"Vladimir Putin and World Bank Chief Stage Summit To Save the Tiger"

"St. Petersburg -- A campaign to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022 was on the agenda today at the highest level political meeting to ever discuss a single species.

The International Tiger Forum in St Petersburg is being staged in response to a calamitous 97% decline in tigers in the wild over a century.

The Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, and the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, were behind the four-day event, during which it is hoped that $350m (£220m) will be secured for tiger conservation.

The forum – which is taking place during the international year of biodiversity and the Chinese year of the tiger – will also include the unveiling of an international consortium to combat wildlife crime and pledges to tighten protection by the 13 countries where tigers live."

Jonathan Watts reports for the UK Guardian November 21, 2010.