Tigers the focus of national conservation programme | Look At Vietnam

Tigers the focus of national conservation programme

May 16, 2012

LookAtVietnam – Viet Nam is looking to conserve and develop its population of domestic wild tigers in order to, with other countries, help double the global number of wild tigers over the next decade under a new draft national programme.

Illustrative image. (Photo: Internet)

According to statistics from the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, there are less than 50 wild tigers scattered throughout the country’s remote forests.
With the hope of expanding their population, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) submitted a draft National Tiger Conservation Programme to the Prime Minister at the end of April.
The draft was welcomed by naturalists.
Chairman of the Viet Nam Zoological Society Professor Dang Huy Huynh said: “Wild tigers must be saved before it is too late.”
“It is absolutely imperative that we implement this programme because our wild tigers are moving closer to extinction every day,” he said.
Illegal hunting and trafficking as well as deforestation have been blamed for the threat to their survival.
“We should not let the fate of our wild tigers go the same way as the last rhino in Viet Nam,” Huynh said.
“If it happens, it will be a painful story for both scientists and managers.”
But the professor is also optimistic that Viet Nam will be able to double its tiger population in the next 10 years.
He explained tigers gave birth to 1-3 cubs every 2-2.5 years with a gestation period of 104-106 days. If the cubs were well cared for, the number of wild tigers in the country would rise to 80.
Under the draft programme, at least one wild tiger conservation area is planned and potential locations include the Muong Nhe Nature Reserve and national parks in Pu Mat, Vu Quang, Chu Mom Ray and Yok Don.
Huynh suggested that two conservation areas should be set up, one located in the north and the other in the central region.
However, technology and costs should be taken into account, he said.
Policy-makers should ensure they come to a consensus with the public to achieve their targets, he said.
For example, local people in conservation areas would have to refrain from hunting tigers or destroying their habitat.
Public awareness of wild tiger conservation needed to be heightened in order to reduce domestic consumption of tiger products, he added.
Truong Van Truong, director of the Central Highland province of Dak Lak’s Yok Don National Park, said that illegal hunting and reduction of habitat were believed to be the causes of falling numbers.
An estimated 10 wild tigers currently live in the park. Truong also believed that the number would be maintained, along with other wild animals.
“If a wild tiger conservation area is built in our national park, we’d do our utmost to save the fate of our tigers,” Truong said.
Hoang Thi Thanh Nhan, deputy head of MoNRE’s Biodiversity Conservation Department, said that the programme would be funded by the State budget and other sources including official development assistance and donations from individuals and organisations.
“To build a tiger conservation area that meets international standards is expensive. That’s why we only focus on one area to begin with,” Nhan said.
According to the International Tiger Coalition, it costs US$4,000-10,000 to provide a save environment for each cub to mature into an adult tiger.
“If the area is a success, we plan to expand the programme,” she said.
Viet Nam, one of 13 countries that are home to wild tigers, committed to implement the St. Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation in 2010.
The Government first issued a ban on hunting wild tigers in 1963.
The wild tigers living in the provinces of Dak Lak, Dien Bien, Ha Tinh, Nghe An, Kon Tum and Quang Nam are Indochinese tigers (Panthera tigris corbetti), weighing from 180-200 kilos and 1.7-2.3 metres in length.
Statistics from the Worldwide Fund for Nature said that 97 per cent of the world’s wild tigers had been lost in just over a century, and only 3,200 remained.
VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

28-47 Tigers left in Vietnam

Vietnam has less than 50 tigers, says ministry

April 27, 2012

LookAtVietnam – According to the latest report of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), Vietnam has between 28-47 tigers in the wild and they are facing high threat of extinction. 

The number of tigers in cages is only 112 and this situation is not proven to be able to support preservation of wild tigers.
To preserve tigers, the MoNRE has drafted a national program on tiger preservation to 2022.
This program aims to protect and develop the community of wild tigers and tigers’ preys in Vietnam, in order to contribute to the goal of doubling the number of tigers in nature in the world by 2022.
Under this plan, management and protection of the forest where is the home to wild tigers will be tightened. Tiger camps will be also under strict supervision.
A system to supervise the community of wild tiger and caged tigers will be set up.
Under the draft, at least one wild tiger conservation area would be set up and the potential locations include Muong Nhe Nature Reserve and the National Parks of Pu Mat, Vu Quang, Chu Mom Ray and Yok Don.
The plan also suggests solutions to prevent and punish acts that violate the rules on preserving tigers’ and tigers’ food sources and illegal trading activities of products from tigers and tigers’ preys.
In Vietnam, tigers are illegally traded because body parts of tigers are used as medicines (tiger bone glue) and souvenirs.
Hanoi police have recently detected several tiger-related cases. On January 9, police caught in the act–a restaurant in Thanh Xuan district processing tiger bone glue. Police seized two tiger skeletons.
Phuong Lan

Singapore jewellers 'selling tiger parts'

"Singapore - A local animal protection group said on Friday that some jewelery shops in Singapore were illegally selling tiger parts, helping fuel the disappearance of the big cat from Asia.

A three-month investigation by Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) found that 59 out of 134 jewelery and antique shops it visited in the south-east Asian city-state were allegedly selling tiger parts, including claws, teeth and pieces of skin.

Acres said all commercial tiger trade had been banned by the international Cites convention that Singapore had signed, and under domestic law the sale of tiger specimens was prohibited, even if the products turned out not to be real.

It said shopkeepers had told it that demand had been higher over Lunar New Year - the start of the Year of the Tiger - and that more orders could be placed for parts, which could take from a week to three months to be delivered.

