Myanmar (formally Burma) is now home to the world’s largest tiger reserve. Located in the Hukaung Valley in northern Myanmar, the 8,450sq.mile (21,885sq.km) reserve has been extended nearly three times in size from the previous 2,500sq.mile (6,475sq.km) area allocated as a tiger sanctuary in 2004.
With less than 3,000 tigers living wild in the entire world, the Vermont-sized Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve offers some hope that conservation efforts for Southeast Asian tigers may improve. Unfortunately, the big cats are in dire straights and have been driven to the brink of near extinction in the wild due to poaching, habitat encroachment from humans, mining and large-scale agriculture development.
According to the Wildlife Conservation Society the designation of the extended Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve protects some of the last expanses of closed forest in the Indo-Pacific region and is one of the most important ecosystems, including wetlands, for the long-term conservation of large mammals such as tigers, clouded leopards, and Asian elephants. Approximately 370 bird species, including the critically endangered Rufous-necked Hornbill, have been found in the region, and of the current global estimate of 13,500 plant species, approximately 7,000 are found in the Hukaung Valley and nowhere else on the planet.
Via Wildlife Conservation Society
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written by Thomas , August 14, 2010