AU COURS DU SOMMET INTERNATIONAL DU TIGRE A ST PETERSBOURG, LE PRESIDENT DU PHOENIX FUND, SERGEÏ BEREZNUK, EST MOINS PESSIMISTE QUE CERTAINS NATURALISTES INDIENS, AMERICAINS ET EUROPEENS.
PUBLICATION SUR LE SITE DU PHOENIX FUND LE 24 NOVEMBRE : il répond notamment à son ami Steven Galster
In the run-up to the International Tiger Conservation Forum various international newpapers published an Opinion Editorial by Steven Galster who shared his point of vew regarding the necessity and effectivness of such international meetings.
Below, you can find Steve's Op-ED. The article was published by The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/opinion/22iht-edgalster.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
and by India Express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/conservation-not-conversation/712819/0
Tiger Needs Conservation, not Conversation
By Steven Galster
As wildlife traffickers continue looting Asia’s forests, experts document the demise of tigers and other endangered species, while small teams of under-funded but passionate enforcement officers navigate through corruption and weak laws to stop the killing. And what is the global conservation community doing to help?
Calling another meeting.
Conservation has become conversation.
Next week’s “International Tiger Forum” in St. Petersburg, Russia –touted as the “last great hope” for the endangered tiger -- is a case in point. Four hundred participants from 25 countries will gather there for the seventh meeting in two years to discuss the plight of the critically endangered tiger. The well intentioned $1.4 million event will result in numerous reports, a “St. Petersburg Declaration” to save the tiger, and a pitch to donors for a lot of money. Meanwhile, during this week long, death-by-PowerPoint gathering, poachers and traffickers will continue killing and smuggling tigers.
What would the tiger say? What should we be saying?!
How about this: Any meeting that spends one more minute or dollar in the name of tiger conservation should focus on expanding front line wildlife enforcement, strengthening laws against wildlife crooks, and enforcing the 35 year old ban on tiger trading -- now.
Tall order? Maybe. But St. Pete Meet does present an opportunity, and its organizers owe the tiger and their donors some results. The audience is high-level this time. And two delegations have critically important lessons to share, which could help turn the tide.
Hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with support from World Bank President Robert Zoellick, the Forum will finalize an extensive “Global Tiger Recovery Program” (GTRP), spearheaded by the Bank and its Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) with inputs from 13 tiger range countries. The GTRP calls on governments to reverse the decline of the tiger and double its numbers by 2022.
GTI’s recovery plan is being hailed as the tiger’s “last great hope”. But it has two major problems: a $350 million dollar price tag, which is unlikely to attract enough donors before the wild tiger disappears; and second, even if someone picks up the tab, the program as written is doomed because it ignores important historical lessons that are still alive in Russia and Thailand.
In the mid 1990s in Russia’s wild Far East, a small group of people, including myself, launched “Inspection Tiger”, an anti-poaching brigade. The Siberian tiger was disappearing fast, as traffickers were slipping carcasses of big cats, bears, and other wild animals under the recently lifted Iron curtain to China and other parts of the global black market. We formed a coalition of small NGOs to help local authorities put the squeeze on syndicates by sponsoring 24/7 tiger brigades with salaries, vehicles, fuel and training. Over 4 years, and for $700,000 (half the cost of next week’s meeting), poaching was brought under control and the Siberian tiger population was stabilized.
In 2004, we joined Thai authorities to launch the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN). Six Southeast Asian nations formed special task forces that in 5 years have seized 350 tons of illegal wildlife, arrested 500 criminals and prosecuted 100. Aside from training, which the US Government sponsored, each country besides Cambodia paid its own way. Thailand’s team has been particularly efficient: they tracked down, arrested and prosecuted a major tiger trafficking ring in a six month investigation that cost less than $7,000.
The lesson: front line wildlife enforcement is cheap and it works.
But support must never stop. Wildlife laws must be strengthened. And someone needs to turn off the tiger vacuum. The busy Inspection Tiger team had its legal claws clipped recently by national authorities; poaching of Siberian tigers has returned. The boss of the recently busted tiger trafficking ring remains at large, due to corruption and weak Thai legislation. And tigers are still being smuggled from Russia, Thailand and other range countries into Vietnam and China where governments have yet to clearly demonstrate that any purchase of tigers is punishable by law.
It’s hard to learn these lessons from meetings –especially ones held far from the animal’s habitat. The GTI Secretariat is based in Washington, DC, 9 time zones away from the closest wild tiger. Even St. Petersburg is 7 zones from the Siberian tiger and its protectors. Because of this ‘remote control’ operation, GTI does not rely primarily on local actors. It promotes expensive, big brand monitoring programs and calls on the United Nations and INTERPOL to save the day on enforcement.
Such international assistance won’t hurt, so long as it does not usurp funds or attention from inexpensive field enforcement.
The Russian Government and World Bank should be commended for raising high level political will to save the tiger. But they should not blow this opportunity. Putin, Zoellick and others need to focus their attention on the will and capability that exists in the field – where enforcement teams are taking up the fight and can save the tiger with modest, consistent support coupled with legal reform. China and Vietnam need to step forward and do their part by shutting down all forms of tiger trade within their borders –with no further discussion.
If tigers could speak, they’d roar for action, not more words. Let the “St. Petersburg Declaration” be the last and let’s put our money where our fangs are now.
Steven Galster is Director of FREELAND Foundation (www.freeland.org), an international, Asia-based environmental group. He helped design “Inspection Tiger” in Russia in 1993 and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) in 2004. He currently directs the ASEAN-WEN Support Program from Bangkok.
Sergei Bereznuk, Director of the Phoenix Fund, comments: «On Sunday Nov 21 the International Tiger Conservation Forum opened in St.
Petersburg. This is the first time that world leader have come together to focus on saving a single species - the tiger. Up to 400 people from 25 countries will discuss the causes of dire
state of tiger population in the wild and measures to be taken to restore the number of tigers.
Here, I met my old friend Steve Galster. We reminisced about our collaboration in the mid 1990s and how we tracked down and arrested poachers and smugglers in Primorye. Today, I have had a chance to read Steve's article that was published in well-known international newspapers several days ahead of the Forum. After the first day of the Forum, I can tell that there is a hope that Steve's apprehensions will not be fulfilled, and instead drastic measures will be taken to improve the state of the world's tigers, including Amur tigers, and to help law enforcement officers in their toughest fight against poachers".
WHY NOT?
AND CONCERNING THE CHOICE OF THE FUTURE ORGANIZER OF INTERNATIONAL TIGER SUMMIT DECEMBER 2011? WHY A COUNTRY WITH TIGERS TODAY?
WHY NOT IRAN , IN A PROCESS OF TIGER COUPLE REINTRODUCTION?
OR ANOTHER COUNTRY OF CENTRAL ASIA? AND LATER, TURKEY?
WHY NOT GERMANY? FOR THE KEY ROLE IN PRESERVATION OF BIKIN VALLEY?
AND LATER, POLAND OR CZECH REPUBLIC, FOR THEIR WONDERFUL MARSHES?