The shopkeepers said the parts came from south-east Asia, China and south Asia.

Tiger parts are used to make jewelery and Chinese medicine.

Conservationists say tigers in the Greater Mekong region face extinction.

Global tiger populations are at an all-time low of 3 200, down from about 100 000 a century ago, as forest habitats disappear and the animals are killed for their body parts.

Asian countries are a hot spot for the illegal wildlife trade, which the international police organization Interpol estimates may be worth more than $20 billion (R150bn) a year.

'As long as there is demand, there will be supply,' said Singapore member of parliament Lim Wee Kiak.

'Legislation alone is insufficient to bring a complete halt to the illegal trading."

13 countries meet in bid to save wild tigers -

HUA HIN, Thailand -- Efforts to save the wild tiger are at a critical point and it will take greater political will and cooperation from Asian countries to prevent the big cats from becoming extinct, conservationists and the World Bank warned Wednesday.

The dire message was offered to 13 tiger range states attending the first Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. The aim of the three-day meeting is to convince countries to pledge to spend more on tiger conservation and set targets for boosting their numbers - vows that would then be finalized by heads of state in September at a meeting in Vladivostok, Russia.

"There will be no room left for tigers and other wildlife in Asia without a more responsible and sustainable program for economic growth and infrastructure," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a video message to the 180 delegates.
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"The tiger may be only one species, but the tigers' plight highlights the biodiversity crisis in Asia," he said.

Thailand's Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Suwit Khunkitti told delegates the time had come for his fellow ministers to commit to "bold commitments and actions so that we can collectively turn the tide of extinction on the tiger."

Tiger numbers have plummeted because of human encroachment, the loss of more than nine-tenths of their habitat, and poaching to supply the vibrant trade in tiger parts. From an estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, the number today is less than 3,600.

John Seidensticker, head of conservation ecology at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and chairman of the Save the Tiger Fund, recalled how he watched the Javan and Bali tigers disappear in the 20th century, adding that "losing a tiger is like losing a very close, dear relative and I'm still saddened by that experience."

He said conservationists have over the years been successful in banning trade in tiger parts, outlawing hunting and boosting protection measures. But he said he and others never foresaw the breakneck economic development in Asia that would "pave over" key tiger forests and grasslands and create a market for tiger parts that has caused poaching to skyrocket.

Still, Seidensticker and others said the meeting itself offered hope, showing that the bid to save tigers has gone beyond passionate environmentalists and scientists and is now being embraced by government officials and key donors like the World Bank.

The meeting is being organized by Thailand and the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 by the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40 conservation groups. It aims to double tiger numbers by 2022.

"That this meeting is happening is hugely important," said John Robinson, executive vice president of conservation and science for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

Robinson said the political will to save the tigers must be strengthened, funding increased for impoverished countries where tigers remain and forests expanded to ensure that tigers and humans don't clash - a problem especially common in India and Indonesia.

Relocating communities is an option as long as the villagers are compensated adequately, Robinson said.

The World Bank said countries must work to minimize the impact of roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects on tiger habitat - something the bank has vowed to do in projects it funds. It also called on countries to better train and equip their forest rangers and reduce corruption in the government agencies tasked with running national parks and protected areas.

"Corruption has been rampant and all pervasive in some of the countries as far as forest management is concerned," said Keshav Varma, the Global Tiger Initiative's program director, told delegates. "Corruption is gradually and persistently nibbling away at our natural resources. The politics of money is drowning out the weak voices of the tiger and the poor."

The 13 countries attending the meeting are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

AFP: Frozen tiger, bones seized in Vietnam: monitors

HANOI — A frozen young tiger and several kilograms of tiger bones have been seized by police in Vietnam, where only about 50 of the animals remain, an environmental group said in a statement received Monday.

Hanoi's environmental police found the frozen tiger, weighing 57 kilograms (125 pounds), in the boot of a "suspicious" taxi they stopped in the capital early last Thursday, the TRAFFIC wildlife trade monitoring network said.

They also found 11 kilograms of limb bones believed to come from two tigers, it said.

Environmental police believe the tiger had been transported from central Vietnam but it is not yet known whether it was a native big cat or whether it was wild or captive, said TRAFFIC.

The tiger seizure is the third in Hanoi this year after six tiger skins were found at a store in January and 23 kilograms of frozen tiger parts were recovered the following month, TRAFFIC said.

"These seizures show us just how serious the threat to Asia's remaining wild tigers is," said Nguyen Dao Ngoc Van, of TRAFFIC's Hanoi office.

Vietnam is a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which lists tigers as a protected and endangered species.

Tigers are threatened by the loss of natural habitat from Asia's rapid urbanisation, and are also hunted for fur and body parts used in traditional Chinese medicine

3 White Tigers Kill Singapore Zoo cleaner

Three white Bengal tigers mauled a zoo cleaner to death in Singapore on Thursday after the man jumped into a moat surrounding their enclosure, the zoo said.
The tigers, which each weigh more than 220 pounds, pounced on Nordin bin Mondong, a 32-year-old Malaysian, according to Biswajit Guha, the Singapore Zoo's assistant director.
Fellow zoo workers managed to distract the tigers and pull Nordin away, but he died on the way to a hospital, Guha said.
"A Malaysian contract worker jumped into the moat at the white tiger exhibit and was attacked by three white tigers," Guha said in a statement. "The worker tragically succumbed to his wounds."
The zoo has temporarily closed the tiger exhibit and police are investigating the incident, Guha said.
He did not say why Nordin may have jumped into the tigers' area.
Bengal white tigers in the wild are found in South Asia, mostly in India.