Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Global Tiger Day - July 29th

#1
Leigha Offline
From the article --> The natural habitats of these big cats (and many other species of wildlife) continue to thin as their territories grow fragmented, artificial and more distant from each other, cutting tigers off from their kind. Poaching and trading of tiger parts are less of an issue today than it was decades ago but it continues to plague conservation efforts to an extent. Encroachments into Protected Areas in forests is both inevitable and destructive to traditional forests and farmland, reducing green cover. As the size of wildlife reserves shrink, another big problem arises: conflict of tigers with humans in adjoining habitats.

https://www.firstpost.com/india/int...on-is-more-crucial-now-than-ever-7072071.html

Just thought this was worth sharing, as to raise awareness. Any thoughts? 

From what I've learned through reading up on this, tigers keep the population down of others animals (as they serve tigers as food) and this is important because if the population of other animals (prey) increases too much, they too risk extinction because food sources will be limited.
Reply
#2
C C Offline
Tiger bone wine and all sorts of other crazy traditions. Products from Asian tiger farms are sometimes advertised as being wild in origin, so by keeping that facet alive they don't really curb the demand for feral tigers via poaching. (The "horrible conditions" practice of tiger farming is encroaching into Europe as well.)

The idea that East Asian cultures dominantly promote a harmonious relationship with nature is semi-bogus. It was an administrative standard there to subordinate wilderness to human needs and purposes long before influence and adoption of European ideologies and interests [see footnote at bottom]. The local "religious" traditions and thought orientations may have indeed encouraged people to bond with the environment; but not necessarily commissioned by cosmic divinity to be stewards of nature. So ironically, due to humans not having so philosophically a central or lofty a status in the non-artificial world as in the West, there was less potential accompanying responsibility. Minus a sense of obligation to shepherd it, or more excuse available to avoid doing so, thereby facilitating any resource-ravaging goals of indigenous early industries, bureaucracies, and governmental officials. ("Larger and more exalted than us, nature can look after itself. Don't worry about it.")

Quote:Almost 70 percent of the Sundarbans are currently within a metre of actual sea level. Rising water levels are a significant threat to low-lying areas, and the tiger habitats of Sundarbans are particularly vulnerable to it. Conversations about tigers are more crucial now than ever for India.

Yep, it's probably a goner.

This vanishing forest protects the coasts—and lives—of two countries (excerpt): . . . One thing the region’s coastal communities felt they could always bank on, though, is the Sundarbans, the world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest. Spanning nearly 4,000 square miles on both sides of the Indian-Bangladeshi border, this dense swamp of flood-tolerant trees stands as a green wall, absorbing storm surges and blunting even the worst cyclones. For villagers, the forest is also an abundant source of honey and its waters a source of fish. “The Sundarbans is our mother,” said Joydev Sardar, secretary of the fishermen’s association in Harinagar, Bangladesh. “She protects, feeds, and employs us.”

But after years of abuse from man and nature, the mangroves seem to be nearing their limits. Illicit logging, mostly for building materials to house the region’s booming population, has thinned out the periphery of the forest. At the same time, increasing water salinity caused by the encroaching sea is killing off many higher value, storm-stopping tree species, such as the sundari that gives the forest its name. The salinity assault comes from both land and sea: Upstream dams on rivers in India have reduced freshwater flow into the Sundarbans, while sea-level rise caused by climate change is flushing more salt water into the mangroves.


- - - footnote - - -

[*] The Conflict between Chinese Cultural and Environmental Values in Wildlife Consumption (PDF): . . . China and other Chinese-influenced culture areas in Asia, like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, [...have...] attitudes towards wildlife consumption are more permissive and several key species are utilized in a variety of cultural practices. Ben Davies quotes TRAFFIC’s James Compton as saying, “China is a like a vacuum cleaner. It is the single greatest threat to wildlife in the whole of Asia”. According to Susan Shen, “The single most important fact hampering wildlife conservation in China is the traditional use of wild animals for medicinal purposes, meat and skins”.

[...] This evidence of anthropocentrism and instrumentalism in Asian thought stands in stark contrast to recent attempts of environmentalists to uncover in Eastern philosophy and religion normative principles more accommodating of preservationist goals. For example, philosophers have cited Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian traditions in support of prescriptions to live in balanced harmony with nature and to respect – revere – the interconnectedness of all living things. Perhaps the rapacious depletion of flora and fauna in Asian countries can be explained as a recent development antithetical to their cultural traditions.

However, [Ramachandra] Guha claims this story is based on a selective reading of Eastern traditions and “does considerable violence to the historical record”. According to Heiner Roetz, anthropocentrism and instrumentalism in contemporary Chinese attitudes towards nature are nothing new and owe little to the influence of either Western Marxism or Western economic liberalism; both of these systems of thought are compatible with established cultural norms in Asia permitting the subjugation of nature for human purposes, which predate both. Roetz writes, It was the typical occupation in pre-dynastic times of the early rulers and cultural heroes, who represent the self-understanding of Chinese civilization.

Huang Di ‘deforested the mountains and dried out the swamps’. Shun ‘burned out the swamps and slew the wild animals (literally, the ‘numerous plagues’ qun hai)’ (ibid.), and Yi ‘burned down the mountains and the swamps, causing the animals to flee and hide themselves’. None of this should be surprising. As Roetz notes, “For more than three millennia China has been one of the most intensively cultivated regions of the world. It has gone the way of all highly advanced civilizations, a way that is marked by the constant expansion of agricultural and otherwise utilizable areas at the expense of the original flora and fauna”. Being comfortable with the aggressive utilization of natural resources to advance social goals has been a winning cultural strategy (whether it will continue to be so is another matter). It would be more remarkable if there were an ancient society with an aversion to it that survived. However, even if the preservationist credentials of Eastern thought were vindicated, there may be little reason to expect much to come of it.
Reply
#3
Leigha Offline
Interesting info, CC - thanks. It's heart breaking to say the least, that they're projecting that the tiger will be extinct in about ten years, if more precautions aren't taken to protect them and their habitat.

I'd say that nature can ''look after itself,'' unless humans get involved.
Reply




Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)