1st Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation Ushers in Year of the Tiger

At the 1st Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation, held late last month in Hua Hin, Thailand, governments from the 13 tiger range countries (TRCs) showed unprecedented unanimity around the ambitious goal of total protection of critical tiger habitats and doubling the global number of wild tigers by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger. Thailand, the conference host, announced new commitments to improve and expand wildlife patrolling efforts. It was the first ever meeting of high-level representatives of the TRCs to discuss wild tiger conservation and signaled powerful convergence of political will, solidarity, and recognition of the urgency of the crisis facing the iconic symbol of Asia’s biodiversity. Populations of tigers in the wild have continued to decline as a result of poaching and habitat deterioration. Only 3,200 are estimated to remain today, occupying a mere 7% of their original range.

The Bank joined efforts to reverse the trend line toward extinction in June 2008, when President Zoellick launched the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) with partners at the Smithsonian National Zoo. The meeting in Thailand was the latest concerted effort by governments and wildlife conservation experts set in motion by the GTI to date to consider local, national, and regional plans to address tiger conservation issues. In September 2010, the heads-of-government Tiger Summit will be hosted by Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok.

President Zoellick delivered a message by video (http://go.worldbank.org/WW6MUN0YQ0) to delegates in Thailand, affirming the Bank’s continued support to policies and actions on the ground in the TRCs to help conserve remaining tigers and make population recovery possible. Zoellick said, “The tiger may be only one species, but the tiger’s plight highlights the biodiversity crisis in Asia.”

Governments presented accounts of the current progress of tiger conservation efforts across the TRCs. Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Jim Adams and Director-General of the Independent Evaluation Group Vinod Thomas (http://go.worldbank.org/B732TJLHR0), also gave keynote addresses in Hua Hin, outlining the World Bank Group’s activities to bring conservation and protection of biodiversity more into the mainstream of the development agenda. Jim Adams (http://go.worldbank.org/3CZO7J0Z80) spoke of the GTI as an opportunity to reposition some of the priorities in the Bank’s sustainable development strategy towards habitat conservation and biodiversity concerns: “How well the Global Tiger Initiative is internalized into the World Bank’s everyday business in Asia – its work on infrastructure, its investments, its role in urbanization, and its own ecological footprint – will be the real test of our seriousness.”

Thailand, the host government, used the Hua Hin Ministerial meeting as a platform to announce new commitments, including expanding its Smart wildlife patrolling program in the Western Forest Complex. Thai Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Suwit Khunkitti strongly supported transformational actions and implementation of pledges at the conference, proposing the formation of a high-level Tiger Council to oversee future action. “We shall reach up to the highest levels of our governments for support… let us join together boldly to save the wild tiger,” said Khunkitti in a plenary session. Experts and practitioners of conservation in the TRCs continued discussions on best practices and adoption of policies embracing locally-targeted ‘tiger-friendly’ strategies in areas such as smart green infrastructure and landscape and park management, building on work from a conference on wildlife enforcement in Pattaya, Thailand last year, and the Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop held in Nepal in October 2009.

The Hua Hin Declaration was unanimously adopted by delegates at the ministerial meeting, reflecting minister-level agreement among the TRCs to redouble efforts on the ground to halt the decline of tigers and assist in recovery of habitats.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva energized the delegates with his powerful vision in favor of conservation measures: “In accomplishing this task, all of us here will no longer be remembered as part of a generation that has destroyed tigers but as champions and protectors, and as originators of initiatives for conservation of tigers as well as our entire global natural capital that is part of our planet’s life-supporting system.”

The Year of the Tiger in the Chinese Lunar Calendar began February 14, and conservationists see the coming year as make or break for the future of the threatened species. Planning is now beginning for the Tiger Summit in Vladivostok.
The 1st Asian Ministerial Meeting was co-organized by the Royal Government of Thailand, the World Bank, Save the Tiger Fund and other partners of the Global Tiger Initiative. All 13 tiger range countries were represented in Hua Hin. They include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

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Transcript

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Speech

• Keynote Address by Jim Adams, WB Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Region, at the 1st Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation
• Speech by Vinod Thomas Director General, Independent Evaluation Group, The World Bank at the 1st Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation

Website

• WB Tigers website: Building a Future for Wild Tigers
• Global Tiger Initiative

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• Hua Hin Declaration on Tiger Conservation at the First Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation