On November 23, 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao, at the invitation of Russian Prime Minister Putin, attended the heads of government meeting of the International Forum on Tiger Conservation in St. Petersburg and delivered a speech.
Wen said wild tigers worldwide have reached the edge of extinction because of population growth, expansion of human activities and ecological destruction. Faced with such a stern fact, the international community should cooperate sincerely and take effective actions to save wild tigers. First, we should constrain human behavior, change the way of economic growth and living, strengthen ecological protection and put our development in harmony with the natural ecological system. Second, we should provide support for the life of people living in areas where wild tigers inhabit so that they will be encouraged to support and participate in the protection of wild tigers. Third, we should step up international protection, crack down on tiger poaching and trade and smuggling in tiger products and build synergy on wild tiger conservation.
He noted the Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting wild tigers, keeps improving laws and regulations on wild tiger conservation, implements a national recovery plan for wild tigers, builds a network of natural reserves and grassroots protection stations and completely bans tiger hunting, trade in tiger bone or use of tiger bone as medicine. With the concerted efforts of the government and the public, China's wild tiger habitats have been restored and improved effectively, number of wild tigers is growing and conversation has become a conscious action of the public. The Chinese government will strengthen wild tiger protection, raise the number of wild tiger remarkably and cooperate with all countries and relevant international organizations to protect wild tigers and advance the conservation undertaking so as to achieve greater harmony between mankind and nature.
The International Forum on Tiger Conservation is one of the international conferences hosted by the World Bank on the theme and aims at curbing the continuous decrease of number of tigers worldwide. National leaders or their representatives of 13 countries where wild tigers inhabit, including China, Russia, Bangladesh, Laos and Nepal, attended the meeting. A Declaration of Heads of Government and a Global Tiger Conservation and Recovery Strategy were adopted at the meeting.