A Recuring Theme...... How to Stop Population Growth?

It strikes me having read numerous articles in the past few weeks that there is a common theme on the tip of the tongue, be it from environmentalists, wildlife agencies or Countries themselves .... how to stop global population growth???


Why would we want to do this..... quite simple The UN believes the world is facing the worst losses of animal and plant species since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago.  The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found wildlife in the tropics has declined by 60 per cent since 1970 and The ‘Living Planet Index’ found that the numbers of 2,500 species in 8,000 populations around the world has fallen by 30 per cent. One shocking statistic states that overall the world is using 50 per cent more of the planet’s resources than the world can supply........ 50%

This paints a dire picture, Iconic species like tigers, turtles, gorillas and hundreds of birds species are in danger of going extinct, as well as thousands of lesser-known animals. What would MrShutterbug Wildlife Photography have left to photograph?

And the culprit to this dire loss of animal and plant species....you guessed it Man, Homo Sapiens, You and I.


Not to continually Quote Chris Packham of Autumn watch but his current words echo those of one that is respected worldwide and synonymous with wildlife and the natural world,Sir David Attenborough, he called for governments around the world to start “regulating the population”.


Further quotes from Chris include “The human population is sowing the seeds of a mass extinction event,” he said. “The fact is there is not enough space.” The excessive demands of the growing population is having a disastrous effect on biodiversity. There are too many of us taking too much too quickly.


I have to say this guy is rapidly becoming a voice for the natural world and one i am willing to listen to. Some people may think he is out spoken but i think his voice is one of reason and truth. How we do it is another question all together


Rich countries like Britain are using three times the amount of resources than the planet can sustain, while countries in Africa use a fraction of what they are entitled to. As populations in what were once considered third world countries grow natural habitat of many animals and birds is being destroyed as local populations grab land to sustain themselves or grow "crops" for the developed world.


More than 190 countries will gather in Japan later this week for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to discuss the best way to stop the loss of wildlife around the world. The CBD will come up with a series of targets to try and protect wildlife such as putting aside a certain amount of land for nature reserves, cracking down on invasive species and bringing in subsidies to encourage more environmentally ways of farming and fishing.  For the first time the focus will be on the billions of pounds worth biodiversity provides maintaining water cycles, air quality and food security and how this can be factored into economic decisions.


It seems to me there are two important summits to keep your eye on The united Nations convention and the Tiger Summit in St Petersberg in November

Sorry to sound cliche but the world is in our hands, especially the wildlife we all acclaim to love and cherish.

 

Price tag set for tiger conservation... wow that a lot of money

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

Continuing the Save the Tiger theme on MrShutterbug Wildlife Photography

This 1 minute tiger advertisement was created by WWF office in the US to promote the fact that we can double the number of tigers by the next year of the tiger in 2022.

Save the Tiger

Many MrShutterbug Fans know that one of my favourite cats to photo is the majestic tiger.

However the tiger’s plight is being highlighted on an almost daily basis at present.

It is no coincidence that recently the BBC had a 3 part special on building a tiger corridor through Bhutan and the lower Himalayas to help link up isolated pockets of this most beautiful endangered cat.

A Summit is taking place in St Petersburg in Russia to highlight the Tigers plight on November 21st and will be hosted by Vladimir Putin.

Prime ministers and wildlife experts from across the world will travel to Russia's second city of St. Petersburg to discuss urgent steps to be taken to preserve the tiger population during the Tiger Summit.

At the end of the 20^th century there were an estimated 100,000 wild tigers across Asia and the Russian Far East. Poaching, illegal trade, and habitat loss have steadily pushed tigers to the verge of extinction. Today, there are perhaps 3,500 wild tigers living in their natural habitat in tiger range countries - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Poaching for fur and destruction of habitat have been major causes of the extinction of tigers. Russia is striving to protect and recover its own Amur tiger population. The Russian Far East is the home to the Amur (or Siberian) tiger, the biggest cat species in the world, which inhabits the temperate taiga forest near the country's border with China.

Tigers in Russia have experienced a significant decline recently, after a recovery from less than 30 individuals in the late 1940s to almost 500 animals in 2005

How can these world leaders help?

What is new is the scale of money being discussed, in some cases billions of dollars over the next twenty years, this has all been supported by a programme headed up by World Bank President Robert Zoellick. This is welcome, as for too long conservation has been forced to operate on the cheap, with budgets that would be laughable in most other sectors. But all resources will need to be pulled together and tougher action will need to be taken against the poachers and makers of Chinese medicine. Perhaps the Chinese Government would like to get involved???
Lessons need to be learned from the reintroduction of the Rhino in Kenya.

Somehow we have to make this Year of the Tiger different. The Global Tiger Initiative is helping to do this along with leading naturalists like Doctor Alan Rabinowitz, the World Bank and several partners, including GEF, the Smithsonian Institution, Save the Tiger Fund, and International Tiger Coalition and World Wildlife foundation to try and achieve one aim. Its overarching goal is to reverse the precipitous decline of tigers in the wild and to double their numbers by 2022.

I wish them luck and hope the politicians listen and react in a positive manner as I for one would had to see the extinction of what can only be described as one of the most magnificent and powerful animals on the planet.

If you would like to do your bit then please sign the petition at

https://support.wwf.org.uk/tiger_campaign/