ALTA's January Newsflash by Amur Leopard & Tiger Alliance

ALTA Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance Newsflash, January 2011

In this issue: • • • • •

The Tiger Summit

Fundraising by some of our youngest supporters The patrol monitoring system MIST Beautiful pictures And lots more!

www.amur-leopard.org

ALTA Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance Newsflash, January 2011 ALTA (Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance) is a coalition of 13 international and Russian NGOs working together for the conservation of Amur tigers and leopards. ALTA members have been co-operating for many years in developing, financing and implementing conservation projects in both Russia and China. This newsflash is produced by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) to update supporters on Amur leopard and tiger news. ALTA partners:

The Tiger Summit

Representatives of ALTA partners Moscow Zoo, ZSL, IFAW, WCS, Phoenix Fund and AMUR attended the unprecedented International Tiger Forum (o r Tiger Summit ) in St Petersburg in November 2010. The summit was the culmination of a process that started several years ago by World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who declared that he wanted the Bank to get involved in saving tigers. Predictably, not everyone felt that involvement of the World Bank was appropriate or helpful because the bank has supported many projects that have harmed tiger habitat and the environment in general. Difficulties and controversy have remained, but the fact is that the Forum was successful. All of the 13 tiger range states endorsed the Global Tiger Recovery Plan and the St. Petersburg declaration that commits them to doubling tiger populations in the wild. Many organizations and countries pledged funds totaling about $320 million for the next five years. The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced a full ban on Korean Pine logging, which is a substantial step forward. Pine nuts are a very important staple food for ungulates and the remaining Korean pine forests have been logged at an alarming rate in recent years. Also important was that the summit got enormous media coverage of Putin, the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and the leaders of Bangladesh, Lao PDR and Nepal talking about saving wild tigers and a rock concert for tigers, attended by Putin and Leo DiCaprio. During the meetings, a man was caught poaching an Amur tiger in the Russian Far East. This sad incident received very wide media coverage and made clear that Prime Ministers from the tiger range countries and poaching remains a serious threat in Russia. World Bank President Zoellick ÂŠ Global Tiger Initiative www.amur-leopard.org

Fundraising by three young girls from Canada!

The Amur leopard has gained three heroes in fighting for their cause. These heroes are three young girls from Canada: Lily, Morgan and Sage. Please read their story below… ‘Dear ALTA,

Hi! We live in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada. Our Names are Lily Rabbis (age 12), Morgan Beck

(age 11) and Sage Leoppky (age 12). We never heard about the Amur leopard before we watched the

Seasonal Forest episode of The Planet Earth series. We were shocked to discover that only 38-40 re-

mained in the wild and that the numbers were decreasing so we decided to create an organization

called W.I.L.D. which stands for Wild International Life Defense. We started raising money by making

homemade crafts such as painted magnets, jewellery, doorstops and other things. We sold our crafts at

3 local markets this summer and raised $793 which we donated through your website. We have de-

cided to keep raising money for the Amur Leopard in hopes this magnificent animal becomes stronger!’

Best wishes,

Lily, Morgan and Sage

Thank you very much girls for your amazing fundraising!

www.amur-leopard.org

Introduction of the patrol monitoring system MIST in protected areas

Tiger and prey numbers have declined across the Russian Far East over the past 5 years. Although logging is also a main factor, poaching is likely the most important reason for declines of both tigers and prey. Therefore, improving anti-poaching patrols is critical. Protected areas are “ source sites ” for tigers (places with breeding females are concentrated ) and protection of these areas is especially vital. WCS, Phoenix Fund and ZSL have developed a joint project to improve anti-poaching patrols in four protected areas in the Russian Far East through the introduction of the patrol monitoring system MIST.

What is MIST? Effective monitoring of anti-poaching patrols and poaching pressures requires comparing anti-poaching with . This is what MIST is designed to do. MIST makes it possible to compare performance indicators between patrol teams, conservation sites and time periods, and to view patrol efforts and results on maps. In seven other tiger-range countries, with support for implementation from the Save The Tiger Fund, MIST has led to substantial improvement in patrol effectiveness. Although law enforcement monitoring ( LEM ) systems have become a standard practice in many parts of the world, these systems have not yet been used in Russia. ef-

forts

results

Patrol and MIST training at Lazovsky Nature Reserve © WCS.

Training participants at Kedrovaya Pad © WCS.

How does MIST work?

Anti-poaching teams that operate with MIST record their routes with GPS (Global Positioning System ) units. Data on patrol movements, poaching and other violations are recorded on forms and stored in a computer database. MIST makes it easy to produce monthly patrol reports with tables, charts and maps showing routes and results. Reserve managers discuss the reports and evaluate patrol performance at meetings with inspectors. They can then set new patrolling goals. www.amur-leopard.org

Teaching inspectors at Kedrovaya Pad how GPS units work © WCS.

Practicing with MIST data forms – recording a fishing violation © WCS.

