Putin initiates fund for Amur tiger protection

A special fund for the protection of Amur tiger was formed in Russia at the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The fund will be financed from non-budgetary resources, the Russian presidential press service told Itar-Tass on Monday. “The fund has been created in the form of an autonomous non-profit organization - “Centre of Amur Tiger”, the Russian Geographical Society is its founder, Vladimir Putin is the Chairman of the Trustee Board of the Fund. It (the Russian Geographical Society - Itar-Tass) traditionally participates in a large number of projects for rare species preservation,” the Kremlin press service reported. Presidential aide, Presidential Control Directorate Head Konstantin Chuichenko will be in charge of the Amur Tiger Fund, the Russian presidential press service reported. Chuichenko is appointed Head of the Supervisory Council of the autonomous non-profit organization for the protection of Amur tiger. “The organization will be funded from non-budgetary resources, particularly from grants of the Russian Geographical Society,” the Kremlin pledged. The fund will conserve and increase the population of Amur tiger, the Kremlin press service said. “The experience of similar funds showed that this type of activity allows solving the problem of preserving rare species of animals efficiently,” the Kremlin believes. As an example the Kremlin cited the experience of the Fund for conservation of leopards, which Head of the Russian Presidential Administration Sergei Ivanov is in charge of. Thanks to the efforts of this organization the population of Far Eastern leopards went up by 50% for the last few years. “The Amur Tiger Fund was formed to fulfill the commitments, which Russia assumed upon the results of the Tiger Summit in 2010 initiated by Russia,” the Russian presidential press service reported. As many as 13 countries, participating in the summit and forming the habitat of tiger, set the goal to double the number of tigers in the wild within 12 next years. The law introducing a tougher responsibility for killing and trading of rare animals that the Russian President signed recently is aimed to resolve this task.