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Project update - April 2006
Tigers in the
Northern Forests of Myanmar
In February 2006 the Myanmar Times reported
that Mr. Alan Rabinowitz, an American wildlife biologist will
be assisting the Forest Department in an ambitious programme to
establish a Northern Forest Complex in Myanmar. An area covering
13,500 sq. will link four existing protected areas, Hkakabo Razi
National Park, Hponkan Razi National Park, Bumphabum Wildlife
Sanctuary and Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve in Kachin State - with
the aim of protecting a wide range of wildlife, particularly the
tiger, from extinction.
Based with the Wildlife Conservation Society,
Rabinowitz has worked on tiger conservation for over two decades.
Following an expedition to Kachin State in January this year he
estimated about 150 tigers survive in the Hukawng Valley Tiger
Reserve, primarily due to its inaccessibility and because it is
a high risk malaria area. The Forest Department has now assigned
50 forest guards to put a stop to illegal encroachment and poaching
in and around this vital tiger habitat, with harsh penalties for
tiger poachers.
Echoing the success of the DSWF funded 'Surviving
Together Project' in Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park, Rabinowitz
confirmed the importance of benefiting the local people as an
essential component to protecting wildlife areas. In this northern
region communities have a long tradition of eating meat. The project
has therefore initiated domestic livestock breeding programmes,
introducing the rearing of chickens, pigs and goats as an alternative
to hunting for bushmeat, such as wild pig and barking dear, which
are essential prey species for the tiger.
It is heartening that the strategy of strict
law enforcement coupled with effectively benefiting the local
community, as adopted in Alaungdaw Kathapa, is now being mirrored
in and around the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve.
It is hoped that with the security in the
north tightened, allowing numbers to increase, tigers will once
again return, through the ranges of the Naga Hills and the tropical
forests bordering the Chindwin River, to Alaungdaw Kathapa.
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