Certified Financial Planner Corry L. Staff randomly selected the winning name today. She was not shown the names – instead, she was presented with what appeared to her view to be blank pieces of paper. She drew one, turned it over and found Kyle’s name on the other side.

 WWF Canada’s adoption kits are available on WWF Canada’s website.  Having purchased a number of them over the years, I can vouch for them being high quality and a gift that anyone who likes animals will enjoy. Not only that, but the money goes to help save the real animals and that’s my favorite kind of present!

World Wildlife Fund Canada is working with other WWF branches and other conservation organizations to try to save the world’s remaining tigers. To symbolize their work, WWF Canada has joined with VoicesForOurPlanet.com to offer a WWF Canada tiger adoption kit to one lucky reader of this blog.

The lucky winner will receive a symbolic adoption kit, which includes:
• a high-quality cuddly tiger stuffed toy
• reusable gift bag, made from recycled plastic
• personalized adoption certificate
• letter that identifies you as the gift-giver
• details about the work that your symbolic adoption will support

All it takes to gain a chance to win is to email your name, location (city and province/state), and email address or phone number to voicesforourplanet@gmail.com. One entry per email address, please. Duplicate entries will be deleted.

The contest opened Monday, November 15, 2010, and will close at midnight Pacific Standard Time today, Monday, November 29, 2010. One winner will be randomly drawn on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, and the winner’s name and location will be announced on this blog later that day. We will contact the winner through the telephone number or email given in their email.

The winner will have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address. In the event that the winner does not respond within this timeline, another winner will be randomly selected. The winner’s address will be given to WWF Canada so the gift certificate can be personalized and the adoption kit shipped to the winner. All other names and locations, and all email addresses and phone numbers, will remain confidential and will never be given or sold by VoicesForOurPlanet.com to any other organization.

Please note that the prize will be shipped by WWF Canada. VoicesForOurPlanet.com is not responsible for prizes that are lost or damaged once they are shipped. Entrants assume all liability for their participation in the contest, as well as receipt of and use of prizes.

VoicesForOurPlanet.com reserves the right to clarify or change the rules, prizes and eligibility for a contest at any time, or to terminate a contest without notice. If this occurs, readers will be notified on this blog.

Thank you for your interest in conserving one of our world’s most beautiful animals, and good luck in the contest!

This led me to research the results of last week’s Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. Have you heard the Summit had a successful conclusion? World leaders and tiger countries endorsed a major plan to double the numbers of tigers in the wild by 2022. The Global Tiger Recovery Programme  has received a commitment of $127 million to help save the world’s remaining tigers, reports the World Wildlife Fund.

Further, the World Bank offered a $100 million loan package to three tiger range countries for conservation work, and the Global Environment Facility offered to provide up to $50 million in grant funding for tiger habitat conservation.

With all this funding, it is expected that anti-poaching and anti-trafficking work will be ramped up in the 13 tiger range countries. The last remaining refuges of tigers will be protected, and tiger monitoring will be increased. Let’s hope that this support will accomplish their goal of doubling the number of our world’s tigers by 2022.

The lucky winner will receive a symbolic adoption kit, which includes:
• a high-quality cuddly tiger stuffed toy
• reusable gift bag, made from recycled plastic
• personalized adoption certificate
• letter that identifies you as the gift-giver
• details about the work that your symbolic adoption will support

All it takes to gain a chance to win is to email your name, location (city and province/state), and email address or phone number to voicesforourplanet@gmail.com. One entry per email address, please. Duplicate entries will be deleted.

The contest opens today, Monday, November 15, 2010, and will close at midnight Pacific Standard Time on Monday, November 29, 2010.  One winner will be randomly drawn on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, and the winner’s name and location will be announced on this blog that day. We will contact the winner through the telephone number or email given in their email.

The winner will have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address. In the event that the winner does not respond within this timeline, another winner will be randomly selected. The winner’s address will be given to WWF Canada so the gift certificate can be personalized and the adoption kit shipped to the winner. All other names and locations, and all email addresses and phone numbers, will remain confidential and will never be given or sold by VoicesForOurPlanet.com to any other organization.

Please note that the prize will be shipped by WWF Canada. VoicesForOurPlanet.com is not responsible for prizes that are lost or damaged once they are shipped. Entrants assume all liability for their participation in the contest, as well as receipt of and use of prizes.

VoicesForOurPlanet.com reserves the right to clarify or change the rules, prizes and eligibility for a contest at any time, or to terminate a contest without notice. If this occurs, readers will be notified on this blog.

Thank you for your interest in conserving one of our world’s most beautiful animals, and good luck in the contest!

Most of the animals Gabriela’s department works with are threatened in the wild, whether they are vulnerable or actually endangered due to habitat loss, poaching, or other reasons.  Which means that her department can make a real difference in whether or not a species survives.

cc Point Defiance Zoo

Recent success stories by Gabriela and her department include providing the science behind the recent birth of a critically endangered Sumatran Tiger at Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington.

Also, the department’s research has helped find a first step in solving egg binding in reptiles.  “Females get stuck with their eggs inside of them, and it can actually kill them”, Gabriela explained.  Scientists found that hormone levels differ between normal females and egg bound females, which suggests there may be a way to force them to lay the eggs so they don’t die.  Such findings can be applied to help endangered reptiles such as Komodo Dragons.

Gabriela shares a sentiment that is common among people who work with animals at zoos.  She wishes that “everything could be free and there could be thousands of them”.  But the reality of our world today is such that many animals are threatened in the wild, and zoos are a viable way of keeping a species alive.  Add in breeding research and activities, and a species can be given a strong chance for survival.

