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"The Putin conf about tigers in Vladivostock 9/11-19"

Trafficking

Putin hosts conference to save tigers

Top politicians from 13 countries are in St Petersburg for a four-day conference that is hoping to find a way to raise hundreds of millions of euros needed to save wild tigers from extinction.

Leaders at conference, headed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, were told by experts that they must take urgent measures if they hope to double the number of the species by the next Chinese Year of the Tiger, in 2022.

Those attending the event include Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and delegations from India and Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

China, India and Bangladesh have the world's largest volume of tiger skin and other organ trafficking.

Decades of trafficking combined with deadly habitat destruction have seen the number of roaming tigers fall from 100,000 a century ago to just 3,200 today.

Russia is the only country to have seen its tiger population rise in recent years, with just 80 in the 1960s rising to its present figure of 500.

Putin has received praise for taking an active role in the cause, having championed the protection of the Amur tiger.

He is reported to be so fond of the animal that he received a cub for his 56th birthday.

According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) director general James Leape, the success of the conference is dependent “on the political will of the countries that support it”.

Mike Baltzer, of WWF’s Tiger Allies Initiative, told RFI the summit is "a launch pad for action".

The summit's Russian hosts say they are optimistic for the potential success of the conference, and say they hope it will provide an example for other environmental campaigns.

http://en.rfi.fr/asia-pacific/20101122-putin-hosts-conference-save-tigers