On September 5, 2022, as part of the business program of the II International Tiger Conservation Forum, a session «Environmental education, work with the public in support of tiger conservation and mobilization of financial resources» was held. The session was moderated by Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Center «Amur Tiger» Konstantin Chuichenko.
During a dialogue with the founding director and program director of the Council of the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) Keshav Varma, Konstantin Chuichenko raised the thorny issue of the existence of tiger farms in some Asian countries where animals are grown for derivatives, traditional medicine. According to the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Amur Tiger Center, such farms only create demand for derivatives of red book animals and such activities should be prohibited. He noted that it was very important to address the demand for such products and supported the proposal to:
"I think we should develop a regulatory instrument aimed at eliminating tiger farms".
In addition, as part of his speech, Keshav Varma proposed that all countries belonging to the tiger’s range should declare the predator a symbol of the Asian region and a symbol of sustainable, including economic, development.
Among the important steps towards the conservation of the tiger, the meeting participants identified increased funding for conservation programmes, enhanced habitat protection, involvement of local people in tiger conservation, development of environmental education.
Irina Makanova, Director of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Sphere of Development of the OOPT, Ministry of Nature of the Russian Federation, emphasized the important role of protected areas in improving the environmental culture of the country’s inhabitants.
«In 2021-2022, more than 1,000 eco-educational activities were carried out by «tiger» specially protected natural areas. The coverage of the population - more than 70,000 people, of which half are children», - stressed Irina Makanova.
President of the Association of Small Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation Grigory Ledkov expressed the readiness of the indigenous peoples of the Far East to participate in the processes aimed at preserving the tiger:
"The indigenous peoples of the Far East regard the tiger as the ancestor and respect him very much. The preservation of this animal is part of their culture and they are ready to transmit their knowledge, customs and beliefs in order to popularize the tiger and respect nature".
Rajesh Gopal, Secretary-General of the Global Tiger Forum, noted that all "green" initiatives needed to be brought together to improve environmental performance.
"Biodiversity conservation is directly linked to both climate change and human land development for agricultural development. Habitat changes - the number of animals changes. If we are talking about the preservation of the species, we should take all these questions into account," said Rajesh Gopal.
Tadzio Schilling, General Director of the European Business Association (AEV), expressed the Association’s interest in participating in Russian environmental initiatives aimed at keeping the tiger:
"We are ready to cooperate on the basis of our association to create platforms of communication between European business, Amur Tiger Center and other stakeholders involved in the process".
Sergey Aramilev, General Director of the Amur Tiger Center, spoke about the involvement of hunting in tiger conservation:
"In Russia, the tiger has survived, among other things, thanks to people "on the ground": hunters, gatherers, etc. Like a tiger, they need a forest and they have something to lose. One of our important tasks is to support the sustainable management of natural resources so that the forest resource is sufficient for both man and tiger".
A concrete example of the effective work of hunting farms, in which a high level of ungulates is maintained, the Amur tiger is preserved and, as a result, the development of ecological tourism, was presented by Alexander Batalov, the director of forestry "Durminskoye".
Concluding the event, Konstantin Chuichenko spoke for the transparency of the activities of non-governmental organizations in the environmental sphere.
"In this field there is room for unfair competition, when people, using the idea of conservation, solve their commercial issues under the guise of a noble task. We at the Ministry of Justice intend to amend the existing legislation to ensure that the charity organization publishes financial statements on these activities. That both people and sponsors understand what the money is going for. There must be financial transparency," stressed the Minister of Justice of Russia.