World leaders scramble for funds to save the tiger

Olga Nedbayeva Yahoo News 22 Nov 10;

SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP) – World leaders sought Sunday to come up with the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to save the tiger from extinction and double the big cat's numbers by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.

Russian prime minister and self-proclaimed animal lover Vladimir Putin opened his native city to the world's first gathering of leaders from 13 nations where the tiger's free rein has been squeezed ever-tighter by poachers.

"This is an unprecedented gathering of world leaders (that aims) to double the number of tigers," Jim Adams, vice president for the East Asia and Pacific Region at the World Bank, said at the opening ceremony of the four-day event.

"The global tiger initiative is an example of balanced economic development with nature preservation."

Decades of tiger part trafficking and habitat destruction have slashed the roaming tiger's number from 100,000 a century ago to just 3,200 today.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warns that the species is on course for outright extinction by the next Year of the Tiger under the Chinese calendar.

The tiger rescue effort's success "depends on the political will of the countries that support it", WWF Director General James Leape told the conference.

The World Bank estimates that it will take at least 350 million dollars to support joint efforts to fight poachers and introduce incentives for nature preservation over the next five years.

But the summit's Russian hosts voiced optimism that the four-day conference would be crowned with success and provide a lesson for other joint environmental campaigns.

The tiger summit will be an example "for other challenges such as global warming", Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev told the gathering.

The high-profile meeting is due to be attended by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and delegations from India and Bangladesh -- the three nations with the largest volume of tiger skin and other organ trafficking.

But consensus on the need to save the tiger has been hampered by a lack of coordination on the ground to stop the trafficking of tiger parts such as paws and bones -- all prized in traditional Asian medicine.

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

Experts stress that India and China are by far the biggest players in saving the beast.

India is home to half of the world tiger population while the Chinese remain the world's biggest consumers of tiger products despite global bans.

"In China, things are going from bad to worse," said Alexei Vaisman of the WWF. "But it is hard for the Chinese authorities, who are fighting against a millennium-old tradition."

Jia Zhibang, the head of China's forestry administration, admitted Saturday that Chinese authorities had allowed "some exceptions" to a 1993 law that banned the use of tiger parts in Chinese medicine.

But he insisted that China was ready to line up behind the new emergency rescue plan.

"We are ready to cooperate with the World Bank and the other countries seeking to save the tiger," the Chinese minister said.

Russia is the only country to have seen its tiger population rise in recent years.

It had just 80 to 100 in the 1960s but now has around 500, with experts praising Putin for taking an active role in the cause.

Putin has personally championed the protection of the Amur Tiger in the country's Far East and was hailed by the Russian media for firing a tranquillizer dart at one of the fabled beasts in 2008.

Tigers could be extinct in 12 years if unprotected
Irina Titova, Associated Press Yahoo News 22 Nov 10;

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching, global wildlife experts told a "tiger summit" Sunday.

The World Wildlife Fund and other experts say only about 3,200 tigers remain in the wild, a dramatic plunge from an estimated 100,000 a century ago.

James Leape, director general of the World Wildlife Fund, told the meeting in St. Petersburg that if the proper protective measures aren't taken, tigers may disappear by 2022, the next Chinese calendar year of the tiger.

Their habitat is being destroyed by forest cutting and construction, and they are a valuable trophy for poachers who want their skins and body parts prized in Chinese traditional medicine.

The summit approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia.

The Global Tiger Recovery Program estimates the countries will need about $350 million in outside funding in the first five years of the 12-year plan. The summit will be seeking donor commitments to help governments finance conservation measures.

"For most people tigers are one of the wonders of the world," Leape told The Associated Press. "In the end, the tigers are the inspiration and the flagship for much broader efforts to conserve forests and grasslands."

The program aims to protect tiger habitats, eradicate poaching, smuggling, and illegal trade of tigers and their parts, and also create incentives for local communities to engage them in helping protect the big cats.

The summit, which runs through Wednesday, is hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has used encounters with tigers and other wild animals to bolster his image. It's driven by the Global Tiger Initiative which was launched two years ago by World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

Leape said that along with a stronger action against poaching, it's necessary to set up specialized reserves for tigers and restore and conserve forests outside them to let tigers expand.

