Advisory: Media opportunity for Friday's Global Tiger Day with WWF-Canada's lead specialist of Asian big cats

TORONTO, July 28, 2016 /CNW/ - Rinjan Shrestha, WWF-Canada's lead specialist of Asian big cats, is available to speak with media to mark Global Tiger Day, which is Friday July 29, 2016.

Shrestha will be travelling to Nepal in the fall, where WWF-Canada works on tiger conservation, to continue important projects such as tiger population and habitat monitoring and working with front-line park staff to ensure that protected areas are managed sustainably.

The biggest threats to wild tigers are poaching and habitat loss, and as a result the global population dropped to an all-time low of 3,200 in 2010.

Since then, WWF and the governments in the 13 countries with tiger populations have been working towards a goal known as Tx2 – to double the wild tiger population to 6,400 by 2022, the next Chinese year of the tiger.

This year, for the first time in over 100 years, it was announced that global wild tiger numbers are increasing.

To help grow the wild tiger population, WWF-Canada:

• Supports wildlife rangers, law enforcement agencies and local communities to prevent the illegal slaughter and trade of tigers. Our anti-poaching project in Nepal's Banke National Park (BaNP) achieved one full year without poaching in 2014 and grew the number of tigers in the park from zero to five between 2009 and 2015.
• Trains local communities on tools and techniques to monitor tiger populations and identify threats to their lives and habitats.
• Restored 76 hectares of grasslands and two wetland sites with local partners in BaNP to draw more prey species to the area.
• Supports the implementation of Conservation Assured Tiger Standards.
• Supports the use of the Spatial Monitoring and Assessment Tool, which empowers front-line staff and promotes transparent monitoring of anti-poaching efforts.

About World Wildlife Fund Canada
WWF-Canada creates solutions to the environmental challenges that matter most for Canadians. We work in places that are unique and ecologically important, so that nature, wildlife and people thrive together. Because we are all wildlife. For more info visit wwf.ca

SOURCE WWF-Canada

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