via cnn.com
In 2010, the Year of the Tiger, about 3,600 of the majestic predators remain in the wild, their existence threatened by habitat-loss and poaching.
If there is one man who can give hope to a species whose numbers have plummeted from 100,000 only a century ago, it would be Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Beginning Sunday, Putin and the World Bank will co-host the International Forum on Tiger Conservation, bringing together the leaders of 13 nations to discuss what could be the best and last chance to save the wild tiger. The summit will feature high level officials from every major tiger country, a first in the history of tiger conservation.
Putin, the former KGB officer, has a tough political image. But in the conservation community, he is first and foremost a champion of the tiger. For him this is personal.
In 2008 he received a female tiger cub as a birthday gift. Mashenka spent at least three days sleeping in a wicker basket at Putin’s home before being given to a zoo. The pair met the Russian press and images of Putin with Mashenka flooded the media.
Barney Long, the head of the WWF U.S. Tiger Program said the scale of the summit is “almost solely down to Putin. It is he who is reaching out, turning this from technical meetings into a real political event.”
“It’s not often that heads of government do get involved to this degree,” said Sabri Zain of TRAFFIC, an organization trying to halt illegal trafficking and poaching.
Article courtesy cnn.com
