Can 2022 be the 'Year of the Tiger' if the Tigers are all Gone?
Sad but true: there are lots of endangered animals out there. Climate change, deforestation and habitat destruction are all powerful forces working against wild populations of, well, most wild animals.
So you know it has to be pretty bad when the World Wildlife Fund singles out a species for particular attention. This week the conservation organization called for urgent action to save the tigers. In addition to surviving the three challenges above, these regal striped beasts have been brought to their collective knees by poaching and "parts trafficking".
Yep. A whole species brought down by the Tiger Penis Trade.
According to the WWF, there are only 3,200 tigers left in the wild. Since 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, they're trying to draw attention to this frighteningly low number. Their goal is to use conservation to double this figure by the next Year of the Tiger, in 2022.
In the interest of having tigers around for the next twelve years, last week the Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop 2009 was held in Nepal. The workshop made several recommendations, including the creation of a specific tiger resolution in the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), and withholding financial support from development projects in tiger habitats.
Logical idea, right? Don't build anything where tigers live. It's not like there are so many tigers left in the world that this eliminates a lot of key commercial real estate opportunities. Let's go for this low hanging conservation fruit!
The workshop also called for better protection against poachers, who make a killing, literally and figuratively, selling "medicinally powerful" tiger parts on the black market.
In addition to several conservation groups, the 13 "tiger range" countries participated in the Global Tiger Initiative meeting, the first in a series of leading up to the Heads of State Tiger Summit in September 2010. With enough cooperation, they just may be able to meet their goals, which include protecting habitats, reducing demand and wildlife crime enforcement.
And, of course, having wild tigers around in 2022.
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