Web Campaign Seeks Photos to Stop Tiger Trade
 
Thirty tiger conservation groups this week launched a worldwide campaign to collect supporters pictures online to create the worlds largest photo mosaic of a tiger. The mosaic, built with thousands of photos from tiger lovers submitted around the globe, will be unveiled to world leaders in June as they gather to discuss trade in endangered species.

Supporters of tiger conservation can take part in the campaign by uploading their photos to http://www.savethetigerfund.org/mosaic. Visitors to the mosaic can zoom in on the larger tiger picture and find images submitted of themselves and family and friends.

The mosaic campaign was launched as China considers lifting its ban on trade in tiger bone and other body parts, a move that would be disastrous for wild tigers since an increase in poaching would immediately follow.

This is a fun, interactive web tool with a serious goal. We decided that the most powerful message would come from having the public weigh in, voting for tiger conservation with their faces, said Judy Mills, director of the Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking. The aim of the mosaic is to send a united message that the world believes Chinas current ban on tiger trade is absolutely necessary for the future of tigers in the wild.

Supporters will also have the opportunity to send a note to Chinas leaders recognizing them for their effective 1993 ban on tiger trade and urging them to maintain the ban. These messages of appreciation will be hand delivered to officials in China. The mosaic itself will be presented to representatives from 171 countries at the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in June.

Your photos and actions could help save tigers, said Belinda Wright, executive director of Wildlife Protection Society of India. The Chinese government is being pressured to lift the ban and be able to sell tiger bone wine, tiger meat and skins. This would make it open season on the fewer than 5,000 tigers left in the wild, with criminals seeing the Chinese market as an easy way to launder tigers poached from the wild.

An international coalition of 30 organizations including conservationists, animal welfare groups, traditional Chinese medicine organizations and zoos is organizing this interactive campaign to save wild tigers.