We introduce MIST in combination with technical support for patrol teams (funds for vehicles, fuel, equipment and maintenance ) and bonuses for inspectors based on quality of their data collection for MIST, their patrol efforts (e.g. patrol days and patrol distance) and results (e.g. citations, confiscations and fines ). The protected areas where MIST is being introduced are: Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve and Leopardoviy Wildlife Refuge (these are connecting protected areas that were recently combined as a single management unit ), Lazovsky Nature Reserve, Zov Tigra National Park and Sikhote Alin Nature Reserve.

Accomplishments and next steps MIST training workshops have been organized and data collection manuals, forms and GPS units have been distributed to inspectors. Data collection has already started in the Kedrovaya Pad and Lazovsky reserves and we expect to start in Zov Tigra National Park and the Sikhote Alin soon.

Handing out of diplomas at the end of the training © WCS

Support from NATO and ‘ Spots ’

The Dutch charity Spots provided 8,000 Euros for the purchase of an all terrain vehicle for the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve in the range of the remaining 35 Amur leopards. Spots received these funds from NATO air forces that participate in an annual meeting called ‘ NATO Tiger Meet ’ . The 2010 meeting was held at the Dutch air force base ‘ Vonkel ’ . www.amur-leopard.org

Funding from the Dorothy Howard Charitable Trust

Linda Kerley, project leader in Russia, was in London on Oct 11-15. She and Sarah, one of ZSL ’ s conservation programme managers, met with a representative of the Dorothy Howard Charitable Trust. The Trust decided to grant 150,000 GBP to ZSL over 3 years for the Amur tiger project in the Lazovsky Reserve in Russia! Norden ’ s Ark in Sweden

Tom Svensson, a photographer at Nordens ’ s Ark, has kindly send us some pictures of the big cats there. At Norden ’ s Ark the enclosures are very big and natural, providing the animals with wonderful homes. For more of Toms beautiful pictures please see our website!

Daseep & Tschuna

Although Daseep and Tschuna are of two different tiger subspecies, Daseep being a Sumatran tiger and Tschuna being an Amur tiger, they have one important thing in common. They have both had to be handreared. Handrearing can cause problems with future socialisation with other tigers, and the cubs have therefore been placed, together, in a suitable facility at Wupperal zoo. All is going well and they ’ re having a lot of fun together!

www.amur-leopard.org

Left: Amur leopard at Nordens Ark © Tom Svensson. Right: Amur tiger ‘ hanging in there ’ in Parc des Félins © Jean-Marc Bouve. Below: Amur tiger ‘ now how to get down ’ at Parc des Félins © Jean-Marc Bouve.

www.amur-leopard.org

If you can ’ t wait until the next newsflash…. ...you can sign up to our Facebook and Twitter pages! Here we post the latest news on Amur leopards and tigers. You are more than welcome to contribute interesting bits of news, music and articles. You can find us via the following links: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ALTA-The-AmurLeopard-and-Tiger-Alliance/204024520567 Twitter: http://twitter.com/AmurLeopardALTA Or you can of course keep an eye on our website that we update regularly

www.amur-leopard.org

Send in your photos and videos

Join our Supporter Gallery by sending in a photo or video of yourself supporting Amur leopards, preferably with the Amur leopard emblem, which can be downloaded here: www.amur-leopard.org/index.php?

ALTA would like to send a special thanks to…

Brenda Angelstad, Susan Barnes, Paul Baxter, Carol Boshears, Jefferson Bray, Nick Butcher, Alice & William Calloway, Lloyd Anthony Campbell, Deanna Cantrell, Clifford Cooper, Sally Coram, Debra Darcey, Tom Daly, James Deacon, Jared Dollard, Angel Navarro Domínguez, David Ehrlich, Robert Espinal, Sylvia Furner, Michael Gelb, Angela Gnyp, Nick Hassett, Andrea Hungerford, David Jessen, Niko Kauko, Kamil Leoniak, Justin Lamb, Shawn Lehr, Nelle McLaughlin, Barbara Meyer, Debbie Millar, Madelon Mulder, Lessli Nielsen, Niamh O ’ Farrell, Alexandra Paulig, Ellen Peters, Mark Peters, Michael Petras, Justin Prentice, Erkin Rahimov, Kevin Reynolds, Lynn Rotunno, Rual Rubio, Carola Stagersten, Laura Tamir, John Thickitt, Frank Tonucci, Walter Trial, Nancy & Wilbur Tripp, Tonya Tromblee, GuanYu Wang and Julia Wheeler who all made recent donations to ALTA. We would also like to thank Antwerp Zoo, Portland Chapter of AAZK, Dorothy Howard Charitable Trust, Spots Foundation and Macquarie Group Foundation for their recent donations and support as well! And also to all of our other donors who have sent in donations to help save Amur leopards and tigers! For more information about our projects, visit our website and if you would like to help us continue our efforts to support field conservation projects and work towards saving the Amur leopard and its habitat, please donate. We ensure that 100% of the funds donated via our website are provided to Amur leopard or tiger conservation field projects. Questions or comments? Email us at Amurleopard.programme@zsl.org