New ruling will help protect Russian Tiger habitat
29 July 2010
A new ruling by the Russian government to protect the Korean Pine - a key tree species found in the Russian Far East – could help to conserve the endangered Amur Tiger, according to WWF and Traffic.
As few as 400 Amur Tigers survive in the native Korean Pine forests of the Russian Far East and north-east China, where the pine nuts are an essential food source for Tiger prey species. However, rising global demand for the pine has led to a massive increase in logging, much of it carried out illegally, in Russia’s remaining temperate forests.
To help regulate the logging, Russia has listed the Korean Pine in Appendix III of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).The listing means exports of Korean Pine timber from Russia will now need CITES permits, which will make it harder for the illegal timber trade to carry on.
“The fate of the Amur Tiger is inextricably linked to the safeguarding of the Korean Pine,” said Pauline Verheij, joint TRAFFIC and WWF Tiger Trade Programme Manager. “Russia is putting in place the kind of measures that will help with the commitment by Tiger range countries to double numbers of wild Tigers by 2020.”
The ruling comes at a key point for tiger conservation. Earlier this month, the 13 countries with surviving Tiger populations drafted a Declaration on Tiger Conservation , which would commit them to doubling the number of remaining wild tigers by 2022. It is anticipated that the Declaration will be formally signed at a Heads of Government summit in Russia later this year.
“TRAFFIC and WWF Russia warmly welcome the measures to regulate the trade in Korean Pine timber, which is good news for the local people whose livelihoods depend on the trade in Korean Pine nuts and for Amur Tigers, which live where these trees grow,” said Alexey Vaisman, Senior Programme Officer with TRAFFIC Europe-Russia. “The new measures will need to be backed up with appropriate enforcement action.”
The new measures will also benefit the legal pine nut trade in the region which WWF and TRAFFIC have been promoting as a means of providing legal and sustainable income.
“We hope the listing in CITES will finally help break the system of illegal logging of Korean Pines and help the survival of trade in alternative, sustainable forestry products from the region,” said Evgeny Lepeshkin, Forestry Projects Co-ordinator with the Amur branch of WWF Russia.
ENDS
For further information:
Jo Sargent, Senior Press Officer, WWF-UK
Tel: 01483 412 383
Mobile: 07867 697 519
About WWF
WWF is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with almost 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
www.wwf.org.uk
About TRAFFIC
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of IUCN and WWF.
www.traffic.org
