Government of Thailand hosts world’s first inter-ministerial meeting on wild tiger conservation
January 13th, 2010
The First Asian Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation will be held at the resort of Hua Hin, Thailand from January 27-30, hosted by the Royal Government of Thailand. It marks the first time that ministers from tiger range countries will come together to find ways to work together on tiger conservation.
Recommendations from international wildlife conservation experts, practitioners, and government delegations from tiger range countries (TRCs), emerged from the Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop in October (see Kathmandu Summary Document).
This scientific consensus emerged through intense deliberations by the TRC delegations and international experts who now hope to make an impression on TRC ministers on the importance of the Kathmandu Recommendations and the evolving Global Tiger Initiative platform. Hua Hin represents a new opportunity for collaboration between the TRCs and is also an impetus for national programs and support from the international community for the ‘Tx2’ goals. Tx2 refers to the goal of stopping the that is occurring in remaining habitats, and to double wild tiger populations over the next decade.
For this ambitious goal to come to fruition, many pieces of a complex puzzle must be arranged through local, national, trans-boundary, and international actions. Commitment by political leaders in the TRCs toward the larger requirements of tiger conservation is an urgent part of this, as is the level of political traction and support from international donors at Hua Hin, which will set the stage for range countries’ progress in 2010, the Year of the Tiger, and beyond.
Ministers from the TRCs will speak at Hua Hin, joined by the Prime Minister of Thailand, Vice Presidents from the World Bank, international development and donor organizations, as well as experts from the wildlife conservation community. (See the Government of Thailand’s website for more information about the Asian Ministerial Conference.) Thailand has been active in regional cooperative action on wildlife conservation, and hosts the Secretariat for the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network, based in Bangkok.
2010 promises to be a year of new hope for wild tigers and other endangered species, offering new opportunities to protect the planet’s biodiversity. In addition to being the Year of the Tiger in the Lunar Calendar, it has also been designated the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations. This Ministerial Meeting in Hua Hin is one event in a continuum of international meetings and efforts planned for 2010 that will culminate in a Heads of Government Tiger Summit in September, which will be hosted by the Russian Federation in Vladivostok.
Comment by simon colby
January 28, 2010 @ 2:18 am
Here’s hoping for success. Here’s hoping too that this co-operation secures the geographical range for the tiger and the rest of the food-chain/eco-system that it depends on. Protection is will not just be about the range of the tiger but also the ranges of every species in the eco-system on which it depends. As one wise (Indian) researcher once said, “be kind to your ungulates”, and then be kind to to grasses on which they depends and so on.
Comment by wil Ko
February 4, 2010 @ 10:53 am
thailand – Feb 3 – is Thailand bothered about saving the Tiger???
3 conservationists are SUED by the Tiger Temple in an effort to silence a series of complaints about the place. As Thai law does not rely on the evidence presented actually being true (it only has to damage) it is very possible the temple may succeed – this can hardly be in line with the noises made by the Thai govt on Tiger conservation.
Here is the press release from Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand .
http://www.wfft.org/WFFTPressRelease2210.html
WFFT – PRESS RELEASE – 2/2/2010
Tiger temple sues conservationists and newspaper reporter over complaints of illegal wildlife possession, animal torture and alleged illegal trade in tigers with foreign countries without permit.
Three local conservationists are being handed over by police to court on Wednesday the 3rd of February at 10:00AM at the provincial court of Kanchanaburi Province. The three are being accused of defamation by the infamous Tiger Temple after a news article in the Thai Post newspaper in April 2009 where accusation were made about animal torture, illegal wildlife trade and possession taking place at the tiger temple. All three conservationists and animal welfare experts were quoted in this article as having a derogatory opinion of the tiger temple.
At the Tiger temple (Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yannasampanno, Kanchanaburi) hundreds of foreign tourists daily vist the zoo to see and make pictures with the tigers. Entrance fee is 500 baht per person while making “special photos” costs 1,000 baht extra. For a morning experience people pay 4,500 baht per person to feed the cubs and watch the cub-exercise session.
At least a dozen tigers are being dragged from their small enclosures every afternoon down to a sun-backed hot valley to pose with tourists. These tigers are extremely lethargic and allegations have been made that they are being been drugged. When tigers are not obedient before, during or after the photo-session they are sprayed by the keepers with urine from bottles in their eyes and faces and/or hit with wooden sticks on their backs and heads. All tigers at the Tiger Temple are hybrid tigers that originated from a commercial tiger farm in Ratchburi province. The value to conservation of hybrid wildlife is zero. The release of hybrid wildlife back to the wild is considered a biological crime by conservation experts worldwide. In the past years several tigers from the tiger temple have mysteriously disappeared once mature, and some when there were excess cubs. The copy of a contract was found in 2008 where the tiger temple agreed to send tigers to an illegal tiger farm in Laos, signed by the tiger farmer, the abbot of the temple and a member of the temple board. The export or exchange of protected wildlife such as tigers is illegal by Thai law and the international treaty CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species). The Department of National Parks, Plants and Wildlife has never issued a permit to the tiger temple to exchange or export tigers. As a matter of fact the tigers at the temple have been confiscated in 2002 as they were illegally obtained, but were allowed to stay at the temple as the authorities had no shelter available to care for the tigers while the authorities were looking in to the legal case. A zoo permit was issued on a plot of land next to the temple on the name of a commercial enterprise in July 2009, however nothing has been built there to this date and the tigers are currently still being exploited on temple grounds.
Comments and complaints made by many conservationists and animal welfare activists were made to make people aware about the torture, illegal trade and the real value to conservation and to make a stop to the suffering of animals.
People being charged:
Edwin Wiek
Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT)
Tel: 08-90600906
edwin.wiek@wfft.org
Web: http://www.wfft.org
Dr. Surapon Duangkae
Wildlife Fund Thailand under Royal Patronage
Tel: 08-67790454
suraponwft@gmail.com
Mr. Sawan Sangbunlang
Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Tel: 08-19347374
info@thaispca.org
Web: http://www.thaispca.org
Websites on the tiger temple:
http://www.tigertempletruths.org (informative website)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=293971072672 (discussion group)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95165464756 (discussion group)
CITES website http://www.cites.org
Edwin Wiek
Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand
108 moo 6, Tambon Thamairuak
Amphoe Thayang
Comment by Gary Pinn (sudanym)
February 12, 2010 @ 1:45 am
What faith can we have in the Thai government, when I know for a fact that a very important minister recieved a Tiger cub to take care of for one year from the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi. I assume it was indirect payment for their co-operation as they have now successfully cross bred an indochinnese tiger with a begal mix. Like I said I know this for a fact.
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Comment by Nazneen Ahmed
January 27, 2010 @ 3:00 pm
I hope the year of the tiger really comes up with some actions and not only empty words as happened in the Copenhagen Summit. Because these events will also use up a lot of natural/mineral resources in the form of electrical energy, food etc. so must also keep in mind that the more energy/resources we consume, the more threats we place on forest lands and increase the earth’s temperature. So when we are organizing big conferences to decide the welfare of other creatures, we might as well produce some real actions and not just words.