The World Bank, Interpol and partners launched an initiative to build capacity and collaborate in tiger protection enforcement, providing border officials and authorities with the tools, intelligence and communications necessary to effectively curb international wildlife trade in tigers and tiger parts.
2 November 2011: The World Bank, Interpol and partners launched Project Predator, an initiative to protect and save the world’s last surviving wild tigers. Due to poaching and habitat degradation and fragmentation, Asia’s estimated 100,000 tigers in 1900 have dwindled to fewer than 3,500 across the tiger range countries.
Project Predator, launched during Interpol’s 80th General Assembly, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, from 31 October-3 November 2011, aims to unite the efforts of police, customs and wildlife officials in the 13 countries in Asia to build law enforcement agencies’ capacities to combat tiger crimes, and strengthen their ability to use advanced, intelligence-led methods of investigation. It also seeks to encourage countries to establish National Tiger Crime Task Forces, which will be connected regionally and internationally through the Interpol National Central Bureaus.
The initiative was created by Interpol, and is supported under the Global Tiger Initiative by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the World Bank, and the Smithsonian Institution.
The program will commence with a meeting of senior police and customs officials from tiger range countries, scheduled to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 13-14 February 2012, to identify and implement a plan of action. [Website of Project Predator] [Website of Global Tiger Initiative] [World Bank Press Release]