via CAAI News Media
Not More Than 30 Tigers Per Country in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam-WWF
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 07:37 By Ek Madra
PHNOM PENH – The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) voiced concerns on Tuesday that the increasing of poaching and the land encroachment of the tiger’s habitat were to be blamed for rapidly shrinking of the tiger population.
The environmental group, WWF, released the report stated that the tiger populations in the Greater Mekong countries have plummeted to about 350 today from an estimated 1,200 in 1998. The Greater Mekong includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
“The increasing demand for tiger body parts used in traditional Chinese medicine and habitat fragmentation from unsustainable regional infrastructure development have driven the decline of the region’s Indochinese tiger population,” said the group’s report was seen by DAP.
The fallen sharply by more than 70 percent of the tiger numbers in more than a decade prompted this conservation group to call for the first Asian Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation, which runs from 27-30 of January in Hua Hin of Thailand, where the ministers from the 13 tiger range countries to determine high-level commitment and action to secure the future of the tiger.
WWF urged the ministers to set a target of doubling the number of wild tigers by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger, which the group believed the ministers will lay down the necessary foundation for the recovery of the species across its range.
This followed a meeting held in last October in Kathmandu, Nepal, where experts from the tiger range countries recommended a series of actions that will change the trajectory of tigers from extinction to recovery.
The decline is reflected in the global wild tiger population, which is at an all time low of 3,200 down from an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 during the last Year of the Tiger in 1998, said the release.
“Decisive action must be taken to ensure this iconic sub-species does not reach the point of no return,” said Nick Cox, Coordinator of the WWF Greater Mekong Tiger Programme.
“There is a potential for tiger populations in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to become locally extinct by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022, if we don’t step up actions to protect them,”
Cox said in the release.
According to tiger experts, wild tigers may disappear within the next 12 years from now, if no action is taken to stop the poaching and illegal hunting as well as to enhance habitat protection.
ROOM OF HOPES
Despite these negative trends threatened the cat, which is now called by the conservation group as Tiger on the Brink, but there is still time to save the Greater Mekong’s Tiger—given the remaining populations are predominantly found in the Kayah Karen Tenasserim mountain border between Thailand and Myanmar.
The forest landscapes spanning 540,000 square km, or about the size of France, are priority areas for current tiger conservation efforts, it said.
The region contains the largest combined tiger habitat in the world.
“This region has huge potential to increase tiger numbers, but only if there are bold and coordinated efforts across the region and of an unprecedented scale that can protect existing tigers, tiger prey and their habitat,” said Nick Cox, Coordinator of the WWF Greater Mekong Tiger Programme.
WWF said there will be a Tiger Summit in Russian Vladivostok in September to be hosted by Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and co-chaired by the World Bank’s President Robert Zoellick.
“There is an unprecedented opportunity to galvanise political will and action to turn the tide on wild tiger numbers,” said Mike Baltzer, Leader of WWF’s Global Tiger Initiative. “But to do this, we must stop the trade in tiger parts, rampant poaching, and secure the tiger’s habitats.”
WWF estimated that wild tiger numbers to be as low as 3,200 are founded in the 13 tiger range states: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
WWF, is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, has almost 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries.
This conservation group’s mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
Border Situation Normal After Clash
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 02:59 DAP-NEWS
The situation at the Thai-Cambodian border at Preah Vihear is back to normal after a brief exchange of gunfire on early Sunday morning, said Cambodian Army Chief at Preah Vihear Gen. Srey Doeuk.
There are no reports of casualties from either side after they exchanged gunfire early Sunday about 20 kilometers from the temple.
“The situation is coming back normal in the main areas as the two parties met to discuss the situation, avoiding a clash between the two parties,” Srey Doeuk told DAP News Cambodia on Monday.
“This clash is simple event. When they encroach illegally into Cambodian land, as they did not listen to us, the clash took place a moment. But we wish peace,” he said.
Everything is now fine after senior military officials from the two countries discussed following the clash, the Thai News Agency quoted Thai General Anupong as saying.
