06
Oct 2008 - Bangkok, Thailand: A naval officer
who uncovered six tiger carcasses being
illegally exported was among 10 Thai nationals
honoured recently by the international environmental
conservation community.
WWF-Thailand joined
fellow environmental organization PeunPa,
the International Tiger Coalition and the
Save the Tiger Fund to mark International
Tiger Day, celebrated around the world to
raise awareness of the plight of wild tigers.
Thailand is one of the
last places in the world with substantial
numbers of tigers left in the wild. It is
also a transit country used by wildlife
criminals smuggling tigers from other countries
on to international black markets.
The 10 “tiger heroes”
are all government officers who made a significant
contribution to conserving the wild tigers
of Thailand and neighbouring countries by
learning more about their ecology, patrolling
against tiger poachers or stopping traffickers.
In January Lieutenant
Commander Teeranan Dangpun, head of the
Thatphanom Patrol Station on the Mekong
River, stopped and seized two trucks filled
with dead carcasses including six tigers,
three leopards and two clouded leopards
as well as 275 pangolins.
All of these species
are protected under Thai law and it is illegal
to trade in them. The carcasses were about
to be loaded into boats headed for Laos
for delivery to customers from Vietnam and
China.
Among the other nine
to be honoured were three members of Thailand’s
Khao Nangrum Wildlife Research Station,
three Thai customs officials and a representative
of the Thai police force.
“Thanks to Royal Thai
officers from the Department of National
Parks, Plant and Wildlife Conservation,
Customs, Police and Navy, the wild tigers
of Thailand and Asia stand a better chance
of surviving,” said Mook Wongchyakul of
PeunPa.
In the last century,
global wild tiger populations plummeted
from about 100,000 to around 4,000 today.
With only 7 per cent of its original habitat
left, the world’s remaining tigers face
an uphill battle. Therefore it is extremely
important to protect the remaining tiger
habitat.
“Tiger range countries
like Thailand often get a lot of criticism
for not protecting tigers and tiger habitat
effectively,” said WWF Thailand Country
Director Dr Willam Schaedla.
“But many people here
are working very hard to save them. In this
regard, Thailand’s tiger heroes deserve
a lot of credit for all the ways they have
cooperated across agency and organizational
lines. They are doing the right thing under
tough circumstances.”
+ More
Ministers, governors
commit to saving Sumatra
09 Oct 2008 - Barcelona,
Spain – New hope was extended to some of
the world's most diverse and endangered
forests today as WWF, four Indonesian ministers
and ten provincial governors announced a
bold commitment to protect the remaining
forests and critical ecosystems of Sumatra.
The agreement, announced
to wide acclaim today at the IUCN World
Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain,
Indonesian government and WWF today , is
the first-ever comprehensive commitment
to protect the world's sixth largest island
and one of its major environmental hotspots..
Sumatra is the only
place on earth where tigers, elephants,
orangutans and rhinos co-exist, but all
are under threat as are the island's indigenous
peoples. Deforestation and forest conversion
for palm oil and acacia plantations in lowland
deep peat forests is a major contributor
to global carbon emissions.
“This agreement commits
all the Governors of Sumatra’s ten provinces,
along with the Indonesian Ministries of
Forestry, Environment, Interior and Public
Works, to restore critical ecosystems in
Sumatraand protect areas with high conservation
values,” said Hermien Roosita, Deputy Minister
of Environment.
“The Governors will
now work together to develop ecosystem-based
spatial plans that will serve as the basis
for future development on the island.”
WWF, CI, FFI, WCS, and
other conservation groups working in Sumatrahave
agreed to help implement the political commitment
to protect what remains of the island’s
species-rich forests and critical areas.
“WWF is eager to help
make this commitment a reality to protect
the magnificent tropical forests across
Sumatra. These forests shelter some of the
world’s rarest species and provide livelihoods
for millions of people," said Mubariq
Ahmad, CEO of WWF-Indonesia.
The island has lost
48 percent of its natural forest cover since
1985. More than 13 percent of Sumatra’s
remaining forests are peat forests, sitting
over the deepest peat soils in the world
which degrade when cleared and drained to
produce stupendous emissions of carbon.
“By protecting these
forests from deforestation, Sumatrawill
provide a significant contribution to mitigate
global climate change,” said Marlis Rahman,
Vice Governor of West Sumatra Province.
“There are a lot of
challenges in the future to ensure the successful
implementation of the commitment,” said
Noor Hidayat, Director of Conservation Areas
at the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry.
“A broad-based effort involving local and
national government officials, financial
institutions, NGOs, and communities needs
to work together to make this commitment
a reality."
“We are calling international
communities to support us in implementing
the commitment on the ground,” Rahman said.
The Sumatra announcement
comes a day Indonesia announced substantial
measures to achieve a zero net deforestation
by 2020 commitment made at the UN Convention
on Biological Diversity conference in Bonn
in May.
