SWAG Blog

Singapore Tiger Week 2021 - Day 6

ming@8connect.com (FirstSite Editor) — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 11:26:50 GMT

Recap of Singapore Tiger Week

Day 6, 05 August 2021

"If you had one wish for tigers tomorrow,

what would you wish for?"

Dedicated to the challenges, opportunities, and innovative solutions of tiger conservation, day 6 marked the end of Singapore Tiger Week. We heard from Mr. Y. Bhg. Dato’ Abdul Kadir bin Abu Hashim, the Director General of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan); Dr. Adrian Loo, the Group Director of NParks’ Wildlife Management Division; Ms. Elizabeth John of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia; and Ms. Jenny Roberts, the director of WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative.

Dato’ Abdul Kadir Hashim brought us back to Malaysia and took us into how the government is planning tiger conservation. Beyond poaching, Perhilitan is fighting the threats like exotic trade and disease—specifically canine distemper virus, which has taken the lives of multiple tigers even in protected ranges. With multiple programs devoted to tiger conservation—including the National Tiger Conservation Plan, the 2010 Wildlife Conservation Act, and the ongoing Biodiversity Patrolling and Protection Programme, Dato’ Abdul Kadir Hashim showed us how the government is fighting for tigers on all levels, from forensics to habitat.

Dr. Adrian Loo took us into our own backyard with a dive into Singaporean biodiversity and the illegal wildlife trade. Though Singapore has lost most of its large mammals, it is far from empty—everything from straw-headed bulbuls to banded langurs to the Sunda pangolin lie across our Central Catchment reserves and more! Each of our reserves are buffered by many nature parks, and nature links like the BKE’s Eco-link Bridge enhance connectivity. But outside the forests, Singapore must reckon with the destruction of wildlife elsewhere. As a trade hub, the government has always condemned wildlife trafficking. This stance has solidified in recent years as Singapore enacted a strict ivory ban and continued its existing work—collaborating with NGOs, online trackers, and other governments to protect wildlife everywhere they can.

Ms. Elizabeth John zoomed out on wildlife trafficking to examine it on a continental scale. From 2000 to 2018, TRAFFIC analysed tiger seizures and found 2,359 tigers have been seized worldwide, with an estimated 120 tigers lost to trafficking per year. Of these tiger seizures, the most common illicit items were first tiger skins, then bones. But justice is rarely served: even with 1,167 people arrested, only 429 were prosecuted, and only 168 were incarcerated. Ms. John linked the tiger trade to its impacts on other species, even beyond wildcats. She ended with a look at recent tiger seizures, notably two instances where 7 frozen tiger cubs were found. These point to possible syndicates, a new demand, and a fresh wave of threats to tigers.

Finally, Ms. Jenny Roberts discussed WWF’s vision for tiger recovery. In 2010, the last Year of the Tiger, tiger range countries set a goal of doubling tiger populations by the next Year of the Tiger, 2022. Next year, 65 countries will reunite in the Global Tiger Summit in Russia to share their progress and set new goals. Ms. Roberts suggests future goals should include a focused plan for Southeast Asian tiger populations, as their situation remains particularly severe, as well as a new global tiger population goal that includes increasing tiger range and occupancy.

In the Q&A, we asked each speaker what their one wish for tigers would be. We concluded Singapore Tiger Week with a presentation delivered by two youth participants, Tanvi Dutta Gupta and Aryanna Ram about “Our Wishes for Tigers,” drawn from what speakers have shared over the last week. And with that, we said goodbye to our speakers, participants, organizers, and everyone who has worked so hard to make this week a reality.

Although the Zoom room has closed, the conversation has not ended. Now, we turn to you: what wish do you have for tigers? And how can you make it a reality?

Singapore Tiger Week 2021 - Day 5

ming@8connect.com (FirstSite Editor) — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 05:50:00 GMT

Recap of Singapore Tiger Week

Day 5, 04 August 2021

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."

~ Margaret Mead

Day 5 of Singapore Tiger Week concluded the tiger conservation in North, Central and South Asia track. Our speakers ‘travelled’ the farthest of any so far to come to us, from the Russian Far East and Kazakhstan respectively! Our first speaker, Dr. Dale Miquelle is the coordinator of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) tiger program and the director of their Russia program. Our second speaker, Mr. Grigory Mazmaniants is the director of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Central Asia program. We opened the session with a video about women in conservation in Bhutan before moving onto the first talk.

Dr. Dale Miquelle took us into the future of Asia’s tigers. He argued that they lie “at the epicenter of the extinction vortex of big cats.” If tiger populations decrease, other wild cats will face pressure from poaching threats. What happens to tigers will eventually affect everyone. And with only 57% of the necessary funding to implement the solutions, the question is what to prioritise. Dr. Miquelle condensed his top actions into a six-point-plan: prioritise functional source sites, focus on key threats, expand efforts, ensure connectivity, regular monitoring, and site based conservation.

