Price tag set for tiger conservation
The cost of keeping tigers alive in the wild has been estimated at about $80m (£50m) per year, according to a study by conservationists - but only about $50m (£30m) per year is being pledged by charities and groups aimed at saving the tiger.
This vast amount of money reminds me of a comment made by Springwatch / big cat diary star and photographer Chris Packham who earlier this year in May stated donating money to tiger conservation ¬charities is a waste of time.
His comments came less than a year after he said endangered pandas should be left to die out. In an interview with the Radio Times, Packham blasted environmentalists working to save them.“Tiger conservation is a multimillion-pound business that isn’t working,” the 49-year-old said.“If it were in the FTSE 100, it would have gone bankrupt. I’m not saying the conservation agencies don’t have their hearts in the right place, but the results are disastrous.”
I think Chris was mis-interpretated as is always the case with the media and something I myself have been the victim of in the past, over exuberant, sensationalist hyperbole reporting.
Chris’s comments actually hold true but in the sense that the charities for all their efforts would fail if they were a normal business. Is the money that we are all donating actually helping get to the crux of the problem? Sadly at present it seems Tigers are worth more dead than alive and this is all down to poaching and the need for dead tigers from china for their supposed herbal medicine!!
I think for all the critics Chris was actually trying to say Tiger conservation results over the past 10-20 years are disastrous. For those that have watched him on TV or read his blogs he is a very keen environmentalist and loves the natural world and its creatures around us. As stated earlier I feel it was reporter sensationalism.
So just what is the price of saving the Tiger? The St Petersburg Summit in November will no doubt have something to say...... lets hope that finally there is a united voice to help save this most beautiful of big cats.
For more on the price on tiger conservation please see the link from BBC below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11304611
For more on Chris Packhams interview please see this link to the Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7760147/Tiger-conservation-is-disastrous-says-BBC-wildlife-presenter-Chris-Packham.html
Mrshutterbug Wildlife Photography
