Tiger Range countries called for a resolute funding at the second Asian Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation, which began in Thimphu today.
In 2010, 13 tiger range countries had committed to double the number of tigers but funding for the project had been and continues to be a stumbling block.
Hundreds of delegates and participants representing tiger range countries, donor agencies and international organisations are here to discuss key priority areas to save tigers and discuss challenges while doing so.
The Chairperson, Lyonpo Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, said the key challenges is availability of funding resources and how to better link conservation and protection of tigers with the livelihood of people. “Like reconciliation of the need for protection and conservation with poverty alleviation, income and employment requirement of local people, And also understanding the need for capacity building at the front-line.”
The World Bank, who launched Global Tiger Initiative in 2008, says the range countries suffer in terms of flow of money that gets to front-line people such as park rangers.
“All parks should at least have a minimum standard of efficiency equipped to carry out a significantly efficient job, whether it is ecological, research, monitoring or it is fighting against illegal poachers and traders, or whether it is developing a good system of information and surveillance or park ecology,” said the Programme Director of Global Tiger Initiative under the World Bank, Keshav Varma.
The World Bank closely collaborates with INTERPOL, along with tiger range countries in information sharing on transnational organized crime on tigers and tiger parts.
David Higgins of Environmental Crime Programme, INTERPOL, said sharing information and intelligence is critical. “Human nature is not necessarily to share and we work with tiger range countries to overcome this alongside the nation police agencies. So you have environment ministries, wildlife and custom agencies working together and looking at what the issues are and improving the flow of information.”
As per the World Worldlife Fund estimate, there are currently about 3,200 wild tigers left out of which about 150 tigers are in Bhutan.
