A Note on the Youth Tiger Summit by Dyah Ekarini

The Youth Tiger Summit 2010, officially opened on November 19, 2010 in an inaugural ceremony held at Vladivostok State University of Economy and Service. Delegations of Tiger Ambassadors from 14 tiger range countries, almost all of them students, gathered and had the opportunity to meet students and young environmentalists from the cities around Vladivostok, namely Partizansk, Volno-Nadezhinsk. The inauguration included speeches from Igor Chestin - Executive Director of WWF-Russia, Primorsky Deputy Governor Viktor Myasnik, and the Consulates General of India and Vietnam.
During the inaugural ceremony, Igor Chestin thanked Primorsky Governor Sergey Darkin and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for their support of the Tiger Youth Forum in Vladivostok and for facilitating the video conference between the Youth Tiger Ambassadors and the heads of state held on November 23, 2010.

On the same day, delegates of the Tiger Youth Forum opened the Tiger Trail in Sportivnaya, Vladivostok. The trail, donated to WWF by the Vladstroiservis Company, consists of 13 stone floors inscribed with the names of tiger habitat countries. Amalia and Lely, WWF-Indonesia's Young Tiger Ambassadors, caught the attention of many people and journalists with their tiger hats and TV reporters took turns to interview our young ambassadors.

After the opening, delegates had the opportunity to meet someone very special for the Amur/Siberian tiger. He is Pavel Fomenko. Pavel is the head of WWF-Russia's anti-poaching team. ""Time"" magazine awarded Pavel Fomenko as a "hero for the planet" for his services to preserve the world's largest tiger. In carrying out his duties, Pavel often has to face various violence including assassination attempts against him. But Pavel isn't scared at all because he has to do this for generations to come.
"I do this because I used to be a hunter. I saw for myself how the tiger's habitat was diminishing and what we - humans - were doing was accelerating the extinction of this charismatic animal. So I stopped hunting and decided to become a conservationist. When I was walking with my son through the taiga forest and we found tiger tracks, my son asked if I was working to save these tigers and I said yes. You will understand my pride when you have children."

Pavel's story was touching and inspiring for the young delegates who were there. Unfortunately he couldn't join us in the field the next day as he had to investigate a tiger killing case that happened two days before we arrived.
Subsequently, the Tiger Youth Forum delegates made two field trips to the Amur/Siberian tiger and Amur/Siberian leopard habitats in the deep snow Kedrovaya Pad taiga forest and Orlinoye hunting area. In these two areas, WWF-Russia and the Russian federal government are actively protecting Amur tigers and leopards and developing conservation-based hunting methods.

The delegates were guided by WWF Russia's Amur branch Project Coordinator Andrew Fereferov, leopard protection area inspector Sergei Naimushin, and Orlinoye hunting area director Sergey Vobliy and other hunting area assistants.
The field trip was an eye-opening experience for most of the young delegates. It turned out that many of them had just seen snow. After the field trip, they played "snowball fights" to bond with each other. Playing snowball fights turned out to be a lot of fun!

After the field visit, the delegates were divided into groups and they presented the tiger rescue campaign plans they had prepared for their respective countries. Each country received many questions and inputs from their counterparts. There were several debates among the delegates on the issue of illegal trade. Afterwards, they came together to build a global campaign to save tigers.

The discussion about the global campaign was quite tough because each country tried to defend their own ideas and rejected ideas that did not fit into their campaign plan. Hmm...very similar to the International Tiger Forum that is taking place in St. Petersburg.
After formulating the global campaign to save tigers, the delegates discussed the draft youth declaration to save tigers. This declaration will be one of the key documents presented to the heads of state and delegations of countries convening in St. Petersburg.

Finally, the Tiger Youth Forum culminated in a video conference with heads of state who were in St. Petersburg. The delegates were dressed in the traditional attire of their respective countries. Since not all participants could talk to the heads of state, 6 people representing 6 countries were chosen as spokespersons for the youth.

The video conference went smoothly and the heads of state. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was very impressed with the young ambassadors. They all hoped that the conference would produce something that could be passed on by the youth to save the world's tigers.

The next day, November 24, 2010, the Tiger Youth Forum entered its final day. All delegates presented their national campaign plans that they will carry out after returning to their respective countries. After that, the Tiger Youth Forum was closed with the awarding of diplomas to all delegates by WWF-Russia. The delegates hope that they can meet again in the same conference and do better for the world's tiger conservation efforts.