Our Projects: Tigers of the Russian Far East
DSWF supported since: 1994
Read about our Tiger team in Russia this Christmas - open the pdf (left)
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent relaxation of border controls and opening trade routes, the Russian Far East has become a major source of illegal wildlife products to satisfy the consumer markets across the border, especially in China. By the winter of 1993, officials estimated that 60 rare Amur tigers were being poached each year, and that numbers had crashed to fewer than 100, due to a loss of habitat, prey base and poaching.
DSWF
immediately responded to the crisis helping to save the Amur
tiger from certain extinction. And, since 1994, has been jointly funding anti-poaching activities, which are now run by local Russian NGO ‘The Phoenix Fund’.
Today, from its base in Vladivostok, The Phoenix Fund supports professionally trained and well-equipped anti-poaching teams who regularly patrol two national parks - Primorye
and South of Khabarovsky
krai
- and investigate smuggling and conflict tiger cases. By the project's tenth anniversary, the wild tiger population had climbed back to a sustainable level of almost 450.
Working with other international NGO's in the Amur
Leopard and Tiger Alliance (ALTA), DSWF
money is sent directly to The Phoenix Fund to support anti-poaching operations with vital equipment such as snow mobiles, radios, jeeps, fuel and rations and paying informants. Funding also supports a strong and growing educational awareness programme
, community work, environmental workshops and training programmes
.
Sign up to TigerTime to help us save the tiger in the wild. It's free to do and your support will help make the difference between survival and extinction for the tiger. Click here.