"And you have to find a way to make it work for the local communities so that they would be partners in tigers conservation and benefit from them," Leape said.

"To save tigers you need to save the forests, grasslands and lots of other species," he added. "But at the same time you are also conserving the foundations of the societies who live there. Their economy depends very much on the food, water and materials they get from those forests."

About 30 percent of the program's cost would go toward suppressing the poaching of tigers and of the animals they prey on.

Russia's Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said that Russia and China will create a protected area for tigers alongside their border and pool resources to combat poaching.

Leape said that for some of the nations involved outside financing would be essential to fulfill the goals.

"We need to see signficant commitment by the multilateral and bilateral indsitutions like the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank plus individual governments like the U.S. and Germany," Leape told the AP.

For advocates, saving tigers has implications far beyond the emotional appeal of preserving a graceful and majestic animal.

"Wild tigers are not only a symbol of all that is splendid, mystical and powerful about nature," the Global Tiger Initiative said in a statement. "The loss of tigers and degradation of their ecosystems would inevitably result in a historic, cultural, spiritual, and environmental catastrophe for the tiger range countries."

Three of the nine tiger subspecies — the Bali, Javan, and Caspian — already have become extinct in the past 70 years.

Much has been done recently to try to save tigers, but conservation groups say their numbers and habitats have continued to fall, by 40 percent in the past decade alone.

In part, that decline is because conservation efforts have been increasingly diverse and often aimed at improving habitats outside protected areas where tigers can breed, according to a study published in September in the Popular Library of Science Biology journal.

Putin has done much to draw attention to tigers' plight. During a visit to a wildlife preserve in 2008, he shot a female tiger with a tranquilizer gun and helped place a transmitter around her neck as part of a program to track the rare cats.

Later in the year, Putin was given a 2-month-old female Siberian tiger for his birthday. State television showed him at his home gently petting the cub, which was curled up in a wicker basket with a tiger-print cushion. The tiger now lives in a zoo in southern Russia.

Tiger summit aims to double numbers
Richard Black BBC News 21 Nov 10;

Governments of the 13 countries where tigers still live aim to agree moves that could double numbers of the endangered big cats within 12 years.

The International Tiger Conservation Forum in St Petersburg will discuss proposals on protecting habitat, tackling poaching, and finance.

About 3,000 tigers live in the wild - a 40% decline in a decade.

There are warnings that without major advances, some populations will disappear within the next 20 years.

Five prime ministers are due to attend the summit, including China's Wen Jiabao and Vladimir Putin of Russia.

"Here's a species that's literally on the brink of extinction," said Jim Leape, director general of conservation group WWF.

"This is the first time that world leaders have come together to focus on saving a single species, and this is a unique opportunity to mobilise the political will that's required in saving the tiger."
Double trouble

The draft declaration that leaders will consider acknowledges that "Asia's most iconic animal faces imminent extinction in the wild".

Measures aimed at doubling numbers include making core tiger areas "inviolate", cracking down on poaching and smuggling, making people aware of the importance of tigers, and setting up cross-boundary protected areas where necessary.

A recent report by Traffic, the global wildlife trade monitoring organisation, said that body parts from more than 1,000 tigers had been seized in the last decade.

But there is acknowledgement that some of the smaller nations will need help, in the form of money and expertise.

Earlier this year, scientists calculated the price of effective global tiger conservation at $80m (£50m) per year, but said only $50m was currently on the table.

However, campaigners say financial concerns should not be an excuse for inaction.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) points out that by comparison, it is estimated that "China spent $31bn on the Olympic Games in 2008, while India spent a total of $2.6bn on the 2010 Commonwealth Games".

"This is the big question," said EIA's campaigner Alasdair Cameron.

"The draft deal has a lot of positive stuff in it, but a lot of the stuff has been around for years - what we need is the political will to make it happen."

He identified two elements missing in the draft deal: measures to reduce the demand for tiger skins and bones and body parts for traditional medicine, and any discussion of tiger farms.

