Tigers in Trouble Draw Global Attention

13 leaders of Asian included Russia, China, India,  Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam was assemble in St. Petersburg on November 23, 2010 for International Forum on Tiger Conservation which known as the "Tiger Forum".

The forum will be the first high-level meeting anywhere to save an endangered species. 

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and government leaders from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam will sign the St. Petersburg Declaration affirming their resolve to save wild tigers from extinction.

These 13 countries are the last refuges of Asia’s most iconic species and stewards of its fate. But this magnificent cat is also a global symbol of biodiversity and the crisis it is in. So these government leaders will be joined by representatives of other governments and heads of relevant international organizations.

Held in the United Nations Year of Biodiversity and the Asian Year of the Tiger, the Forum will endorse a Global Tiger Recovery Program of urgent and comprehensive national and international actions to double the number of tigers across their range, from 3,200 today to 7,000 by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.

Wildlife experts say the number of wild tigers has plummeted from 100,000 a century ago to about 3,200 and continue to fall. In an organized transnational illegal wildlife trade, criminals earn large profits feeding illicit consumer demand for tiger parts and products; they take advantage of poor people living around tiger reserves to recruit poachers. People hunt the prey tigers need to survive. Adverse human activities, including commercial agriculture and infrastructure development, have replaced vast expanses of the tiger’s habitat and threaten to take it all.

Typically in most countries, the responsibility for wildlife conservation belongs to a single ministry or agency that is often underfunded. But counteracting the diverse threats to wild tigers will take the additional participation of many others, including those devoted to finance, the criminal justice system, land-use planning, and infrastructure development. Public support for protecting tigers and their landscapes is also essential. 

Thus, the Forum is important because it will signal to officials that political will and commitment exists at the highest level to eliminate these threats before the wild tiger’s extinction become inevitable.

Tiger Statistics Estimated:
Bangladesh	200-400
Bhutan	70-80
Cambodia	10-50
China	40-50
India	1,200-1,650
Indonesia	450-700
Laos	N/A
Malaysia	300-500
Myanmar	about 100
Nepal	about 350
Russian	about 350
Thailand	250-700
Vietnam	Less than 100