Press Releases and Journals
Posted here are TOFT's latest press releases. Should you wish to enquire about any part of this campaign, or its membership please contact Julian Matthews on julian.matthews@toftigers.org or call +44 1285 643333.
Congres: Nederlandse ‘Travel Operators for Tigers’
WNF ondersteunt dit congres met gift uit INNO-fonds
Woerden, 11 januari 2011
Travel Operators for Tigers, TOFT, is een natuurbeschermingsinitiatief, opgericht door een groep betrokken touroperators uit Engeland die de tijger in rap tempo in aantal zagen teruglopen. Intussen heeft TOFT meer dan 150 leden wereldwijd. Op woensdag 4 mei houdt TOFT in Nederland het congres ‘Nederlandse Travel Operators for Tigers’ en nodigt hiervoor Nederlandse touroperators en reisagenten naar India uit. Ontdek hoe u kunt bijdragen aan tijgerbescherming! Het Wereld Natuur Fonds steunt dit initiatief met een gift vanuit hun INNO-fonds en een presentatie tijdens het congres.
Met uitsterven bedreigd
Afgelopen eeuw daalde het aantal tijgers van circa 100.000 exemplaren tot 3200 dieren in het wild. Het dier wordt steeds verder in het nauw gedreven. Zijn huidige leefgebied beslaat nog maar 7 procent van het oorspronkelijke verspreidingsgebied. Het leefgebied dat nog over is verdwijnt in rap tempo door houtkap en de aanleg van oliepalmplantages en wegen. Het dier komt hierdoor ook veelvuldig in conflict met mensen. Een nog groter probleem vormt de grootschalige illegale jacht en handel. De tijger is vooral in trek vanwege zijn vacht, een statussymbool voor nieuwe rijken in China en India dat tussen 2.500 en 25.000 dollar opbrengt op de zwarte markt, en om te verwerken in traditionele medicijnen.
Volgens de laatste tellingen zijn er nog 1300 tijgers in India. Het positieve nieuws is dat er binnen de nationale parken in India nog voldoende leefgebied is om de tijgerpopulatie weer te laten groeien.
Tijgertoerisme naar India een absolute must voor de overleving van haar soort!
Toerisme vormt hierbij een belangrijke schakel. “Duurzaam toerisme biedt een alternatief voor stroperij en houtkap door de lokale bevolking inkomsten uit hun natuurbezit te bieden in de vorm van werkgelegenheid. Deze werkgelegenheid begint bij het maken van de lokale producten, het onderhouden van de lodge tot het rondleiden van de reizigers als rangers of gids. Doordat de mens economisch voordeel heeft bij het beschermen van zijn natuurlijke leefomgeving, varen planten en dieren er wel bij.”, aldus Julian Matthews, voorzitter van TOFT.
Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT)
Travel Operators for Tigers is opgericht in 2004 en is inmiddels uitgegroeid tot een grootschalige internationale campagne met meer dan 150 leden uit de wereldwijde reisindustrie; van internationale touroperators, tot inkomende reisagenten en accommodaties in India. VNC Asia Travel, All for Nature Travel, Thika Travel en Sawadee Reizen uit Nederland zijn al aangesloten. De doelstelling van TOFT is erop gericht om duurzaam toerisme te bevorderen in de reisindustrie in India en haar subcontinent. Daarnaast wil zij bewustwording genereren bij de toerist die de wildparken bezoekt. Zo wil TOFT bijdragen aan de overlevingskansen van de tijger! Meer informatie over TOFT is te vinden op www.toftigers.org
Naast touroperators en reisagenten gericht op India nodigen wij ook van harte de media uit hierbij aanwezig te zijn. Voorlichting van de consument over een duurzame tijgerreis is het eerste begin!