The two countries are hoping to approve a protocol that includes shared actions to fight poaching of tigers and their body parts, including educational programs to stop poaching and the related captive breeding and releasing of captive tigers into the wild.

Indian officials consider the discussion important since they blame Chinese traditional medicine as the reason behind tiger poaching.  While China has officially banned trading in tiger parts, its peoples’ interest in traditional medicines fuels demand for dead tigers.  India has emphasized the need for China to refuse to yield to pressures from tiger farm owners to lift the ban against the trade.  Unfortunately, the tiger farms may have increased the demand for tiger parts.

China has just 50 tigers left in the wild, and about 5,000 on tiger farms, reports the Hindustan Times.  Officials have agreed to register all tigers to keep track of them. 

As well, India is hoping that China will join the Global Tiger Forum, a network of 13 countries that have tigers.  The forum has discussed ways to protect tigers but without China, the largest market for tiger body parts, the discussion remains simply talk.

Meanwhile, China and Russia have agreed to create the first cross border tiger conservation reserve for the rare Siberian tiger, reports International Business Times. 

Wildlife in the area is suffering from poaching, habitat destruction, and a human-caused lack of prey.  Creation of the forest reserve will save other animal species as well as the tigers.

Let’s hope that these two glimmers of hope are signs that China will become more environmentally and conservation friendly.

Credit: John Goodrich, WCS

Into a world with just less than 3,000 tigers left in the wild, Tigers Forever was born in 2006 with the goal of increasing key tiger populations by 50% over the next ten years.  They knew it would take more than money alone, since tigers were getting more funding than most endangered species and yet were still declining. But in the darkness were two lights – Wildlife Conservation Society had two long term field sites where tigers were actually doing well.  Panthera and Wildlife Conservation Society leaders studied these two sites and found that their success was due to how the sites were being managed.  The sites held the lessons of how to save and increase the number of tigers.  Tigers Forever is based on those success stories, matched with business sense and streamlined and focused efforts.

Intrigued by how Tigers Forever had set a strategic goal and was being so well managed, I enjoyed having a personal interview with Andrea Heydlauff, Managing Director of Panthera, who filled me in.

New York entrepreneur and Panthera board member Michael Cline committed to contributing $5 million over ten years to Tigers Forever, with Panthera contributing the same amount (so together it’s $10 million over 10 years) . Wildlife Conservation Society matches those funds, and the groups collaborate.  As well, Cline understood the power of strategic planning and management, and led the way in setting the goal of increasing tiger numbers at key sites by 50%, collectively.  Of the 13 tiger countries, WCS had field scientists in 9 of them, and Panthera had a presence through their commitment and program management.

Credit: WCS Myanmar

The eight sites selected for management all had known tiger and prey populations, conservation manpower and efforts, and buy-in from government and local partnerships.  Engaging all factions is key to successfully accomplishing conservation goals. “It wasn’t just random,” Andrea explained, “it’s where is it that we are going to have the most impact.”

Aside from poaching and hunting of both tigers and their prey, another of the biggest threats facing tigers is connectivity where they are suffering “from fragmentation and isolation”.  In places such as India, “with human population pressure you’re getting these postage stamp, isolated, almost little Disney parks of tigers”, Andrea commented.  Different populations of tigers need connectivity to keep the animals healthy and genetically strong and ensure their long term future.

It’s also important to ease conflicts between humans and tigers.  Too often, people living in or around core-protected areas allow their livestock to graze openly in tiger habitat, and run the risk of losing their livestock to hungry tigers – especially where there is little to no wild prey.  This affects human livelihoods.  Sometimes the solution is as simple as having local authorities enforce a ban against livestock in core areas and having patrols make sure that domestic animals graze in selected areas.  “We are the NGO, we can’t necessarily do the enforcement, but we can train and support the enforcement teams”, Andrea mentioned.  Other solutions involve teaching local people good animal husbandry techniques, such as bringing livestock into fenced areas at night rather than letting them roam free.  “What’s good for cats is good for people”.

Tigers Forever is committed to achieving their annual goals.  Good site monitoring information about tigers and their prey, about the hunting of tigers and their prey, and habitat loss/fragmentation, is essential.  Through camera traps and density estimates, the field research provides important information that tells managers how the program is doing, the impact and effectiveness of the patrol teams, and what may need changing.  These measurements are presented in an annual meeting which brings together key people from each site as well as the managing organizations.  “We conduct a rigorous analysis each year, by looking at data and looking at human efforts,” Andrea continued.  By looking at the data and comparing benchmarks, those involved evaluate whether the efforts are working.  If they’re not, they look at it again and change things – a perfect example of adaptive management.

This business management approach to saving tigers is producing success. In a wildlife sanctuary in Thailand, signs are being seen of a growing tiger population.  The reasons?  Tremendous government buy-in, and hundreds of patrol park officers with high morale, good equipment, and uniforms.  Unlike too many places, these park guards have pride in their jobs, excellent training including refresher courses, and individual accountability and successes.  “It’s a good job to have, so the people want to keep their jobs”.

I asked Andrea if this business-like approach is the wave of the future for conservation NGOs.  “Donors are smarter now – they want accountability,” she answered.  How can non profits know if they’re saving animals when they lack the monitoring and annual reviews that sometimes highlight what just isn’t working?  “So this is going to shift non profits to being more accountable regarding where their money is going and if targets are being met.”

With Tigers Forever, 100% of donations is put directly into the field where it’s needed.  Their overhead is covered by seed funds, so donations can go to conducting the research on the ground, developing and setting up camera trap, and training park guards, “giving them the tools to be effective in working to save the tigers”, Andrea told me .  Funds are needed in the field to accomplish their goals.

You can learn more about Tigers Forever by visiting their website.