Monday 16 May 2011

WWF Releases Rare Footage of Sumatran Tiger Cubs

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today released rare video footage of Sumatran tiger cubs playfully chasing leaves in the forests of the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape in Indonesia. Over the span of months, video & camera traps recorded images of 12 tigers - including mothers with cubs - in an area of 184 square miles, a significant concentration in Sumatra. There's estimated to be only around 400 of the critically endangered Sumatran tigers left in the wild.

The tigers in the videos were filmed in the forests of the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape, or "Thirty Hills". This landscape is designated a "global priority Tiger Conservation Landscape", & is of six landscapes the government of Indonesia pledged to protect at last November's tiger summit of world leaders in Russia. Home to over 30 tigers, 150 Sumatran elephants & 130 orangutans, the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape is under imminent threat of being cleared by the pulp & paper industry.

'It's great to see that tigers are continuing to breed in the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape', said Dr. Barney Long, Manager of the WWF-US Tiger Program.'This is a critical landscape for tiger conservation, & that is quickly being cleared by companies to produce pulp & paper. They must protect this forest landscape & the corridor that connects it to other tiger populations in order to save these magnificent animals, as well as the lots of services that the forests provide for the indigenous communities that call it home.'

The areas of the central Sumatran forests where these tigers are concentrated are also prime targets for pulp & paper companies like Barito Pacific Group & Asia Pulp & Paper/Sinar Mas Group (APP/SMG). Both companies have permits pending to clear the forest. Prominent conservation, animal welfare & human rights groups, including WWF, have urged the companies & the Indonesian government to protect these forests in lieu of allowing them to be cleared.

A document by WWF & partner NGOs from December 2010 revealed that between 2004 & 2010, Bukit Tigapuluh landscape lost over 500,000 acres of forest to the pulp & paper & palm oil industries. A immense amount of the deforestation took place within concessions of APP/SMG, as well as along the logging corridors built to move the wood to pulp mills. A significant amount of clearing was also reported in concessions of another company, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL).

"We urge companies & consumers in the U.S. to make sure that any paper products that they buy do not contribute to the destruction of Sumatran tiger habitat", said Linda Kramme, Manager of WWF's Global Forest & Trade Network-North The united states.

One way to keep away from such impacts is to buy Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper. WWF is working with Indonesian pulp & paper producers willing to adopt better practices to bring more options to the marketplace, like paper from responsibly managed plantations on already-degraded lands than on areas converted from natural forests.

The Sumatran tiger & the other surviving tiger subspecies - the Amur, Malayan, Bengal, Indochinese & South China - number as few as two,200 in the wild. WWF is working closely with Indonesia & other tiger range countries to build the political, financial & public support to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.

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