WWF to invest $85 million in tiger restoration programs

WWF to invest $85 million in tiger restoration programs

2010-11-23 01:03:04 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is planning on investing $85 million on programs aiming to preserve and help the world tiger population, WWF chief James Leape said Monday during Russia's tiger summit.

Leape talked in the ongoing International Tiger Conservation Forum, hosted by the northwestern Russian city of St. Petersburg, which has vowed to double the tiger population in the upcoming 12 years - a plan that is estimated to require $350 million.

During the forum, the WWF chief said in the current year, $6 million has been directed to 13 countries that still have tiger population, and that an additional $3.5 million is available for urgent cases. The $85 million would be invested in a series of programs in the upcoming 5 years.

One of those 13 countries is Indonesia, which has begun a program in which the government quickly compensates residents of Sumatra that suffer cattle loss due to tigers.

According to the WWF, 97 percent of the world's wild tigers have been lost during the past century with only 3,200 remaining. Some scientists have even forecast that by 2022, tigers could be extinct.

Tiger population has been drastically decreasing due to poaching, illegal trade, and habitat loss.

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