The second half of Dr. Miquelle’s talk took us into tiger conservation in Northeast Asia. The situation of Russian tigers used to be dire. In the 1940s hunters nearly drove Russian tigers to extinction, but over 45 years the population recovered to around 500. Unlike in prey-dense India, where a tigress requires a 20 square kilometer range, a Russian tigress requires a 400 square kilometer range. Consequently, conservation efforts must focus on both protected and unprotected land, reduce access to tiger habitat to combat poaching, as well as rehabilitate lone tiger cubs so they may reintegrate back into the wild.

Mr. Grigory Mazmaniants discussed the unprecedented and ambitious plan to reintroduce Amur tigers into Kazakhstan. Caspian tigers—one of the closest relatives of Amur tigers—had a historic range that, before their extinction, stretched across Kazakhstan. With no extant tiger population in the country, reintroducing tigers to Kazakhstan can help improve its ecosystems and create a valuable population of Amur tigers. The program has four stages. The first, between 2018-2024, involves restoring the million hectare landscape and increasing the ungulate population so tigers will have sufficient prey. They also established the security for the project site, including camera traps, UAV monitoring, satellite fire control, and SMART patrols.

But the plan faces many challenges, from people to resources. China’s water use and climate change threatens the future of the transboundary Balkhash lake, whose water supports the ecosystem. Surrounding communities financially depended on poaching small animals. It’s been generations since tigers lived here, and many locals have forgotten what that kind of coexistence means. To address this, the project team launched 11 educational movies, awarded 46 grants of 800-4000 euros, and supported 60 families with vegetable growing, updating the antiquated irrigation system. After they assure community safety, the government will reintroduce between 10 and 20 tigers from 2025 to 2030, monitor their population from 2030 to 2034, and hopefully watch the Amur tiger population rise in the years afterwards.

We hope you enjoyed these insights into the past and future of conservation. The challenges have never been greater—but neither has our ability to innovate solutions.

Singapore Tiger Week 2021 - Day 4

ming@8connect.com (FirstSite Editor) — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 04:33:35 GMT

Recap of Singapore Tiger Week

Day 4, 03 August 2021

Day 4 of Singapore Tiger Week marks the beginning of our North, Central and South Asian tiger conservation track. We heard from conservation biologist Dr. Raghu Chundawat, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Nepal's head of wildlife programs Dr. Kanchat Thapa, and WWF Bhutan’s Mr. Kuenley Tenzin.

Dr. Raghu Chundawat explained how Indian tiger conservation is centered on protected areas. Instead of working on the assumption that a “forest needs tigers”, this model believes that the “tigers need forest”. As a result, tiger territory is critically limited. Dr. Chundawat proposes a model, which creates a metapopulation (a species that interacts at some level, despite living in different locations) structure and runs parallel to the current model. He hopes, under this model, to incentivise more community involvement and to foster ecotourism to support conservation. Tigers have historically lived across landscapes in India. That coexistence is possible again—but only if the country pushes beyond the 2967 tigers today to the 25,000 that lived here in the 1960s.

Dr. Kanchan Thapa centered his talk on conservation in the foothills of the Himalayas. While the area he worked in is only 900 kilometers in length and 200 kilometers in breadth, it reaches far up. The lowland areas are the prime tiger habitat as well as prime rice framing land. In this place where humans and tigers meet, conservationists realized they had to work to create corridors and understand where tigers were living. 300 volunteers covered 2200 kilometers to find tigers live in 37% of potential habitat. Surveys found tiger habitat supported a variety of other species too, from elephants, rhinoceros and deer. But their conservation must be dynamic. In April 2020, a tiger was recorded 2500 meters above sea level, suggesting in the future we may see tigers moving beyond existing protected habitats.

Mr. Kuenley Tenzin highlights the importance of landscape connectivity for tiger conservation. Around 51% of Bhutan is protected land. These areas, connected with biological corridors, allow tigers to disperse. Indeed, tigers have been recorded using corridors to move from 100 meter above sea level to 4,000 meters above sea level! 2010 marked the creation of the Transboundary Manas Conservation Area, a transboundary initiative between Bhutan and India. Initially, 10 tigers were found in MNP and 14 in Bhutan’s Royal Manas National Park (RMNP). By 2017, MNP contained 31 tigers and RMNP contained 17. But with this population increase has come threats from poachers, who stake out corridors to wait for tiger movement. Transboundary corridors include transboundary issues.

