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Meeting seeks to save Sumatra's tigers and elephants from extinction mongabay.com August 29, 2007
Led by WWF, the three-day meeting in Padang on the island of Sumatra will be attended by about 120 delegates seeking to address wildlife populations increasingly threatened by logging and forest clearing for agriculture. Fire and poaching are also taking a toll on Sumatra's wild elephants and tigers. Between 1990 and 2000, WWF estimates that 8 million hectares (20 million acres) of lowland forests have been destroyed. Sumatran elephants in Indonesia have declined from 2,800-5,000 in 1992 to 2,400-2,800 in 2007, while there are believed to be fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild. "Saving the populations of Sumatran tigers and elephants will strongly depend on saving their remaining forest habitat," Elisabet Purastuti, coordinator of elephant conservation for WWF-Indonesia, was quoted as saying. Two subspecies of tiger -- Bali and Javan -- have already gone extinct in Indonesia. Related Rare three-legged tiger photographed in Sumatra (7/6/2007) A WWF camera trap has captured photos of a three-legged Sumatran tiger on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. WWF says the rare tiger likely escaped from a snare. The big cat seems otherwise healthy. Sumatran Tiger on brink of extinction (3/16/2004) Indonesia is set to lose its last remaining tiger species - the Sumatran tiger - if the widespread illegal trade in tiger parts and rampant habitat loss is not stopped, according to TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network and WWF, the global conservation organisation. A new report by TRAFFIC, on trade in the Sumatran Tiger reveals that at least 50 Sumatran tigers were poached per year between 1998 and 2002. The latest available figures show that there are between 400 and 500 tigers left in the wild in Sumatra. Comments? News options News index | RSS | Add to MyYahoo! Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing |
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