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| Sumatran tiger |
Recent estimates have shown that the population of the Sumatran tiger in Way Kambas National Park has decreased as a result of poaching and habitat loss. The latest issue submitted by the park's authorities in Lampung has shown that numbers have dwindled to the brink of extinction. According to Sumianto, coordinator of the Sumatran Tiger Rescue and Conservation Foundation, the current number found in the 125,000-hectare national park is estimated to be at less than thirty animals. He further added that the population data from 2000 was estimated at 36 to 40. Sumianto also stated that unless serious efforts made by the government to preserve the forests and stop the poachers will be taken, the tigers may become extinct. The Way Kambas and Bukit Barisan National Parks, along with the Lampung Forest Ministry, had high hopes in increasing the tiger population due to a drop in poaching between 2004 and 2007. However, they never showed any valid data on the populations in those national parks.
This article, in my opinion, gives a clear idea about how accuracy and data should always be maintained in order to save a critically endangered species. In this case, it is the Sumatran tiger. Because of their carelessness, both of these national parks and the Lampung Forest Ministry have ended up with a further drop in their local tiger populations. In other words, they let the poachers take advantage which is something nobody in any national park would want. I feel that these two national parks are in a great need of help in reviving their tiger populations. Indonesia had made a committment last year along with twelve other nations at a global tiger summit in St. Petersburg to help each other, in order to bring the tiger back from the greedy hands of the illegal wildlife trade. I sure hope that in the future, Indonesia will never make a similar like this again. But now, the time is critical for its tigers.
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