Indochina experts work together to save tiger

Indochina experts work together to save tiger

HANOI (Reuter): Experts from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos have
agreed to work together to save the Indochina tiger from
extinction, international specialists said yesterday.

It was the second piece of potential good news for tigers
after India, where most tigers live, and China, the main consumer
of tiger products, agreed last week to put more controls in place
to curb the illegal trade in tiger parts.

Experts from the three Indochina countries decided in Hanoi
last week to step up joint conservation work, especially in the
area where their borders join, the world conservation union IUCN
said in a statement.

"Indochina has probably fewer than 500 tigers remaining in the
wild," said Elizabeth Kemf, species conservation coordinator for
the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. "They are poached today
mainly for their bones and other parts that are used in
traditional Chinese medicine."

Logging and clearing of jungle for farming also threatened
their survival, Kemf said in a statement. The Indochina tiger
probably numbered no more than 1,050 to 1,750 in the whole
region, including Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand, she said.

The experts drafted plans to improve knowledge of tiger
numbers and distribution, step up measures against poaching,
suppress the trade in tiger parts, train staff, educate the
public, and "manage buffer zones around tiger areas in such a way
as to reconcile the interests of tigers and people," the IUCN
said.

It said estimates of tiger numbers in Vietnam ranged from 150
to 300, and there were fewer than 300 in Cambodia, with an
unknown number in southern Laos.