World leaders seek to save the tiger from extinction
By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 11/21/2010
World leaders seek to save the tiger from extinction The tiger’s losing struggle against extinction received a boost Sunday from an unprecedented 13-state summit that aims to double the big cat’s population by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.
World leaders seek to save the tiger from extinction Russian prime minister and self-proclaimed animal lover Vladimir Putin opened his native city to the world’s first gathering of leaders from 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, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The wildlife charity warns that the tiger could become extinct within the next 12 years unless urgent action is taken. “It’s essential to eliminate poaching,” said Adams. “Solutions must begin at the local level. Trans-boundary cooperation must be reinforced.” The summit’s Russian hosts said that a global initiative on tigers could provide lessons for other joint environmental pursuits.
The tiger summit will provide an example “for other challenges such as global warming,” Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev told the gathering. The high-rpofile summit 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.
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.
The conference is expected to tackle the burden of funding a 12-year plan that reaches across the 13 nations. It is also believed to be the world’s first gathering of leaders to address the fate of a single species.
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. “Countries cannot fight the tiger trade individually because of the very nature of the trade,” said Sabri Zain of the TRAFFIC wildlife trade monitoring network. “Tiger parts come from one country, are processed in another and consumed in a third,” Zain told AFP. Apart from Russia, 12 other countries host fragile tiger populations — Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam. But experts stress that India and China are by far the biggest players in saving the beast. India is home to half of the world 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.”
Source: http://news.malaysia.msn.com/top-stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4473462
This is great news! Tigers are carnivores, so when they go extinct, countless sentient beings will experience less suffering. Also, it is bad karma to be born as a tiger. So extinction is best for everyone.
Of course it is bad for the environment, but Buddhists don’t really care about the environment per se–only the happiness of sentient beings in the environment. Plants, for example, are irrelevant to Buddhists but important to ecologists. Also, Buddhists practice animal release, which environmentalists oppose, but what do they know? They need to meditate more.
Just like animals in the past that were extinct. The tigers would also be the same if nothing is done to prevent its extinction. Once the Animals are extinct only archaeology and research would be needed to look for the bones and parts to be assembled and put into museums as exhibits. The Russian leader and self proclaimed animal lover Vladikmir Putin has opened his city for a Summit to be organised and held to discuss on how to try to save the tigers from extinction from countries like India, Bangladesh and China. In these countries a lot of poaching and trafficking for tiger skin and organ parts are being done. Unless something is done to stop poaching and trafficking. As reported the tigers would be extinct in 12 years time.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) opined tigers in this world could become extinct within the next 12years if the source of the cause is not prevented or eliminated. Self-proclaimed animal lover, Russian Primier Vladimir Putin opened his native city to the World for a First gathering of leaders on a fourday discussion on a joint environmental pursuit on how best to address the situation. This high profile summit is expected to receive prominent leaders from China, Wen Jinbao, and prominent delegates from India and Bangladash, the 3 notable countries with the highest volume of tiger skins and other body parts trafficking, with 9 other countries too. Believed to be the First of its kind of a world gathering of leaders to discuss the fate of a single specie of animals, the summit expects to achieve success, so as to double the big cats numbers by 2022! Let us all pray hard that the world leaders are able to seek a solution to save the tigers from extinction with the Divines’ blessings and help.
I didn’t think much of Tigers and I didn’t know there is so much concerted effort to save their dwindling numbers. They are such iconic beasts of WWF but the millions of funds they have at disposal can’t do much to save these beasts from vicious poachers especially in China.
I am embarrass to say that I have used Tiger balm in the past. I am not sure if they still use real tiger extract but I will never use them again. If I am not mistaken, the tiger balm is a very popular Chinese household ointment for relieving itches from insect bites, tummy aches, headaches and muscle aches. I do hope they don’t anymore but there are plenty of over-the-counter alternative ointments that don’t use tiger extracts.
The best way to continue to fight for the cause is to create awareness beyond the summit. http://bit.ly/ck4oDT