When I first starting to explore the Global Tiger Recovery Program, two things quickly caught my attention. The first was their mission statement (see below) and its' scope. The second was the fact that GTRP says it is 'last best hope' to save tigers in the wild.
This means is if the GTRP is not successful in reaching the goals in their mission statement, tigers will become extinct in the wild.
Here is the mission statement again (it is worth re-posting):
The Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) seeks to empower TRCs to address the entire spectrum of threats, domestic as well as those that are transboundary in nature, and work toward increased financial sustainability through the integration of conservation objectives into development. To solve the tiger crisis, which represents the larger Asian biodiversity crisis, the TRCs, international organizations, and civil society have come together on a collaborative platform within the framework of the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI). After a two-year process of sharing knowledge and best practices and developing a common vision, a GTRP has been developed, with the shared goal of doubling the number of wild tigers globally by 2022 through actions to: (i) effectively manage, preserve, protect, and enhance tiger habitats; (ii) eradicate poaching, smuggling, and illegal trade of tigers, their parts, and derivatives; (iii) cooperate in transboundary landscape management and in combating illegal trade; (iv) engage with indigenous and local communities; (v) increase the effectiveness of tiger and habitat management; and (vi) restore tigers to their former range.
Here are some of the 'key' phrases in this paragraph that caught my attention:
1) "To solve the tiger crisis, which represents the larger Asian biodiversity crisis."
2) "To effectively manage, preserve, protect and enhance tiger habitat."
3) "To eradicate poaching, smuggling, and illegal trade of tigers, their parts, and derivatives."
4) "To restore tigers to their former range."
And yes, the 'cooperating in trans-boundry' and 'increasing the effectiveness of tiger habitat..etc' also caught my attention, but not quite like these other four goals in the mission statement.
Here are some of the questions these phrases raised for me:
1) How 'intertwined' does GTRP see the relationship between 'saving tigers in the wild' and 'the larger Asian biodiversity crisis? The Asian biodiversity crisis is an extremely large and complex issue. How much of that issue has to be 'solved' or 'under control' in order to make 'saving tigers' a reality?
2) Regarding the efforts to 'effectively manage, preserve, protect and enhance tiger habitat'...is there currently 'any' tiger habitat that is being 'effectively' managed and where the tigers are 'protected'?
And these next two really raised some questions for me:
3) I am really curious how the GTRP plans to 'eradicate poaching, smuggling and illegal trade of tigers, their parts and derivatives'. The illegal wildlife trade -which includes the trafficking of illegal tiger parts- is a multi-billion dollar business worldwide.
Ongoing efforts by many governments to curb this trade cannot exactly be considered 'successful' by any means. So what 'model' will the GTRP use in order to achieve this goal? Or are they creating a 'new' model to 'eradicate poaching, smuggling and illegal trade' of this endangered species.
If they have created a new model -which in fact proves to be successful- this would be very good news for all the other endangered species which are the subject of 'poaching, smuggling and illegal trade.'
4) Regarding the efforts to 'restore tigers to their former range'...exactly what range does that mean? Are we talking about where tigers roamed thousands of years ago? That would be interesting.
As I said in my last journal entry, the GTRP will be fascinating to explore. And I am really curious to find answers to the questions their misson statement has raised for me.
After I have read all the documentation I can find on GTRP, I plan to make calls to individudals involved in the project.
I also plan to talk with representatives from other organizations engaged in saving tigers to get their perspective about how effective -and successful- they think the GTRP will be (I have actually already begun doing this).
It is important to remember that GTRP has said they are the 'last best hope' to save tigers in the wild.
If this is in fact the case, then hopefully other organizations will be supportive of their strategy and how their efforts are unfolding.
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To learn more about endangered tigers go to www.TigersInCrisis.com
To learn more about endangered species go to www.Bagheera.com