Programma ‘Duurzaam Toerisme redt de Tijger’ woensdagmiddag 4 mei
Op dit congres zullen de volgende sprekers hun visie geven: Gert Polet, Advisor Ecological Networks & Species Conservation van het WNF en Julian Matthews, Voorzitter TOFT. Naast deze beide Europeanen zal een toerisme specialist uit India het team versterken. Het exacte programma en locatie volgen later. Houdt u hiervoor de TOFT website in de gaten: http://www.toftigers.org/news/events.aspx
Noot voor de redactie:
Het Wereld Natuur Fonds streeft naar een wereld waarin de mens leeft in harmonie met de natuur. Klein is fijn, dat is het idee achter het INNO-fonds, de subsidie van het Wereld Natuur Fonds voor internationale natuurbescherming door Nederlandse organisaties. Het INNO-fonds heeft als doel Nederlandse organisaties die zich bezighouden met internationale natuurbescherming financieel te ondersteunen.
Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) is een uniek initiatief, opgericht door een groep betrokken touroperators die een zeer belangrijke toeristische attractie, de tijger, in rap tempo in aantal zagen teruglopen in India. Inmiddels is TOFT uitgegroeid tot een grootscheepse internationale campagne met meer dan 150 leden uit de reisindustrie; van internationale touroperators, tot inkomende reisagenten en accommodaties in India. De doelstelling van TOFT is erop gericht om duurzaam toerisme te bevorderen in de reisindustrie in India en haar subcontinent, en bewustwording te genereren bij de toerist die de wildparken bezoekt, teneinde de tijger een kans te geven om te overleven. www.toftigers.org
Voor een digitale versie van het persbericht kijk op: http://www.toftigers.org/Resources/PressReleases.aspx
Voor meer informatie of een persoonlijke uitnodiging voor dit congres kunt u contact opnemen met Annemiek van Gijn, European Coordinator TOFT, E: Annemiek.vangijn@toftigers.org, T: 0348 448146 M:06 55536702.
Naast haar werkzaamheden voor TOFT is Annemiek van Gijn ook oprichtster van
All for Nature Travel & Consultancy: www.allfornature.nl
INDIA’S NATURE TOURISM INDUSTRY BITES BACK
The industry response to the recent NTCA’s statement to ban tourism from Tiger parks
DATE RELEASED - 30th April 2010
The wildlife tourism industry is astonished by Dr Rajesh Gopal’s, head of National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA) recent declaration to cast tourism out of core areas of Tiger reserves. (Hindustan Times article Tuesday 20th April and Times Online Wednesday 28th April)
These so called ‘loved to death’ parks are the best habitats with the highest Tiger densities in India, suggests far from ‘killing tigers’ and degrading landscapes, tiger tourism is doing exactly the opposite – saving forests - from an infinitely worse fate.
A recent report highlighted poor tourism practices outside Corbett National Park (only the Government itself operates tourism within park boundaries), the most visited park in India, yet it still has the highest number of Tigers in India (NTCA’s Tiger census 2008). Bandhavgarh TR has the heaviest densities of tigers in its main Tala tourism zone, 5 breeding females and 14 cubs and it gets circa 45000 visits a year. When sub adults leave this tourist zone seeking their own ranges in buffer zone forests they get 'lost' – poached or poisoned. Ranthambhore, with its 450 square kms and estimated 35 to 38, finds 22 to 23 (two thirds) of these tigers have ranges that fall within the much smaller 130 sq kms of the Tourism zone. These facts suggests that the best tiger security and habitat exists in tourism zones, and tigers and prey sense it.
Tourism values wildlife like no other economy. TOFT ‘valued’ Machali, the famous Ranthambhore Tigress as generating US$130 million in direct tourism revenue in the eleven years of her adult life as ‘lady of the lake’. Possible ten times this in indirect revenue for Indian businesses and government coffers. Take this away and these forests will again have no economic value to those living nearby or to local politicians - and they will be sacrificed to farming, mining, industry or logging, as is happening in most unloved and unknown forests across India.
