Tiger conservation becomes focus at summit

July 29 has been designated as International Tiger Day. It was initiated three years ago at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit to raise awareness of tiger conservation.

To mark the occasion, an international workshop is being held in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province. Participants from home and abroad discuss tiger conservation and combating the illegal trade in animal products.

Once, they were kings among animals, but not anymore.

The fact is that tigers are under threat. Already, three out of eight subspecies are extinct. And the remaining five are now critically endangered.

Being one of the tiger range countries, China is taking an active role in conservation.

Yin Hong, deputy head of China State Forestry Administration, said, "In terms of tiger protection, we've established more than 30 nature reserves and 70 protection stations over the past two decades. We have developed a national plan for recovery of wild tigers, defining the work for the next ten years."

This International Workshop on Transboundary Conservation of Tigers and Other Endangered Species is the largest of its kind that is held by China.

And its importance in protecting endangered wildlife cannot be understated.

In the past four years, 618 nature reserves have been created across southwest China to solve problems of human-wildlife conflict.

Shi Kun, director of wildlife institute of Beijing Forestry University, said, "The ongoing work is to address issues of increase in land use intensity and road construction. Also, I think further cooperation with neighboring countries is very important for the conservation of the endangered species."

Apart from tiger conservation, the three-day meeting will cover issues such as combating illegal wildlife trade and transboundary conservation.