Both are sensitive topics in China, where it is estimated there are more tigers in captivity than exist globally in the wild.

The World Bank has given substantial backing to moves aimed at saving the tiger, and its president Robert Zoellick also referred to the need to reduce demand, especially in China and Vietnam.

"There's no question everyone recognises this as a core issue - the challenge is how we get at it," he said.

Film star Jackie Chan recently voiced some public service announcements in China asking people not to use tiger parts, which Mr Zoellick said was playing a part in "chaning public attitudes".
Small is ugly

From a scientific perspective, one of the most worrying aspects of the tiger's plight is that many populations are very small - fewer than 100 animals.

This means that incidents such as disease can prove particularly severe.

Of the nine sub-species recognised to have been in existence 100 years ago, at least three have since disappeared.

The Bali tiger was last seen in the 1930s, while the Javan and Caspian sub-species were wiped out in the 1970s. All are officially listed as extinct.

The South China tiger may also have disappeared from the wild, with no sightings for nearly 40 years.

Jean-Christoph Vie, deputy head of the species programme with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), suggested the tiger could be seen as a test-case for whether countries are really serious about saving biological diversity.

"Some people are saying 'well, doubling the tiger population is good, but we have no room' - I've heard that said [in preliminary meetings]," he told the BBC.

"It needs to be done everywhere - especially we need to see a doubling where you have significant populations.

""If you leave tigers alone and don't kill them and don't poach them, then naturally they will double in 10 years."


'Last Chance for the Tiger,' Says World Bank President
Andrea Mustain livescience.com Yahoo News 20 Nov 10;

World leaders, conservation groups and major donors are gearing up for a four-day conference to find a workable global strategy to rescue tigers from extinction.

On the eve of next week's Tiger Summit in Russia, World Bank President Robert Zoellick spoke with reporters about the upcoming forum, hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the World Bank in St. Petersburg.

Tigers are critically endangered. Only about 3,200 of the iconic cats still survive in the wild, and their numbers have continued to decline in the forests of the 13 Asian countries where they still roam free. Only six of the nine recognized subspecies of tiger still survive.

"This summit may be the last chance for the tiger," Zoellick said during a teleconference. "Tigers are vanishing."

Zoellick is the man behind the Global Tiger Initiative, a project that has brought together key players from the international community since 2008. Next week's forum marks the culmination of the project, and it is the first time representatives from all 13 tiger range countries will meet.

Despite recent national and international efforts to save tigers, the big cats are disappearing outside of captivity. Habitat destruction plays a major role, but it is the continued illegal slaughter of wild tigers that has had a particularly devastating effect in recent years, Zoellick said.

"We need to see poachers behind bars," he said, "not tigers."

Criminal syndicates sell valuable skins, bones, claws and even tiger meat on a flourishing global black market, and demand for tiger parts for amulets, showy private collections, and, in particular, traditional medicine, remains strong.

In the last decade, authorities in 11 of the tiger range countries have seized the remains of more than 1,069 tigers; those numbers don't include the rest of the world, or the illegal tiger parts that have avoided detection.

Decreasing the demand for tiger parts by educating the public has been a consistent goal throughout the last two years, Zoellick said.

Several celebrities have gotten on board, lending famous faces and voices to the fight against the grim trafficking of tiger parts. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been a vocal supporter.

Perhaps more important for audiences in tiger range countries, action hero and Hong-Kong native Jackie Chan has starred in several public service announcements warning against the purchase of any products purported to contain tiger parts.

In addition to pointing out contributions from Hollywood, Zoellick praised Putin's role in the upcoming meeting, and said the Russian prime minister's active interest in the tiger's plight acted as a catalyst, bringing other world leaders to the table. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao may be among the heads of state attending the summit, Zoellick said.

However, Zoellick said, although political will on the highest level must indeed be harnessed, it is involvement on the ground by locals in the countries where tigers dwell that may matter most in deciding the tiger's fate.

"Outsiders can't do this for people," Zoellick said. "If you don't have local ownership, it won't work."