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The Government of Nepal is hosting the Kathmandu Global
Tiger Workshop 2009 starting from 27 October for four
days. The workshop will be attended by over 200 participants
comprising policy and decision-makers, scientists,
conservationists from all the tiger range countries,
partner organizations and individuals who have dedi-cated
themselves to the conservation of the wild tiger.
The key partners of the work-shop include CITES Secretariat,
Global Tiger Forum, Global Tiger Initiative, World
Bank, Save the Tiger Fund, National Trust for Nature
Conservation and WWF Nepal. The main goal of the four-day
workshop is to define strategic actions to save the
wild ti-ger from extinction. The workshop
will be inaugurated by the Right Honourable Prime
Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
The Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop (KGTW-2009) with
the theme "Saving tigers is our test; if we pass,
we get to keep the planet" is being organized
to learn from exist-ing plans and experiences and
to integrate new ideas and start the process of creat-ing
a platform for sustained worldwide cooperation to
save the wild tigers. Key cross cutting issues on
tiger will take centre stage in the workshop. KGTW-2009
will be fo-cused on the challenges, experiences and
strategies of the Tiger Range Countries and putting
these in the context of global experiences and best
practices. We hope to enable Tiger Range Countries
to review their experiences to date and revalidate
and update their strategies, identify urgent policy
actions and activities as well as to define support
to be marshalled from international groups and institutions
to help them stop further decline of wild tiger populations.
Tiger Range Countries' updated strategies will include
actions to mitigate immediate threats, to integrate
tiger con-servation into the broader development objectives,
to make wild tiger conservation economically sustainable,
and to enhance and better align international support.
The Workshop is being convened to support development
of conservation strategy for tigers, pursuant to CITES
Decision 14.70 and the respective decision of the
2007 Global Tiger Forum’s General Assembly,
as well as to prepare for the 2010 year of the Tiger
Summit to be held in the second half of next year.
The Global Tiger Workshop will be followed by an Asia
Ministerial Conference that the Government of Thailand
has planned to host in January 2010.
The following are some landmarks in Nepal’
tiger conservation history:
1. Establishment of Department of National Parks and
Wildlife Conservation and enactment of National Parks
and Wildlife Conservation Act and Regulation
2. Establishment of Protected areas in Nepal’s
Terai and Inner Terai to conserve key wildlife species
including tiger, rhinos and
elephants and their natural habitats.
3. Preparation of a comprehensive Tiger Conservation
Action Plan in 1999 and subsequently updated in 2008
4. Adoption of planned protection of tiger by approving
the Management plans
5. Inclusion of Armed force for the protection against
armed poacher
6. Launching of landscape level conservation initiative
- Terai Arc Landscape
7. Buffer Zone initiative to bring local people into
the mainstream of conserva-tion, there by building
harmony between conservation
and custodian
8. Taking lead amongst tiger range country to strengthen
the action by Global Tiger Forum
9. Constant monitoring of tiger, prey base and their
natural habitats since the es-tablishment of tiger
bearing PAs.
Wild tigers are among the iconic symbols of global
environmental sustainability and cultural heritage
for billions of people around the world. We all share
a growing con-cern for their continued survival over
the next decade unless the current trajectory is changed
soon through decisive actions and in some very fundamental
way.
The Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop is organised with
the following outputs in mind:
- Assess present situation, challenges and strategies
for wild tiger conservation in the TRCs.
- Identify the most urgent needs and priority actions
to be implemented in the Tiger Range States to promptly
arrest decline in wild tiger populations.
- Agree on desired goals and effective monitoring
indicators for conservation and management of tigers,
prey and habitat including trans-boundary coop-eration
requirements.
The outcomes will be presented on the final
day as the Kathmandu Declaration
The Workshop will serve as a learning platform on
what are the relevant global ex-periences and concepts
to further strengthen Tiger Range countries' plans.
We have many world-renowned tiger experts in town
for this week and will present their insights and
experiences in tiger conservation particularly focusing
on:
- National Input Documents of each Tiger Range
Countries.
- Smart infrastructure and land use: How can we
assure that infrastructure de-velopment is consistent
with wild tiger conservation, integrity of the habitat
and maintenance of prey populations within national
and across international bor-ders?
- Tigers, communities and the poverty trap: How
to mitigate conflicts between tigers and local people,
motivate local people to protect wild tigers and
habi-tats?
- Suppressing demand for wild tiger parts and enhancing
demand for live wild tigers: How to change attitudes,
which change the current dynamics of de-mand?
- Detecting and preventing crime of poaching and
illegal trade: How to detect, control and prevent
killing of tigers on the level of poachers, traders,
and con-sumers?
- Conservation resource needs and innovative financing
mechanisms: How to target current and create new
resource flows to fill funding gaps without de-pleting
resources for human development?
- Landscape management and capacity development:
How to build capaci-ties in research, monitoring,
management, and communication skills?
Few side events are also lined up including the meeting
of the Executive Committee of the Global Tiger Forum,
meeting of the South Asia Regional Wildlife Enforcement
Cooperation, Tiger Photo Exhibition and public awareness
program, tiger rally by Friends of Zoo.
For more information on KGTW 2009
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