Transparency needed to save Burma’s tiger population

Monday, 01 February 2010 14:54 Usa Pichai

Bangkok (Mizzima) - Conservationists worry that the lack of reliable information regarding the natural habitat of tigers in Burma could negatively impact attempts to double the world’s tiger population.

The first Asia Ministerial Conference (AMC) on Tiger Conservation, held January 27th to 30th in Hua Hin, Thailand, while covering a wide range of tiger related subjects, determined to make efforts to double the number of tigers in the world by the year 2022.

“The major points covering the Hua Hin Declaration include landscape management, law enforcement and illegal trade on wildlife, effective monitoring of tiger status, mitigation of human-tiger conflict and sustainable financing from the domestic as well as international agencies on tiger conservation,” according to a statement released on Saturday.

Trirat Phukotsarasin, Deputy Director of the World Wild Life Fund’s Conservation Department in Bangkok, told Mizzima that Mekong region countries Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Thailand agreed to cooperate in finding solutions to protect the tiger population, particularly along the Thai-Burma border, a geographically significant region of the tiger’s habitat.

“However,” cautioned Tirat, “we need to know more exact information about wildlife and bio-diversity from the Burma side to make a concrete plan.”

The Washington DC-based World Wildlife Fund released a report last week warning that the tiger population in Southeast Asia’s Mekong region has dwindled more than 70 percent in 12 years from an estimated 1,200 in 1998 to around 350 today. The decline is believed largely due to the growing demand for tiger body parts used in traditional Chinese medicine, a trend threatening the region's Indochinese tiger population.

Despite the alarming rate of decline, Thailand’s Huai Kha Kheang and Thung Yai wildlife sanctuaries, comprising nearly 6,500 square kilometers of forest area bordering Burma, were recognized for their efforts thus far in revitalizing the region’s tiger population.

According to official statistics there are around 250 Bengal tigers in Thailand, with the number of striped tigers in the Huai Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuary alone having almost doubled since 2007. Additionally, around 80 Indochinese tigers are currently living in Huai Kha Khaeng with another 20 in Thung Yai.

“Indochinese tigers are in trouble, so we need decisive action during this Year of the Tiger,” said Sybille Klenzendorf, Director of the World Wildlife Fund’s species program. “Otherwise, by the time the next Year of the Tiger comes around in 2022, we could face local extinctions in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.”

Historically, Indochinese tigers could be found in abundance across the greater Mekong region. However, today there are believed no more than 30 tigers per country in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, with the remaining tiger population found primarily in the mountainous Kayah Karen Tenasserim border between Thailand and Burma.

The AMC Tiger Conservation summit brought together representatives from 16 international donor agencies as well as ministers from 13 regional countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Vladivostok, Russia, will host the ensuing summit in September of this year.