More than 60 experts from Russia, China, South Korea and Japan are taking part in The Amur Tiger: Population, Problems and Protection Problems international research and practical conference, which opened in Vladivostok on 13 December.

“At the 2010 tiger summit in St. Petersburg, the Russian Government outlined the task of preserving and increasing the Amur tiger population. Certain environmental protection measures have been carried out over the past years. For example, the ban on felling endangered tree species has been expanded to include the Korean cedar. These and other steps have stabilised the tiger population, as winter count data shows,” said Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yuri Zhuravlev, Professor and Director of the Institute of Biology and Soil Science of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

For three days, leading scientists and experts from research and environmental organisations, the heads of the environmental and wildlife protection agencies of the Far Eastern Federal District and officials of the Russian Ministry of National Resources and Environment will be discussing the implementation of the 10-year Strategy for the Conservation of the Amur Tiger in the Russian Federation over the first five years since it was approved by the Environment Ministry in July 2010 until 2020.

“The short-term goal to stabilise the tiger population at 500 animals has been fulfilled, which proves that the Amur tiger conservation concept that laid the groundwork for the renewed strategy adopted five years ago had been chosen correctly. The Government and the organisations involved in this process stick to the action plan developed for the implementation of this strategy and keep working in the right direction,” said Sergei Aramilev, Director of the Primorye Branch of the Amur Tiger Centre. “Nevertheless, in order to achieve our common goal, which was set before Russia in the Global Tiger Recovery Programme, namely to bring its tiger population to 700 animals by 2022, the plan of priority measures aimed at preserving the Amur tiger population needs to be amended. It’s normal to amend the plan over the course of time, as, on the one hand, much has already been fulfilled, while, on the other hand, new problems and threats have emerged which didn’t exist in 2010.”