Through the efforts of the Global Tiger Initiative, the World Bank, and Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin, a Tiger Summit attended by 13 South and East Asian states is underway in St. Petersburg. These 13 states occupy the last remaining refuges of tigers in the wild. It is estimated that only 3,200 tigers remain in the wild, which is down from 100,000 over a century ago. Habitat loss and poaching for skins and body parts to feed the market for traditional Chinese medicine are the most potent factors contributing to potential tiger extinction. Many commentators hope that this summit will be the first step towards recovering tiger populations in the wild. Some of the solutions on the table are the establishment of borderland protected areas, coordinating unified transnational regimes of protection, and better enforcement against poaching.
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