Asian countries pledge to double tiger population

Representatives from 13 Asian countries pledged to double the number of wild tigers by the year 2022.

Representatives from 13 Asian countries on Friday pledged to double the number of wild tigers by the year 2022 and called for protection of habitats to save the animals from extinction.

The declaration, announced in a press statement by officials at the first Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation, in Thai coastal resort of Hua Hin, was hailed by conservation groups at the meeting.

''Let us join together boldly to save the wild tiger,'' Suwit Khunkitti, Thailand's minister of environment and natural resources, said in the statement.

The global wild tiger population is estimated to be at an all-time low of 3,200, down from an estimated 20,000 in the 1980s and 100,000 a century ago.

The declaration to preserve the animals will be considered for approval by heads of the 13 states when they meet in a Tiger Summit in September in Vladivostok, Russia, hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

''We look forward to seeing their pledges turn into firm actions in Vladivostok,'' said Michael Baltzer, from the conservation agency WWF, adding he was ''delighted to see a ray of hope for the tiger''.

The 13 countries who attended the Hua Hin conference were Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The meeting, which began Wednesday, was organised by Thailand and the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in 2008 by the World Bank, US-based the Smithsonian Institute and dozens of conservation groups.

A recent WWF report blamed infrastructure developments, such as forests being cut up by roads and converted into commercial crop plantations, for destroying tigers' habitats.

The report also cited growing demand for tiger body parts used in traditional Chinese medicine as a major factor endangering wild tiger populations.