Young delegates will help prime-ministers save tigers
The goal of the Youth Forum is to involve the international public, first of all, young audience, in the tiger conservation activities. At the forum they wrote an Appeal, which included specific examples of projects they are going to implement upon return home. The young environmentalists will continue to keep in touch and share experience with the help of a new online International Tiger Net.
“We are here because we care about the tiger. By saving the tiger, we save much more – the beauty of our world and our future. During the forum, we had an opportunity to follow the tiger trails and meet brave people who are devoted to their tiger conservation cause. We have learned a lot of new facts about tigers, and together developed the Youth Forum Appeal, where we urged the government leaders and ordinary people – including teenagers – to help tigers survive”, says Dmitry Lapayev, a delegate from Russia.
“We hope and believe that you, heads of our governments, also sign a joint Declaration with efficient tiger conservation measures”, says Xiaochen Yang from China.
During two fieldtrip days the Forum delegates visited several Amur tiger habitats – Leopardovy federal sanctuary, Kedrovaya Pad nature reserve, and Orlinoye hunting area. There, people take care about Amur tiger and do all they can to ensure its well-being.
“Although we have no tigers in the United Kingdom, conservation of nature is a global issue”, says Dunkan Thomas from UK. “I learned a lot from spending time in the habitat of the only tiger that lives in the snow. I hope that the Forums in Vladivostok and St. Petersburg will provide more funding and strong leadership for tiger conservation”.
The participants saw how funding helps tiger when they visited the Leopardovy Visit-Center, watched fire prevention activities and biotechnical measures to increase ungulate population, learned about tiger monitoring with special photo traps.
“We want to believe that this meeting of heads of governments of tiger range countries will be first but not last. We hope that from now on, at least once in three or four years tiger range countries will meet to “adjust the time” and understand if we are achieving our goal to double the tiger population by 2022”, says Sousata Chemcheng from Laos.
