The project aims to link international wildlife officials with customs and law enforcement officers in the 13 countries to help stem poaching and smuggling of tiger parts for use in expensive traditional medicines believed to cure illnesses.
Poaching and habitat fragmentation have caused Asia’s wild tiger population to decrease from about 100,000 in 1900 to fewer than 3,500 today, according to Interpol.
In November 2010, leaders from the 13 countries committed to doubling the world’s wild tiger population by 2022.
The Interpol project “will reduce trafficking in tiger parts, with the add-on effect of reducing other wildlife crime in Asia,” Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank and founder of the Global Tiger Initiative that will oversee the project, told Interpol delegates in a video address.
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