In the vast and mountainous terrain of India, Nepal, and Bhutan, tiger conservation faces very different challenges. As we learned about the strengths and pitfalls of different protection strategies, we hope you have a better understanding of the broader approaches to conservation. Tune in for day 5 of STW to hear about tiger conservation in the Russian Far East and Kazakhstan’s landscapes.

"The problems facing the world today - they challenge all of us equally. And the solutions to these challenges must come from a real sense of concern and care for others, for all sentient beings and, for future generations. We must care about what happens to this earth."

~ His Majesty the King of Bhutan, 2011, Keio University, Japan

Singapore Tiger Week 2021 - Day 3

ming@8connect.com (FirstSite Editor) — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 09:51:34 GMT

Recap of Singapore Tiger Week

Day 3, 02 August 2021

Day three of Singapore Tiger Week concludes the Southeast Asia track with speakers from Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Singapore. We heard from Ms. Wulan Pusparini, a conservation scientist pursuing her doctorate at the University of Oxford; Dr Pornkamol (Joob) Jornburom, the conservation program manager of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Thailand; Mr Pyae Phyoe Kyaw, the biodiversity monitoring and data manager at WCS Myanmar; and Ms. Anbarasi Boopal, the co-founder of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES).

Ms. Wulan Pusparini—whose work has focused on ecological modeling— discovered our Indonesian Sumatran tiger population cannot dip below 35 if they are to be rehabilitated. Ensuring we never reach that point means thinking about where tigers live. Without local stewardship or translocation, tigers in small landscapes will probably go extinct. Medium landscapes require improved connectivity and corridors if their tigers are to survive. The best of the three habitats, large landscapes are still threatened by human encroachment. But, with a quantitative approach, conservationists can determine the best path forward.

Dr. Pornkamol (Joob) Jornburom, the conservation program manager at WCS thailand, explained how ecological and anthropogenic factors affect tiger distribution in Thailand. Looking for tracks as well as tiger spray, which has a distinct smell, they determine where tigers are in the forest, and use this information to figure out why. Their surveys suggest tigers need streams nearby and more sambar deer as prey. The survey also found tigers try to avoid domestic animals. This kind of research is critical in deciding where to focus conservation efforts.

Mr. Pyae Phyoe Kyaw, the biodiversity monitoring and data manager at WCS’ Myanmar department, talked about the hope of the Htamanithi stronghold site. Though it struggles with poaching, gold mining, illegal logging, and animal trafficking, it has good connectivity, biodiversity and breeding prospects. Moreover, it lies in a politically stable and expansive area three times the size of Singapore. Containing more than 1000 camera traps spaced every one to three kilometers, the team has witnessed tiger populations double! Htamanthi even contains its own research centre. In 2018, it was declared as ASEAN heritage park and is a beacon of hope within this dire crisis.

Finally, founder of ACRES, Ms. Anbarasi Boopal, took us into the underworld of poaching and the sale of illegal tiger parts in Singapore. Just a few years ago, you could find tiger products in 60% of Singapore’s Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) stores. However, as awareness—and the penalties—increased, this number fell to almost zero. As tiger products disappeared from physical stores, e-commerce sites have taken over. These sites are much more difficult to regulate and even harder to verify.

In order to address tiger conservation, citizens,the government, and companies must work together to hold themselves accountable to the impacts of our activities. As a community member, reporting illegal activity and educating ourselves through conferences like these are important ways we, too, can help protect the tigers. See you in the next track, where we’ll cover tiger conservation in North, Central and South Asia.

Singapore Tiger Week 2021 - Day 2

ming@8connect.com (FirstSite Editor) — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 05:49:01 GMT

Recap of Singapore Tiger Week

Day 2, 31 July 2021

A dedication to all rangers on International Ranger Day

(Video produced by MYCAT)

With speakers working on tiger conservation all over Malaysia, day two of Singapore Tiger Week covered how this conservation can work. We heard from Mr. Christopher Wong, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Malaysia’s Tiger Conservation program manager; Ms. Low Chee Pheng of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Ms. Lam Wai Yee, Panthera Malaysia’s program manager; and Mr. Kennesh Manokaran of the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers.

Day two of Singapore Tiger Week also coincided with World Ranger Day, and the session began with a video honouring the rangers. Rangers are critical to saving tiger lives. We are all indebted to them. On behalf of SWAG, thank you!

Mr. Christopher Wong detailed the long history of tiger conservation in Malaysia. After reports of tigers attacking humans, the Kelantan local government called for tiger culls in 2002. WWF stepped in to stop the killings. But even afterwards, WWF found threats beyond politicians. Today, tigers must cope with habitat loss and poaching. 2017 saw a poaching surge when WWF found 127 snares. Though patrol teams quintupled in response, in the long term they cannot cover the entire country. Mr. Wong explained both community stewardship and inter-organizational collaboration are critical to the future of tigers.

