CITES to send tiger mission to RI

JAKARTA: The secretariat of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will send a technical mission to Indonesia in April to launch a campaign to save the tiger.

The CITES technical mission will also take its campaign to the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Russia, China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam, the British embassy here said in a statement released on Thursday.

"The British government supports the tiger mission," the embassy said.

During the mission's tour, it will evaluate the measures taken by each country to protect its tiger population.

The mission's findings will largely determine the itinerary of subsequent political visits.

The British government, the embassy said, is committed to the conservation of the tiger and to the elimination of illegal trade in tigers and tiger products.

It has also provided Indonesia with financial assistance through the 21st Century Tiger organization to back up the Tiger Conservation Team on the island of Sumatra, the embassy added.

The tiger is classified as an endangered animal. Three sub- species -- the Balinese, Caspian and Javan tigers -- have been driven to extinction this century and the remaining tiger population has dwindled to about 5,000 around the world.

CITES has been signed by 145 countries around the world, committing them to the protection of endangered animal species.