KATHMANDU,NEPAL
Nepal has expressed a strong commitment to doubling its tiger population by 2022. Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Deepak Bohara on Sunday made this vow while addressing the inaugural session of the International Tiger Conservation Conference that began at St. Petersburg in Russia.
Bohara stressed that Nepal had been successful to accomplish most of the commitments made at the Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop 2009 in the context of the Global Tiger Initiative mission and the goal of doubling tiger population.
The international forum has brought together the leaders of 13 Tiger Range Countries to discuss what could be the best and last chance to save the wild tiger. The summit featured high-level officials and tiger experts from every major tiger country and conservation institutions, a first in the history of tiger conservation.
The conference is being organized to have a joint commitment to save the big cat after a warning that without major advances, the animal will disappear within the next 20 years from the wild, their existence threatened by habitat-loss and poaching.
About 3,600 of the tigers remain in the wild today--a 40 percent decline in a decade. It is not often that heads of government do get involved to this degree in conservation of a single species. The current number of wild tigers around the world is Bangladesh 440, Bhutan 75, Cambodia 20, China 45, India 1,411, Indonesia 325, Laos 17, Malaysia 500, Myanmar 85, Nepal 155, Russia 400, Thailand 200 and Vietnam 10.
Over 300 participants representing Tiger Range Countries and other tiger conservation partners have met to finalize the strategy to double the tiger population by 2022.
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.
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