Ms. Low Chee Pheng explained how this inter-organizational collaboration can work. Bringing together police, state and federal departments, national parks and NGOs makes for better patrols, the police and Department of Wildlife and National Parks launched the ongoing Ops Khazanah, a series of patrols lasting up to three weeks at a time in 2019. They were enormously effective—they arrested two Cambodians with 167 snares on their first patrol—but long-term feasibility needs a lot of requirements to be met. Long-term funding, on-ground technical specialists, an active secretariat, centralised data management, and, if rangers are to be rotated, regular training programs are all necessary to keep their successes going.

Ms. Lam Wai Yee dove into how Panthera Malaysia targets poachers. With predictive spatial distribution models based on snare records, their team of experienced trackers, often indigenous people, find poacher camps and alert the authorities. Though camps have shrunk since 2017, they are far from gone. A single camp of four poachers can contain 141 different animal spoils. Consequently, Panthera has additionally focused on removing the incentives that drive people to poach.

Mr. Kennesh Manokaran trains MYCAT rangers—community volunteers that patrol the jungles—and spotlighted six citizen conservationists in his talk. In an open discussion, they all responded to the question: What would improve organizations dedicated to tiger conservation? Their solutions all addressed the limitations to outreach and manpower. A strong community is imperative within NGOs to “provide hope to nature lovers'' and incentivize a response from policy-makers. Importantly, any community must understand how other social issues connect to conservation——and like the close links between poverty and poaching. In addition, organizations must look to the next generation of leaders. Finally, the CAT Walkers expressed the need to bridge the gap between enthusiasts and experts.

STW is one way to bridge the gap. We hope you’ve learned about how Malayan tiger conservation works and want to become part of the process, too!

Singapore Tiger Week 2021 - Day 1

ming@8connect.com (FirstSite Editor) — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 04:56:14 GMT

Recap of Singapore Tiger Week

Day 1, 30 July 2021

Citizen Action for Tigers (CAT) Walk

Singapore Tiger Week 2021 has officially begun! Yesterday, we heard from Dr. Kae Kawanishi, the manager of the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT), Mr. Hazril Rafhan bin Abdul Halim, Senior Wildlife Officer of Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks, and Ms. Lara Ariffin, film director and creator of the documentary series Layar Liar.

The session commenced with an introduction to what inspired SWAG —the Citizen Action for Tiger (CAT) walks. Over a weekend in Malaysia, CAT walkers report tiger traps, revegetate tiger’s territory, and examine camera traps. CAT walks build a vital connection between human and nature.

Dr. Kae highlighted the CAT walk’s significance further in her talk. She got the audience moving, asking us to imagine the history of the universe is the length of our arms spans. She showed us how humans, who first appeared 200,000 years ago, can be removed from the makeshift timeline with the single swipe of a nail file. Tigers first emerged 2 million years ago, and are ten times older than humans. However, humanity is filing down on their existence. Dr. Kae says she often feels hopeless. But in meeting the CAT walkers and the locals who stepped up during COVID-19, she has found hope. Dr. Kae gave some final advice from her long career: “At the end of the day, what matters is how much you did for what you cared.”

Mr. Hazril’s talk took us into the behind-the-scenes governmental work it takes to monitor tigers and revealed the results from the last census. It took him 12 years from when he joined the Malaysian government to implement the 2019 National Tiger Conservation (NTC) plan. Funding was only half the battle. The demanding journey to install and maintain 4,000 camera traps for the actual census required traversing dense forests and water-bodies. Rangers were plagued by spider bites, leech bites, leptospirosis, and more. One even got lost in the jungle! Even after the arduous journey, poachers and wildlife often stole or damaged their camera traps. Mr. Hazril explained to us this struggle is crucial. They found less than 200 tigers left in the Malaysian peninsula. The photos found strong evidence of poaching—capturing three-legged, ensnared, and graphically injured tigers. Mr. Hazril’s NTC plan demonstrates how surveillance helps fight threats to the Malayan tiger.

Finally, Ms. Lara Ariffin addressed tiger conservation from an educational perspective. When she asked Malaysian children what animals lived in their jungles they responded with ‘giraffe’ or ‘zebra.’ She was shocked. “How can you care for something when you don’t even know about it?” she asked. Her answer to the question was an educational film series about Malaysian wildlife titled Layar Liar . Written in Bahasa and narrated by a 15-year old Malaysian, the film looks to the future of Malaysian conservation. Focused on a different animal each episode, Layar Liar delivers engaging information paired with beautiful visuals. Its tagline encapsulates it best: “To know is to love, to love is to protect.”

We hope you fell in love with the Malayan tiger through yesterday's session! Tune in throughout the upcoming week for more.