Tigers could be exctinct within 12 years

[Schlosser85]

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 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 important 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 important tiger habitatshttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_saving_tigers#, 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 institutions 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 effortshttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_saving_tigers# 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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_saving_tigers

 

[Marx]

I hate hearing things like this.

 

[SuperFerret]

I hate hearing things like this.

Out of curiosity, why?

 

[S.A.A.D.]

Noooo,not possibly the big and little kitties.

 

[Paradoxium]

They should start farming Tigers to make products out of their skins, bones and meat. It worked wonders for buffalo populations. I think they do some of that in China.

 

[SuperFerret]

You need to remember that this is China we're talking about. The buffalo is a U.S. species, and in the U.S. animals are fairly well taken care of. China sucks for the people who live there, nevermind the animals.

 

[Marx]

Out of curiosity, why?

I'm a big animal and nature lover. I always think it's such a shame when animals end up going into extinction. (Especially when it's created by man.)

 

[Paradoxium]

So what? Numbers game. Extinct or farm the **** out of them for a pure profit motive. There is a market in China. Maybe America can farm Tigers for the slaughter and sell them to China. Make some money and help exports. t:

It's win win. Make money, no more extinct *****ing and piss off PETA.

 

[SuperFerret]

I'm a big animal and nature lover. I always think it's such a shame when animals end up going into extinction. (Especially when it's created by man.)

I agree with you, but that last part has always irritated me. Yes, it's slightly different when we're the species that's responsible, and that we might not be doing it for strictly survival reasons, but Homo sapiens isn't the first species to come into dominance and cause multiple extinctions. Hell, we've been doing it for millenia, possibly even starting with our close relatives, the Neanderthals. (Kind of a weird Cain and Abel sorta thing, ain't it?)

On one hand, yes, it's terrible. Tigers are beautiful, majestic creatures, blah blah blah.

On the other hand, I see it as an inevitability of nature. Extinction is as natural as death is, and while we may mourn for those that pass on earlier than we expected, who's to truly say that it's not their time? 99.9% of all species that have existed on this planet are extinct today, and many of them were probably as beautiful and awe-inspiring as tigers are today, and many were also driven to extinction by the rising of more adaptable or more efficient species (or a combination of both).

It may be regrettable, but it's a natural process.

 

[AndThePickles]

I've always been a huge fan of tigers. This is very saddening

 

[Metamorpho1977]

That's Noootttt Grrrreeeaattt!!!!

 

[Paradoxium]

Dude you did not just do that

 

[Sensi]

That is sad. They truly are splendid, mystical and powerful.

 

[Schlosser85]

Poachers should be shot on sight. Let them try it then.

 

[AnorexicBatman]

NO MORE SKITTLES! MICROSOFT WILL PROBABLY PATCH HIM OUT!

But seriously this is incredibly depressing. India itself just has a few Tigers left despite the conservation efforts. Possibly one of the most amazing predators on the planet does not deserve to go out like this. No animal does. It just angers me especially China with their ******** medicine they make out of animal parts including Tiger skin.

I hate the fact that it may come down to farming them BUT THEN KILLING PART OF THE POPULATION FOR THEIR SKIN BECAUSE SAVING A SPECIES IMPORTANT TO THE ECOLOGICAL BALANCE COSTS MONEY AND WE NEED COMPENSATION!!

 

[SuperFerret]

A few thousand isn't that bad in all actuality. The only reason that number is a problem is the poaching. Farming is a good way to curb that.

 

[Firm18]

How am I supposed to appreciate everything around me when I stuff like this is taking place?

 

[SuperFerret]

How am I supposed to appreciate everything around me when I stuff like this is taking place?

Nothing is permanent. Appreciate things while you can.

 

[AnorexicBatman]

A few thousand isn't that bad in all actuality. The only reason that number is a problem is the poaching. Farming is a good way to curb that.

You can't farm territorial, solitary predators. Unless you go the zoo route and keep one or two tigers confined in exhibits and make them breed like crazy.

 

[SuperFerret]

Farming doesn't exist to make the animals comfortable. It exists to harvest them.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

screw humans. We've caused so much harm to this earth. I find it funny how alot of people who do these thigns do it without any hesitation.

 

[Paradoxium]

Yes but they won't be extinct. Animal rights/comfort are to going make some animals extinct.

 

[SuperFerret]

screw humans. We've caused so much harm to this earth. I find it funny how alot of people who do these thigns do it without any hesitation.

 

[SWAT]

Tigers are one of the most beautiful animals on the planet, would be sad to see them extinct.

 

[Paradoxium]

They should legalize the farming of tigers. It's happening to some extent. The alternative is a black market with far less transparency which leads to the unethical treatment. And farming has a proven track record of shoring numbers. The transparency would at least force some producers to be a bit better.