Overarching Plan to Turn Tide for Wild Tigers Gets Boost in Bali

Bali, Indonesia – All 13 tiger range countries in Asia and partner organizations of the Global Tiger Initiative deliberated on a Global Tiger Recovery Program, the first-ever coordinated, range-wide and international effort to save the world’s remaining wild tigers and double their numbers by 2022. At present, only about 3,200 wild tigers survive in fragmented patches of Asian forests. This “Pre-Tiger Summit Partners Dialogue” was hosted by the Ministry of Forestry of the Government of Indonesia on July 12-14, and was supported by the Global Tiger Initiative, Forum HarimauKita, Save the Tiger Fund, the Global Environment Facility, World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society, Artha Graha Bank, Taman Safari Indonesia, and the World Bank.

The Global Tiger Recovery Program has been built over the past two years through a multilateral process engaging the governments of all the tiger range countries on the most pressing actions needed across the remaining tiger habitats to turn the tide in favor of Asia’s tigers and forests. Governments of the tiger range countries had recently completed national consultations to develop detailed and updated technical strategies on the national level, and came to Bali to find common ground to endorse the Global Tiger Recovery Program and achieve consensus on the draft St. Petersburg Declaration, which may be adopted at an unprecedented Tiger Summit, to be hosted by the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg later this year and attended by government leaders of the 13 tiger range countries and international tiger conservation partners.

“When we save the tiger, we save so much more. A strong tiger population is a good indicator of a healthy forest,” opened Zulkifli Hasan, Minister of Forestry of Indonesia, at the opening session of the Bali meeting. He and the Governor of Bali, Made Mangku Pastika, welcomed the country delegations and delegations from multilaterals and non-government organizations on behalf of the Government of Indonesia. Minister Hasan went on to describe how Indonesia is linking actions on tiger conservation with actions to mitigate climate change and noted that he hoped that tiger habitat will benefit from REDD+ (Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, expanded to include additional co-benefits). The participants at the Pre-Summit were treated to a performance of traditional Balinese dance that blended the beauty of a healthy forest with the power and presence of the tiger. Only an estimated 400 wild tigers remain in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra, and they are critically endangered. Indonesia’s Bali tiger was declared extinct in the 1930s and the Javan tiger disappeared in the 1980s.

The 13 tiger range countries presented their latest national plans in the form of National Tiger Recovery Priority documents, which were a key output mandated at the last major meeting on tigers, the 1st Asian Ministerial Meeting in Thailand in January. A great deal of progress on details, including costing for tiger conservation actions, had clearly taken place since the Thailand meeting. A session was also held to discuss global support for the countries’ national plans, broken into major thematic fields. It was chaired by the head of the Nepal Delegation, and also led by Dr. John Seidensticker, Chairman of the Save the Tiger Fund and Head of the Conservation Ecology Center at the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute. The proposed international support programs covered combating illegal trade, capacity-building, demand reduction, and long-term monitoring of the progress of the global program.

The governments of the tiger range countries continued to raise the issue of sustainable funding for the Global Tiger Recovery Program, and in a session chaired by India, bilateral and multilateral donors discussed the possible structures and mechanisms that could be used to fund the unprecedented Recovery Program. In attendance were representatives of the World Bank, Global Environment Facility, US Department of State, and US Fish and Wildlife Service, with additional inputs received from the Asian Development Bank, and UK’s DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs).

With the Tiger Summit planned for Russia later this year, the Delegation from the Russian Federation presented the concept and program for St. Petersburg, and a draft of the St. Petersburg Declaration was approved for further review and revision by range country governments. The Summit will include technical sessions, ministerial sessions, a high-level meeting of the heads of governments, and a cultural program and concert in St. Petersburg to bring the plight of the tiger to the world’s attention.

National consultations and the Bali Pre-Summit are the latest in two years of efforts through the Global Tiger Initiative to convene and unite the countries and world’s top scientists to address the extraordinarily complex and difficult challenge of tiger conservation. Under the beautiful sun in Nusa Dua on the southern peninsula of Bali, the delegates made their last stop on the road to the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit.

Click here to read the NEGOTIATED St. Petersburg DRAFT Declaration on Tiger Conservation
Endorsed by the Pre Tiger Summit Partners Dialogue Meeting on July 14, 2010
Subject to Review and Approval by the Governments of the Tiger Range Countries