Myanmar Officially Designates World’s Largest Tiger Reserve in the Hukaung Valley Event

Die Regierung von Myanmar teilte am 3. August 2010 mit, dass das gesamte Hukaung-Tal im Norden des Landes zum Schutzgebiet für Tiger erklärt wurde. Knapp 22 000 Quadratkilometer Fläche umfasst das Tiger-Reservat. Im Jahr 2004 hatte die myanmarische Regierung 6475 Quadratkilometer für dieses Tierschutzgebiet zur Verfügung gestellt.

The Government of Myanmar formally announced on 3 August 2010 that the entire Hukaung Valley would be declared a Protected Tiger Area. Isolated in Myanmar, the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve stretches approximately 8,452 square miles in the northernmost part of the country. The Valley is known as a tiger reserve with the potential of holding several hundred tigers, but illegal hunting both of tigers and their prey has caused a steep decline in their numbers with some estimates showing as few as 50 of the big cats in the region. In 2004, the Myanmar government designated 2,500 square miles of the Hukaung Valley as an inviolate wildlife sanctuary, based off of the first ever biological expedition of the area in 1999 led by Dr. Alan Rabinowitz.