WWF Urges Vietnam to Save Tigers

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has urged Southeast Asian’s Greater Mekong region, including Vietnam to act immediately and decisively to prevent the extinction of tigers. The number of wild tigers across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam has dropped to 350 today from 1,200 in 1998, a report of the WWF showed. Growing demand for tiger body parts used in traditional Chinese medicines is a major factor endangering the region’s Indochinese tiger population, the report was quoted by the Vietnam News Agency as saying Wednesday. The report was released ahead of a three-day conference on tiger conservation that opens today in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin with the participation of ministers from 13 Asian countries. There are 3,200 tigers all over the world.