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Thirteen Tiger Nations to Create Anti-Poaching Network

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Tiger nations to set up anti-poaching network

Tiger nations to set up anti-poaching network

 

KATHMANDU – Thirteen countries which are home to the world’s dwindling population of wild tigers on Friday (Feb 6) agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing network to fight traffickers, concluding an anti-poaching conference in Kathmandu.

Around 100 experts, government and law enforcement officials attended the five-day summit, co-hosted by Nepal and conservation group WWF to hammer out a regional plan to fight poaching in Asia.

“We cannot allow wildlife crime to continue to wrap its tentacles deeper into the region,” said Tikaram Adhikari, director general of Nepal’s department of national parks and wildlife conservation. “Our individual efforts may win us a few battles, but we can only win the war only if Asia presents a united front to stop the poaching, end the trafficking and wipe out demand,” Adhikari said in a press statement.

Nepal has twice been recognised for going a full year with no poaching incidents involving tigers, while the population of the endangered cats rose almost two thirds between 2009 and 2013.

David Lawson of WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative said the network of national liaison officers would “help countries communicate better with each other, build trust and deepen cooperation which is essential to win the fight against poachers”. “Asian governments need to recognise that we are in the midst of a poaching crisis and that this theft of natural resources must be stopped,” Lawson told AFP.
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Decades of trafficking and habitat destruction have slashed the global tiger population from 100,000 a century ago to approximately 3,000, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Poachers hunt the animal for its bones, which used to be an ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine, its pelt, which can fetch up to US$16,000 on the black market, and its penis, believed to increase male sexual performance.

Countries with tiger populations – Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam – in 2010 launched a plan to double their numbers by 2022.

Meanwhile, The Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting wild tigers and keeps improving laws and regulations protecting wild tigers, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular press conference on Wednesday.

A National Plan to recover wild tigers has been implemented. A network of natural reserves and protection stations at grassroots levels is being built. Poaching, trading of tiger bones and using them as medicine are fully banned, Hong added.

Thanks to the efforts made by the government and people from all walks of life, the habitats for wild tigers in China have been effectively restored and improved, the species and population of wild tigers have been gradually enlarged and wild tigers protection has become a self-conscious action of more and more Chinese people, said the spokesman.

The Chinese government will take further steps to protect wild tigers and substantially increase the species and population of China’s wild tigers. “We stand ready to step up cooperation and exchange with other countries and relevant international organizations to protect wild tigers, advance the common endeavor of wild tigers protection and enable human beings and the nature to coexist with each other more harmoniously,” Hong said.

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