Public protest is effective even in the "former Soviet Union". When the Forest Management Department of Primorsky Province announced an auction of logging rights in prime
Siberian Tiger habitat the public response was loud and universally negative. The auction was to be held October 26th in which 16 logging sites were up for bid, some in the proposed Middle Ussuri wildlife refuge. But the forest management director went on holiday instead. Prime Minister Putin said a full public statement was pending an investigation of the circumstances surround the auction, according to
WWF. Mr. Putin will host an international summit on November 21st in St. Petersburg to galvanize action to save the tiger from extinction in the wild. But some prominent tiger conservationists like
Dr. Alan Rabinowitz of the Panthera organization do not hold out much hope for effective results from the summit. In his view not enough emphasis or accountability is being placed on protecting tigers from poaching and encroachment where they still survive. Logging rights in protected areas are one wildly abused legal loophole. Poachers use logging roads to access remote tiger populations. The logging activity destroys the supply of food such as pine nuts and acorns for prey species. In this case from Primorsky, logging would also have disrupted salmon breeding grounds. Time is running out for the tiger. Judging only from confiscated tiger parts since 2000
an average of at least 104 tigers have been killed per year. Drastic measures are in order.
