Russian government experts in collaboration with researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences and the World Wildlife Fund are drafting a detailed programme for the conservation of tigers with a view to applying for a $25 million grant from the Global Environment Facility, said Amirkhan Amirkhanov, deputy head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources.

"We hope to finalise and submit the documentation in May. The programme will not start until 2012," said Mr Amirkhanov in India at an international tiger conservation conference.

The programme will promote the global goal adopted at the Tiger Summit in 2010: to double the tiger population by 2020.

The grant will provide only half the amount needed for the conservation of tigers in Russia. The second half will be sourced from the Russian budget. Work under the programme will be divided into several parts: research, work with the Russian regions and an anti-poaching campaign. In order to revive the tiger population, the protection of the tiger's habitat must also be addressed.

"We need to focus on forestry and hunting management and tackle the problem of deforestation in the Far East," said Mr Amirkhanov "We should also work with nurseries and zoos, because a part of the tiger population will be in captivity."

There are many issues in the environmental protection sector, and the main objectives of the programme are not only to conserve and increase the population of tigers, but also the conservation of other cats, especially the snow leopard and leopard.

A considerable portion of the funding will be allocated for equipping rangers. In accordance with the upcoming programme they will be supplied with Russian-made unmanned aerial drones to monitor the forest, satellite collars for tigers and the means to fight forest fires.