free-roaming tigers, they could cease to exist in the wild by 2022.

Putin, who was given a tiger cub for his 56th birthday, has tried to court Russia's growing environmental movement by throwing his weight behind efforts to save the tiger, that roams across the vast forests of Russia's Far East.

TIGER TRADE

But conservation groups say governments and activists have failed to stop the poachers.

"The tiger population around the world has been dwindling away and the tiger conservation community has been putting in a lot of effort, but we're not succeeding," said John Robinson, chief conservation officer of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

"If nothing changes radically we are going to see a lot of tiger populations blinking out," he told Reuters.

Tiger numbers have tumbled 97 percent in the past decade and up to four of the nine tiger subspecies have vanished.

A marker of the summit's success will be the launch of a consortium to fight wildlife smuggling, said John Sellar, chief enforcement officer for the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

"The key thing is enforcement," he told Reuters. "The situation is now so serious that if we don't get enforcement very soon then the money that we're spending in other areas, one could almost say, is flushing down the toilet."

India is at the centre of the trade with the most seizures of tiger parts, followed by China, where nearly every inch of the tiger fetches a high price, with pelts sold for as much as $35,000, according to black market database Havoscope.

"If someone breaks into your house at night and steals your DVD player, the insurance company is going to pay for you to go and get another. When the final tiger or leopard is gone -- that's it," said Sellar.

"If we can't do it for the tiger, then I think we have to ask, are we going to be able to do it for anything else?"

Factbox: World Leaders Meet To Try To Save The Tiger
Alissa de Carbonnel PlanetArk 24 Nov 10;

With just 3,200 left in the wild, tigers could become extinct within a decade unless countries step up efforts to halt poaching and deforestation, wildlife experts told a "tiger summit" in Russia this week.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao join world leaders on Tuesday to endorse a pledge to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022.

Here are some facts about the tiger:

* The four-day "tiger summit" is the highest ever political meeting to discuss the fate of a single species.

* Tigers were once common in at least 25 countries. Today they survive in dwindling numbers, stretched thin across just 13 nations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

* Tigers now occupy barely 7 percent of their historic range, according to conservation organization WWF.

* Three of nine tiger subspecies are extinct: the Bali tiger in the 1940s, the Caspian tiger in the 1970s and the Java tiger in the 1980s. The south China tiger, which has not been seen in the wild for over 40 years, is feared extinct.

* The five other tiger subspecies are endangered. They are the Siberian Amur Tiger (450-500 in number), Bengal Tiger (1,700-2,000), Indochinese Tiger (350-700), the Sumatran Tiger (400) and the Malayan Tiger (200-500).

* 97 percent of the tiger population has vanished in the last 100 years -- as few as 3,200 wild tigers remain, down from 100,000 a century ago.

* Just 1,000 breeding females remain in the wild.

* Despite global bans, poaching is the biggest threat to the tigers' survival. More than 1,000 tigers have been killed over the last decade for illegal trade, an average of 104 to 119 tigers a year, wildlife trade monitor Traffic says, although it views this as only a fraction of the trade.

* India is the center of the illegal trade, followed by China, where demand is rampant for tiger parts used in traditional medicines and as so-called aphrodisiacs.

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

DiCaprio donates $1 million to save tigers
Reuters 23 Nov 10;

LOS ANGELES, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Leonardo DiCaprio on Tuesday donated $1 million toward efforts to save tigers from extinction as he arrived in Moscow to take part in an international "tiger summit."

The star of movies "Titanic" and "Inception" made the $1 million commitment to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), with whom he has been working this year on the Save Tigers Now campaign.

DiCaprio, 36, is a committed environmentalist and a WWF board member who recently visited Nepal and Bhutan and toured a tiger habitat by elephant with an anti-poaching staff.

According to wildlife experts just 3,200 tigers now live in the wild, down from 100,000 a century ago. Russia is hosting a 13-nation meeting in St Petersburg this week to try and double the world's wild tiger population by 2022.

DiCaprio is among those attending the first-ever tiger summit. The actor's first attempt to get to St Petersburg suffered a set-back on Sunday when his commercial flight to Moscow was forced to return to New York after one of the plane's engines shut down.

DiCaprio "wishes to commend the actions of the pilot and flight crew in bringing the plane to a safe landing," the actor's representative said in a statement.

DiCaprio's $1 million donation will help support anti-poaching efforts and protect critical tiger forests where the needs are most urgent.

"Illegal poaching of tigers for their parts and massive habitat loss due to palm oil, timber and paper production are driving this species to extinction," he said. "If we don't take action now, one of the most iconic animals on our planet could be gone in just a few decades. By saving tigers, we can also protect some of our last remaining ancient forests and improve the lives of indigenous communities."

The 13 countries where tigers still exist are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)