New Global Initiative Launches To Save Wild Tigers

Washington, DC (AHN) - A worldwide alliance of tiger conservationists, scientists and celebrities have joined forces with the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to help save wild tigers.

The new Tiger Conservation Initiative, launched on Monday at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington D.C., brings together many of the global experts who have been studying the decline of tiger populations across the world, a World Bank press statement said.

Tiger numbers have declined from more than 100,000 a century ago to around 4,000. The decline is driven by a loss of prey and habitat due to uncontrolled development and poaching for the black-market trade in tiger skins and bones, the statement said.

The initiative will start with a series of dialogues in tiger range countries to find out what has worked locally to protect the tigers.

The World Bank and its partners will assess the financing needs of tiger conservation and work with governments and the private sector to find innovative funding sources and mobilize new resources for the species' protection, according to the statement.