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Indonesia needs US$175m to double Sumatran tiger population

Indonesia will propose US$175 million to double the dwindling population of wild Sumatran tigers at next week’s international meeting in Bali that will be attended by representatives from 13 countries, the government announced on Tuesday

Adianto P. Simamora (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, July 7, 2010 Published on Jul. 7, 2010 Published on 2010-07-07T09:39:29+07:00

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I

ndonesia will propose US$175 million to double the dwindling population of wild Sumatran tigers at next week’s international meeting in Bali that will be attended by representatives from 13 countries, the government announced on Tuesday.

Indonesia means to see Sumatran tiger numbers to increase to about 800 by 2022, hoping that  international donors will support the project.

“We will table our proposal [on financing] and national action plans on how to conserve the Sumatran tigers at the meeting,” Director general for forest protection and nature conservation at Forestry Ministry Darori told a press conference on Tuesday.

He said the money would be used to address the main threats to the tigers from habitat destruction, loss of prey, poaching and the illegal trade of tiger products.

Preparatory meetings will be held from July 12 to July 14 in Bali.

Delegates from the world’s tiger countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam; as well as dozens of donor countries and activists will attend the meeting.

Tiger populations have plummeted in recent decades because of human encroachment — causing the loss of more than nine-tenths of their habitat — and poaching to supply a lucrative trade in tiger products. From an estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, the number of wild tigers today is less than 3,200 worldwide.

From nine tiger sub-species, only six still exist; the Sumatran, Bengal, Amur, Indochinese, South China and Malayan tigers.

Indonesia previously had three sub-species, two of which — the Bali and Javan tigers — were declared extinct in the 1940s and 1980s.

Director of Biodiversity Conservation at the ministry, Harry Santoso added that Sumatran tiger habitats had declined by 50 percent in the last 25 years.

“About 70 percent of their remaining habitat is located outside conservation areas, leaving them highly exposed to threats,” he said.

 

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