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Greater Mekong Tigers Face Crisis Situation
Tigers in the Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia are facing a most dire situation. The population of these tigers, which stretches across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, has plummeted from approximately 1,200 in 1998 to about 350 today. According to the WWF, that’s a drop of more than 70% in only 12 years—and certainly cause for alarm.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
A report released by the WWF went further to explain that the world’s wild tiger population is at an all-time low. Their numbers have dwindled down to 3,200, which is a far cry different from the 100,000 of them that roamed the planet only a century ago.
February 14th starts the Chinese Year of the Tiger and unfortunately for the tiger, not all Chinese take too kindly to them. There is still a growing demand for tiger parts to be used in traditional Chinese medicine, not to mention the poaching and illegal trade that still happens. Destruction to the tigers’ habitat is also to blame, as forests are being torn apart for the sake of building roads or starting commercial crop plantations.
Coordinator of the WWF Greater Mekong Tiger Program, Nick Cox, stated:
“Decisive action must be taken to ensure this iconic sub-species does not reach the point of no return. There is a potential for tiger populations in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to become locally extinct by the next Year of the Tiger, in 2022, if we don’t step up actions to protect them.”
A Tiger Summit is to be held in September, in Vladivostok, Russia. Hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, it is hoped that global political efforts will be made to secure a promising future for tigers. WWF’s head of their global tiger initiative, Mike Baltzer, noted that “there is an unprecedented opportunity to galvanize political will and action to turn the tide on wild tiger numbers; but to do this, we must stop the trade in tiger parts, rampant poaching, and secure the tiger’s habitats”.
To learn more about the tigers in the Greater Mekong region and how you may help them, check out WWF’s tiger page.
By Heidi Marshall
Tags: Greater Mekong region, Southeast Asia, tiger crisis, Tiger Summit, tigers, WWF, Year of the Tiger
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