The Global Tiger Recovery Program (3)

Last night, while writing my Endangered Earth Journal post on How Many Species Are Endangered, I came across a recent (Nov. 25, 2011) press release posting on the IUCN’s website regarding their funding technology for the Global Tiger Recovery Project.

IUCN stands for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The press release (and funding) went directly to one of the questions I had in my last post on how the GTRP was going to “eradicate poaching, smuggling, and illegal trade of tigers, their parts, and derivatives."

The press release (which included a video) read:

On-the-ground efforts to save the tiger have been given a major boost from SOS (Save Our Species) — a global conservation fund implemented by IUCN, the World Bank and GEF (Global Environment Facility) — the project will improve enforcement effectiveness in protecting and recovering tiger breeding populations and therefore addressing the biggest threat to wild tigers: poaching.

SMART is a new spatial monitoring and reporting tool for planning, implementing, monitoring and reporting the effectiveness of law enforcement efforts in breeding sites across the tiger’s habitat. Monitoring poaching activities has been a challenge in the past and SMART aims to reduce the poaching pressures on tigers and their prey by strengthening the capacity, accountability, and motivation of protected area staff in carrying out law enforcement operations.

The tool will collate, manage, and evaluate data on poaching incidents, collected by rangers as part of their day-to-day patrolling. Activities under the SOS grant will be led by WCS - WildlifeConservation Society - and will focus on nine important tiger sites in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Russia and Lao PDR , in coordination with  capacity building activities under the GTRP focusing on SMART patrolling in these and other tiger range countries.

Here is the video included in the press release:

So now I am really curious how this SMART program actually works.

At the moment, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the ‘spatial monitoring and reporting tool for planning, implementing, monitoring and reporting the effectiveness of law enforcement efforts in breeding sites across the tiger’s habitat.’

So it seems it’s time to make some phone calls.

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For more information about endangered species go to www.Bagheera.com

For more information about endangered tigers go to www.TigersInCrisis.com

The Global Tiger Recovery Program (2)

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

The Global Tiger Recovery Program

In looking at endangered tiger information available on the Internet, the Global Tiger Recovery Program seems to have a great deal of data regarding the issue of endangered tigers. And, it is information of a current nature.

The goal of the Global Tiger Recovery Program is fairly straight-forward; to save tigers in the wild.

How they plan to go about it is stated in the Global Tiger Recovery Program Conference Document for Endorsement (TRC's are Tiger Range Countries) which states:

The Global Tiger Recovery Program 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.

In summary the GTRP states:

The GTRP is the last best hope for tigers. Wild tigers are at a tipping point and action, or inaction, in the coming decade will decide their fate. Action will lead to the tiger’s recovery; inaction or mere maintenance of the status quo will lead to its extinction.

The GTRP represents the last best hope for the survival of the world’s most magnificent species and the conservation of the valuable landscapes in which it lives.

If GTRP is in fact the 'last best hope' for wild tigers, then it would be time well spent exploring the program to understand all of its' elements (the who's, the what's, the where's...etc) and how it plans to -in reality- accomplish their goal.

So that is exactly what I plan to do; spend time exploring the Global Tiger Recovery Program. And I will post my thoughts and findings in this journal as this exploration unfolds.

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For more information about endangered tigers go to www.TigersInCrisis.com

For more information about endangered species go to www.Bagheera.com