(From Save the Tiger Fund)
Save The Tiger Fund Launches the Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking (CATT)
Jackson Hole, Wyoming - Today, on the eve of International Tiger Day (September 25th), Save The Tiger Fund launched its Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking (CATT) at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. CATT aims to galvanize more effective, allied efforts in ending the poaching and illegal trade that is hastening the extinction of the world’s estimated 5,000 tigers remaining in the wild.
“Poachers and smugglers are well financed and coordinated. An organized response is needed to stop this organized crime,” said Judy Mills, director of CATT. “The CATT campaign marks the first global partnership initiative focused exclusively on ending trade in tigers.”
The campaign is urgently needed as three of the nine tiger subspecies became extinct in the past 40 years. Another, the Sumatran tiger, may be gone by 2020.
CATT will work to build, inform and support alliances among civil society, governments and consuming groups to stop the criminals who are killing the world’s last wild tigers and destroying their priceless forest habitats.
Poachers kill wild tigers to satisfy commercial demand for their skins and bones for ceremonial clothing, medicine and decoration. By focusing on tigers, which sit at the top of the food chain, CATT’s efforts will also protect other species and entire ecosystems.
“Wild tigers are in crisis,” said Mahendra Shrestha, director of Save The Tiger Fund. “With fewer than 5,000 tigers left and trafficking in tiger parts on the increase, CATT may be our last chance to prevent the tiger’s extinction in the wilds of Asia.”
Save The Tiger Fund (STF), a partnership of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, ExxonMobil Foundation, and Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, has invested a for decade in stabilizing remaining wild tiger populations. It works with government, public and private organizations and local communities on tiger conservation by addressing the mutual welfare of tigers and their human neighbors. The hard-earned progress of the past ten years is now being rolled back by poaching and illegal trafficking of tiger parts across international borders.
Serving as a convener and broker for partnerships, CATT will mobilize leaders of governments, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and social and religious institutions to take immediate, coordinated action including:
- Joint international law enforcement operations to stop tiger smugglers;
- Securing habitats and closely monitoring wild tiger populations; and,
- Enlisting local communities and tiger-user groups to stop demand for and use of tiger parts.
CATT’s launch coincides with that of the U.S. State Department’s Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking (CAWT), which recognizes illegal wildlife trade as a black market second only to arms and drug smuggling. Partnering with other governments and with nongovernmental organizations, including STF and CATT, CAWT will focus on a wide array of species threatened by trade, including elephants, rhinos, exotic birds, as well as tigers.
About the Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking
Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking (CATT) is a three-year initiative by the Save The Tiger Fund. With its partners, CATT will work to galvanize support and leadership from tiger range and consuming countries. CATT is the first global partnership initiative focused exclusively on stopping trade in tigers and their parts.
About Save The Tiger Fund
Save The Tiger Fund is a partnership of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, ExxonMobil, and Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. Founded in 1995, STF is dedicated to supporting the conservation of Asia’s remaining wild tigers. The Fund invests in a variety of different projects that increase cooperation and communication, build local leadership, and deliver effective on-the-ground conservation to tigers in human-dominated landscapes.