At the end of October, an international non-governmental
association, Save China's Tigers, will sign an agreement with
China's Forestry Administration to organize and introduce advanced
South African expertise for releasing tigers back into the wild. If
the agreement is signed without complications, it will be a
significant step forward in the protection of the South China Tiger
(panthera tigris amoyesis).
The international Save
China's Tigers organization was founded by a Chinese woman Li
Quan. Quan always loved kittens when she was growing up in Beijing.
After graduating from Peking University, she entered the Wharton
Business School at the University of Pennsylvania in the United
States where she completed her MBA. She later settled in
London.
In
August 2000, Quan invested some US$100,000 and founded the Save
China's Tigers charity while in London. She was determined to make
every effort to save the South China Tiger. She thought her actions
would attract the sympathy and support of the international
organizations dedicated to wildlife protection. However, since she
began her work, Quan has only received criticism from some of the
larger international organizations concerned with animal
protection.
In
the view of these organizations, the South China Tiger is doomed to
extinction, with some scientists expressing their view that it is
probably already too late to save the South China Tiger. Even
today, most of the world's people don't know that China has native
tigers, and that the South China Tiger in particular is thought to
be the progenitive ancestor of all the tiger subspecies.
Quan's heart was deeply wounded by this turn of events. Relying on
years of relationships built up within British mainstream society,
Quan hosted a variety of receptions, held promotional events, and
established an Internet website for her organization in order to
establish a worldwide endeavor to save the South China Tigers.
Knowing that South Africa has advanced expertise and unique
practices for releasing massive wild animals back into their
natural habitats, Quan made many trips to South Africa to conduct
research. She plans on introducing these advanced methods in China
and hopes to achieve a positive outcome by releasing the South
China Tiger back into the wild and improving their environmental
habitat.
(china.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, October 12, 2002)