Tiger countries meet in Indonesia to map rescue

Representatives from 13 "tiger-range countries" met in Indonesia yesterday to draft a global recovery plan before a summit in Russia in September.

"We're gathering here because we share concerns about the sustainability of tigers," Indonesian Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said in an opening address to delegates on the resort island of Bali.

"It is alarming that out of the nine tiger subspecies in the world, only six remain."

The plan will be used as the basis for discussion at a "tiger summit" in St Petersburg from September 15 to 18.

"In Indonesia alone, only the Sumatran tiger still exists, while the other two subspecies have become extinct," the minister said, referring to Javan and Balinese tigers which were wiped out in the 1980s and 1940s respectively.

He blamed a "lack of law enforcement" for the continuing losses of Sumatran tigers, which number only about 400 in the wild. Several are killed every year by poachers and villagers who compete with them for dwindling forest resources.

WWF says the global, wild population of tigers of all species has fallen from about 100,000 to an estimated 3,200 over the past century.

Countries invited to attend the St Petersburg summit are Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The pre-summit talks in Bali which end tomorrow will hear details of each country's tiger protection plans and funding proposals.

Indonesian conservation official Harry Santoso said before the talks that Jakarta would ask for more than $175 million in foreign aid to implement its plan to double the Sumatran tiger population by 2022.