Representatives from 13 “tiger-range countries” met in Indonesia yesterday to draft a global recovery plan ahead of a summit in Russia in September.
“We’re gathering here because we share concerns about the sustainability of tigers,” Indonesian Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said in an opening address to delegates in Bali. “It is alarming that out of the nine tiger subspecies in the world, only six are remaining.”
PHOTO: AFP
The plan to be drafted in Bali will be used as the basis for discussion at a “tiger summit” in St Petersburg from Sept. 15 to 18.
“In Indonesia alone, only the Sumatran tiger still exists, while the other two subspecies have become extinct,” the minister said, referring to Javan and Balinese tigers which were wiped out in the 1980s and 1940s respectively.
He blamed a “lack of law enforcement” for the continuing losses of Sumatran tigers, which number only about 400 in the wild.
Several are killed every year by poachers and villagers who compete with them for dwindling forest resources.
WWF says the global, wild population of tigers of all species has fallen from about 100,000 to an estimated 3,200 over the past century.
Countries invited to the St Petersburg summit are Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The pre-summit talks, which end tomorrow, will hear details of each country’s tiger protection plans and funding proposals.
Harry Santoso, Indonesia’s conservation official, said ahead of the talks that Jakarta would ask for more than US$175 million in foreign aid to implement its plan to double the Sumatran tiger population by 2022.
The plan focuses on mitigation of human-animal conflict and better law enforcement, including stiffer penalties to stop poaching and forest destruction. Human-animal conflicts are a rising problem as forests are destroyed for timber or palm oil plantations, forcing animals such as elephants and tigers into closer contact with people.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS