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Bhutan’s Tiger Protected Areas: How Safe?

25.05.2012

A recent preliminary assessment conducted by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reveals that protected areas for tiger and other threatened species are not necessarily a safe refuge as designed. The preliminary assessment was conducted by examining only three relatively easily measurable factors that may indicate the level of protection and vulnerability. These include legal protection, sufficient enforcement staff capacity to provide protection against poaching, and use of comprehensive law enforcement monitoring software systems. The leader of WWF’s Tiger Alive Initiative, Mike Baltzer, said poaching is the most immediate threat to tigers and protected areas are the first line of defense against poaching.“Without places tigers can be safer from poaching, there is no hope to meet the target of more than 6,000 tigers by 2022,” he said.

Photo (c) Keven Law / Flickr