A conference took place in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi on June 10 to discuss how to conserve the tiger habitat which is dwindling at an increasing rate, the Voice of Vietnam Radio said June 11. The event was co-held by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the World Bank, as part of a series of activities in the run-up to a summit on tiger protection in Russia in Sept. Participants told that fewer than 4,000 tigers remain in the wild, with an estimated population of only about 50 individuals in Vietnam. The number of tigers worldwide dropped from 100,000 to 3,500 over the last century, the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) said. Although Vietnam has banned all domestic trade of tigers, the tiger trafficking continues for the use of their bones in traditional medicines, the consumption of their meat as a health tonic and as a status symbol, and the use of their skin for trophy and decorative purposes.
