On November 21-24, St Petersburg will host the International Tiger Conservation Forum that will launch a programme aiming to double the number of wild tigers in the world by 2022. At a news conference devoted to the upcoming forum, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and Director General of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International Jim Leape announced that the programme was ready to be launched.

"This summit may be the last chance for the tiger," Mr Zoellick said. "Tigers are vanishing. There are fewer than 3,200 living in the wild today on only 7% of the land they once roamed. We know what's causing the decline in number of wild tigers: it's illegal poaching, trafficking, lack of habitat. The good news is that tiger populations can recover, but we have to protect their habitats and ranges, target illegal trade, and,... critically, we need to see poachers behind bars, not tigers." Mr Zoellick expressed special gratitude to Vladimir Putin for his help in organising the summit: "Vladimir Putin has taken a personal interest in trying to increase their numbers." He added, "If it weren't for Vladimir Putin, I don't think we'd be having the level of heads of government that we're having put this together."

Mr Leape said that tigers are "literally on the brink of extinction... There is every reason to expect that if we do not succeed now, if current trends continue,... the tiger will have only scattered remnant populations left; it will be virtually extinct" by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.

Mr Leape said that "this summit is really unprecedented, the first time we have world leaders coming together focused on saving a single species".

The summit will be attended by 13 countries that have tiger habitats, representatives of the World Bank, the WWF and conservationists from all over the world.