Global summit on wild tigers

CHENNAI: With the Tiger numbers plummeting from 100,000 a century ago to 3200 to 3500 now there is an alarming situation being built up; tigers and their habitats have declined by 40 per cent in the last decade alone. Development has consumed and fragmented the animals’ natural habitat. Under this backdrop a global summit on wild tigers was held at St. Petersburg in Russia from Nov 21 to 24, when all of the participating nations agreed to an unprecedented international commitment to save Asia’s most iconic species.
The world's first gathering of leaders from the 13 nations where tigers live in the wild was opened by Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, in his home city St Petersburg. The world leaders and wildlife campaigners discussed raising the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to bring the tiger back from the brink of extinction.
The four-day summit was part of the Global Tiger Initiative, which was launched two years ago by World Bank President Robert Zoellick to save the endangered cat. The initiative says that the extinction of the tiger would represent "a historic, cultural, spiritual, and environmental catastrophe".
"Wild tigers are not only a symbol of all that is splendid, mystical and powerful about nature," the initiative said in a statement. "They are also a beacon of biodiversity, linking together the forests they inhabit and the natural resources and ecosystem services that their habitats produce for people."
The leaders signed the St. Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation to implement a Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP). The international program aims at doubling the continental tiger population by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.
Signatories to the pledge have promised to preserve and enhance tiger habitats, establish a cooperative system for trans-boundary landscape management and restore tigers to their former range.
According to a recent analysis of international enforcement data, parts of at least 1,069 tigers have been seized over the past decade in Asia’s 13 tiger range countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
This is the first effort from tiger range countries to address all of the threats to tiger survival. It also represents the first step in estimating the incremental costs necessary to save the species.
The World Bank estimates that it will take at least $350m to support nations' joint efforts to fight poachers and introduce incentives for nature preservation over the next five years.
Wild animal aficionado and the summit host Vladimir Putin, who has been photographed kissing a tigress and tagging polar bears, called on the international community to save the tiger from “catastrophe.”
He cited Mahatma Gandhi as saying “a country that is good for the tiger is good for everybody.”
During the summit, a report on the black market sales of the large wild felines in Myanmar and Thailand was presented to the international delegation. The research was accompanied by a short documentary called “Closing a Deadly Gateway.”
It illustrated a flourishing illegal trade in tigers and other wildlife despite national and international laws.