14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new statement released by the United Nations, it would appear that the world's governments are lagging behind in fulfilling their obligations of safeguarding the big cats. The new data seems to indicate that the animals are experiencing a dramatic fall in numbers across the world. Poaching is one of the primary threats, with the second largest being interactions with humans. Another important stress factor for the already-battered tiger populations is habitat reduction.
As the places where they are allowed to live continue to get smaller and smaller, the tigers run into humans more and more frequently. They are killed either in response to attacking someone, or for feeding themselves on cattle and other farm animals they come across. Not many people in those areas can afford to have their animals eaten as they are very poor. But they are also unaware to the damage they are causing to one of the most endangered species in the world today. Only several thousand tigers exist in the wild today, significantly lower than historical numbers, the BBC News reports.
A presentation made at the recent Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting, held in Doha, Qatar, told attendants that organized crime rings are beginning to play an increasing role in the death of tigers around the world. Officials said that, as the animals become rarer, they also grow in value on the black market. This is a vicious circle that CITES and the INTERPOL are working hard to curb, but to little avail apparently. According to figures supplied in 2009 by Robert Zoellick, the chief of the World Bank, the black market for endangered animals is valued at roughly $10 billion annually, which says a lot about the scale of the operation.
“If we use tiger numbers as a performance indicator, then we must admit that we have failed miserably and that we are continuing to fail,” said at the meeting Willem Wijnstekers, who is the secretary-general of CITES. It is widely estimated that only about 3,200 tigers remain in the wild. Over the past ten years, many protective measures have been taken – at least on paper – to protect the animals, but despite all that their numbers have nearly halved. Deforestation and poaching remain the primary threats, and CITES officials say that governments need to get more involved and actually back up their promises.