New Straits Times 11 Dec 10;
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has reaffirmed its commitment in protecting and conserving the population of tigers in the recently-concluded Tiger Summit, held in St Petersburg, Russia.
The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, in a statement here yesterday, said that during the summit, its minister, Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas, stressed on the need for bold and affirmative action to enable the doubling of the global wild tiger population by 2022 and to prevent the extinction of the endangered species.
“It is important for leaders to take bold and affirmative decisions and actions through the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP) to save wild tigers and to double their numbers by 2022,” the statement said.
Malaysia adopted the National Tiger Conservation Plan (NTCAP) last year with the aim of having 1,000 wild tigers by 2020, and outlined 80 action plans to achieve the objective.
“Malaysia has also taken various complementary actions to support the growth of the wild tiger population. Since last year, a moratorium has been imposed on the hunting of certain tiger prey species throughout Malaysia,” it said.
Under the 10th Malaysia Plan, the government had approved a research project to track the number of tigers in the wild to monitor the implementation of the NTCAP and to look at the progress of real tiger numbers in the wild.
“ The new data will help us meet the objective of the NTCAP to have up to 1,000 wild tigers by 2020,” it said.
To implement the NTCAP, substantial resources, in terms of funds, human capital and technology, is crucial.
“Realising the huge cost in conserving tigers and their habitats, Malaysia fully supports the proposed Wildlife Premium Market+REDD mechanism where developed countries can play a more committed and effective role in conserving the world’s tigers.
“All these efforts should be reinforced and supported by strong international cooperation to combat trans-boundary illegal wildlife trade,” it said.
According to the World Wildlife Fund and other experts, there are only 3,200 tigers left in the wild now, compared with an estimated 100,000 a century ago. — Bernama
