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from the BBC
The world's tiger population may have halved in the past quarter of a century, conservationists from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have warned.
The WWF told a conference in Stockholm there might be only 3,500 tigers left, and that one sub-species, the South China Tiger, could soon be extinct.
Chinese demand for tiger body parts - used in traditional medicine - was described as one of the main threats.
...
The director of WWF India's species programme, Sujoy Banerjee, said that at the beginning of the 20th Century there were an estimated 40,000 tigers in India, but that there were now no more than 1,400 - 60% fewer than in 2002.
Mr Banerjee said a serious threat to the remaining tigers came from poor Indian farmers who are determined to protect the livestock that they depend on.
"Whenever there is human-tiger conflict, the ultimate loser is the tiger," he said.
The situation in Indonesia was described as critical, with loggers having laid waste to vast tracts of the habitat of the Sumatran Tiger - the next most threatened sub-species.
Based on current trends, more than 90% of the country's forests may have been destroyed by 2050, the group said.
"In many ways the tiger stands at a crossroads between extinction and survival, and which path it takes is totally dependent on us," Mr Banerjee warned.
I can understand farmers wanting to protect their livestock and foresters wanting to feed their families, but there's got to be a better solution than this. Tigers... just GONE? The idea that any wild animal species is dependent for its survival on humanity doing something sensible is frightening. But, of course, pretty much all species are in the same place.
Humans suck--the planet would be better off without us.
The world's tiger population may have halved in the past quarter of a century, conservationists from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have warned.
The WWF told a conference in Stockholm there might be only 3,500 tigers left, and that one sub-species, the South China Tiger, could soon be extinct.
Chinese demand for tiger body parts - used in traditional medicine - was described as one of the main threats.
...
The director of WWF India's species programme, Sujoy Banerjee, said that at the beginning of the 20th Century there were an estimated 40,000 tigers in India, but that there were now no more than 1,400 - 60% fewer than in 2002.
Mr Banerjee said a serious threat to the remaining tigers came from poor Indian farmers who are determined to protect the livestock that they depend on.
"Whenever there is human-tiger conflict, the ultimate loser is the tiger," he said.
The situation in Indonesia was described as critical, with loggers having laid waste to vast tracts of the habitat of the Sumatran Tiger - the next most threatened sub-species.
Based on current trends, more than 90% of the country's forests may have been destroyed by 2050, the group said.
"In many ways the tiger stands at a crossroads between extinction and survival, and which path it takes is totally dependent on us," Mr Banerjee warned.
I can understand farmers wanting to protect their livestock and foresters wanting to feed their families, but there's got to be a better solution than this. Tigers... just GONE? The idea that any wild animal species is dependent for its survival on humanity doing something sensible is frightening. But, of course, pretty much all species are in the same place.
Humans suck--the planet would be better off without us.
