3-day int'l confce to analyse progress
A three-day international conference begins in Dhaka today aiming primarily to assess the progress in doubling the tiger population by 2022 as per the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) which was initiated in 2010.
Around 140 representatives from 20 countries, including the 13 inhabited by tigers, are attending the 2nd Global Tiger Stocktaking Conference-2014, being organised by Bangladesh Forest Department and the Ministry of Environment and Forests at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the conference at 10:30am and Environment Minister Anwar Hossain Manju will chair it.
The conference also aims to review capacity and resources of conservation officers on the ground, energise and better coordinate flow of funds for GTRP's implementation, and enhance global support for conservation.
A Dhaka Declaration at the conference's end will state GTRP's next course of action, Environment Secretary Nojibur Rahman told a press conference at Jatiya Press Club in the capital yesterday. Andrey V Kushlin, programme manager of Global Tiger Initiative, was present.
The 13 tiger range countries -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mayanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam -- are currently home to some 4,147 of the big cats.
Of them, approximately 1,706 are in India, 500 each in Indonesia and Malaysia and 440 in Bangladesh, states a brochure of the conference.
In November 2010, the 13 had met at an International Tiger Forum in St Petersburg where the GTRP was undertaken. As per the then St Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation, the first stocktaking conference was held in New Delhi on May 2012.
On October 2012, officials and experts of the 13 met at Thimphu, formulating nine schemes, including strengthening capacity of field officers, conserving habitats, increasing coordination among the 13 and creating awareness.
The environment secretary yesterday listed different government conservation initiatives. Replying to journalists' queries, he said the Rampal power plant in Bagerhat would not affect tiger habitat or their movement.
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