CITES to send tiger mission to RI

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.