July 29th of 2013 is the third Global Tiger Day. The International Workshop for Transboundary Conservation of Tigers and Other Endangered Species and the Strategy to Combat Illegal Trade in Wildlife was successfully held in Kunming, China.
The workshop was hosted and sponsored by the Department of Wildlife Conservation and Nature Reserve Management of State Forestry Administration of China, co-sponsored by CITES Management of Authority of China, China Wildlife Conservation Association, Global Tiger Initiative and the World Bank, Save China’s Tigers Special Fund of China Green Carbon Foundation and World Wide Fund for Nature. It is co-hosted by Beijing Forestry University, Forestry Department of Yunnan Province and Wildlife Research and Development Centre of State Forestry Administration of China. More than 130 delegates attended the meeting, which were government representatives, experts and scholars from 12 TRCs (Tiger Ranged Countries) including China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. and other countries. All participants discussed and followed the two themes of this workshop: transboundary conservation of tigers and other endangered species; the strategy to combat illegal trade in wildlife.
As a major organizer of this international conference, nine people from the Wildlife Institute attended the meeting and they made an important contribution in preparation and organization of the meeting. On behalf of the Chinese government, Dr. Shi (Shi Kun) gave the first speech at the meeting and led attendees into the theme. He indicated some ideas about conservation and restoration of wild tiger population and biodiversity in southwest China and the neighbours, and the historical distribution and current situation of the Indochinese tiger, Asian elephant and rhino in China were briefly introduced by him. In addition, he also suggested that it is very important to actively promote cooperation with Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and other neighbouring countries in endangered species conservation, combating illegal trade and other aspects. WI partner Dr. Riordan (Philip Riordan), director of mammals research group Dr. Bao (Bao Weidong) and PhD student Charlotte Whitham also gave very important speeches respectively on capacity building of wild felid conservation, monitoring techniques, conflict management and other issues.