A brief fight between Thai and Cambodian soldiers near Preah Vihar Temple was caused by misunderstanding and has been resolved, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was quoted as saying by the Nation on Monday.
The Thai premier said both sides have met and agreed to settle. “There would be no escalation of the situation,” he said.
Thai Army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Monday that “It was a misunderstanding. I cannot say who first opened fire but the misunderstanding has been settled.”
Relations between the two countries plunged further in November last year, when Cambodia named Thaksin an adviser on economic affairs. The appoin- tment, and subsequent visits by Thaksin, set off a diplomatic row in which the two countries recalled their ambassadors. A Thai court in 2008 sentenced Thaksin in absentia to two years in prison on a corruption charge.
Khmers in US Express Support for Cambodian Soldiers
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 02:58 DAP-NEWS
Cambodian citizens living the US expressed their support of the Cambod- ian soldiers defending the border following a brief clash on Sunday.
A report made by DAP Media Center reporter in the US Young Yali said that Cambodian citizens in the US showed their support of soldiers defending Cam- bodian sovereignty from Thai soldiers’ encroachment.
One citizen, Hang Rein, said that “I have suffered bad feelings when I heard that Siem soldiers encroached illegally into our land. When I went to the Khmer association, I heard many people say the same, as they showed their pain for the Thai soldiers’ encroachment.”
“I wish say to all soldiers who station at the border, do not believe Thai soldiers’ tricks as they are very devious. They agree with their hands, but they use their legs to erase the agreement,” he added. One citizen claimed that he could not control his feelings when he heard that Thai soldiers fired upon Cambodians. “I hope that Samdech Techo Hun Sen, the Cambodian Prime Minister, does not ignore this issue,” he added.
“I wish inform all soldiers that you have to be strong to defend the land as we are strongly supporting you,” he said.
Some in the US recently told Soy Sopheap, DAP Media Center Director-General, that they have decided to support Premier Hun Sen.
Biggest Sugar Factory Opens
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 02:49 DAP-NEWS
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday opened the biggest white sugar factory in the kingdom in Koh Kong province. The factory is a joint venture between a local company and foreign partners, including from Thailand and Taiwan.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, PM Hun Sen said that the factory will create a market for sugarcane from the local farmers, helping sugar planters in Koh Kong province and later in Kompong Speu, Preah Sihanouk and Kampot. “This factory will encourage a race to sugarcane,” he added.
“We have to expand the planting of sugarcane in this region to meet the demand from this factory,” he said, adding that some companies with economic land concessions from the state they have not planted or not developed anything. “The Ministry of Agriculture needs to withdraw from them back to plant the sugarcane plantations. They should not waste the chance from the global economic crisis or delay investment projects.”
He also criticized some investors who met with him at his Takhmao residence, saying their planned investments in a sugar factory came to nothing.
“They had their photos taken with me to show off in foreign countries only. Now we have a local company that works silently with foreign partners to open the biggest factory and it is a very successful investment.”
The investors just met the PM a few weeks ago and invited him to open the factory, Hun Sen said, also asking for his recommendations. He highlighted his appreciation of local investors like tycoon Ly Yong Phat, who is also a shareholder in the joint venture.
Hun Sen revealed that the full capacity of this factory is about 70,000 tons of sugar, requiring 700,000 tons of sugarcane. Hun Sen said the factory can produce 24 tons of white sugar per day. The factory needs 4,000 workers and but lacks between 1,000 and 2,000 workers. Hun Sen appealed for local people not to travel to neighboring countries, where the price of labor force is similar to local labor price but many face risks from illegal travel.
Cambodia can now export white sugar, Hun Sen said, noting the work of local companies buying rice for export. He said that rice costs about US$1,000 per ton this year and the country could export over 2 million tons of milled rice surplus after this year’s harvest of over 7 million tons of un-milled rice. He also said that corn and cassava are increasingly being turned into ethanol bio-fuel. Such projects help the local farmers, he said.
Koh Kong in southwest Cambodia has just started to integrate infrastructure with other areas and has potential regions as a tourist destination, with mountain ranges and beaches.
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