NYC Organization Will Attend Tiger Summit In Russia
The Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the Bronx Zoo, is sending researchers to discuss an $82 million plan to save the endangered species.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is hosting the world’s first Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, and is calling on representatives of thirteen tiger populated countries and wildlife organizations around the world to meet and discuss the fate of the endangered carnivore.
The Wildlife Conservation Society is sending tiger experts to the summit to discuss a study they published in September. The Study describes 42 sites across Asia that could be used to breed the last thousand female tigers.
Their plan calls for an annual budget of $82 million dollars to cover the costs of law enforcement, wildlife monitoring, community involvement, and other precautions. Most governments have the budgets to provide for the services, but $35 million dollars is still needed to increase oversight of the potential sites.
WCS Director for Asia Programs Joe Walston says there is no time to waste with only one thousand female tigers left in the wild. “If we don’t do it well, all other conservation strategies will fail, because these are quite literally the last breeding tigers.”
The world leaders will compare plans with the goal of creating one global agenda of doubling the number of wild animals by the next Year of the Tiger—2022.