Tourism makes forest personnel highly (and often uncomfortably) accountable and makes millions of dollars in Park fees for these personnel to use in conservation. Tiger tourism is the best anti poaching unit, operating vehicles watching for eight hours a day, deflecting poachers, loggers and grazers from being there. Many tigers are habituated to tourism’s daily activities. Furthermore, every year 2 million pilgrims walking into Ranthambhore NP without a single problem. The tourism industry even highlighting the collapse in tiger numbers in Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh two years before the Government declared the park devoid of Tigers in Feb 2009.
Tourism offers better livelihoods to hundreds of rural people living on a park’s borders, instead of their marginal farming, illegal logging, poaching and cattle grazing activities. It has converted poachers into guardians, communities into forest stakeholders and visitors into passionate advocates for preservation. Furthermore every Indian taxpayer has an inherent right to enjoy these wilderness regions – and the lodge industry is simply allowing this to happen.
Indeed, most in the wildlife lodge community are calling for better rules and regulations. Much is unplanned or poorly planned and regulated and they accept it must be rapidly controlled and a new national tourism template laid down and enforced. Representative bodies like Travel Operators for Tigers have been calling for action on this for many years. It still hasn’t happened. Madhya Pradesh’s ‘Ecosensitive Zone’ regulations have been stuck with the Indian Supreme court since 2006, awaiting a ruling.
So let’s not shoot down the one industry that has the power to restore and value wildlife. Give the industry the best ground rules by which it can become a tool for conservation, not a soft cover up for hiding the real reasons for the Tiger’s demise – be it poaching, burnt, degraded and over grazed forests and lack of political and institutional will. These are what kill tigers.
Issues on behalf of Travel Operators for Tigers 150 members
For further comment or interview please call + 91 98 10 722634
Pictured Below: Camp Forktail
TOFT POINTS THE WAY TO OUTSTANDING ECO LODGES IN INDIA’S TIGER PARKS
DATE RELEASED - 19th December 2009
Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) is delighted to announce that it has 2 eco lodges that raise the standards of the PUG Certification programme to its highest level when it comes to their sustainability and environmental footprint.
Over 50 lodges from some of India’s finest Tiger parks have now been audited but only the very best obtain the highest award, that of an ‘Outstanding’ ranking.
The prized lodges are a small, intimate and privately owned tented camp on the borders of Corbett Tiger Reserve in Utterakhand, called Camp Forktail, and one of India’s largest hotel group properties in partnership with &beyond, Taj Safaris new upmarket lodge, Baghvan, on the borders of Pench National park in Madhya Pradesh.
"After three years we are delighted that we finally have two lodges that reached our very highest standards, and 12 lodges that reach our Quality practice rating. With travellers increasingly making purchasing decisions on environmental considerations and carbon footprint, so more and more wilderness lodges across India are keen to be involved in the campaign and get audited." says Julian Matthews, TOFT’s founding Chairman.
The PUG Certification programme, was commissioned in 2007 by the TOFT campaign to allow the Travel community to choose the best practice suppliers in India’s most visited Tiger parks, like Kanha, Ranthambhore and Bandavgarh. The PUG certification audits lodges on their economic, social and environmental impacts in and around their park location. TOFT is made up of over 180 Indian and International travel operators and service providers, and was catalysed in response to the huge decline in the Tiger population in India in 2005. TOFT seeks to advocate and support a more sustainable way forward both with the wildlife travel community, alongside NGO’s and Park authorities. For further details call Julian Matthews in the UK on 01963 824514 or visit www.toftigers.org
The TOFT Wildlife Tourism Awards
DATE RELEASED 24th April 2009
Two individual wild Tigers pick up ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for their hundred million dollar contribution to the Indian economy
“They are multi-million dollar earners but it isn’t a business award they are being given but an environmental one.
“Machali herself earns as much as a top cricketer or Bollywood actress” says Julian Matthews, “and it’s critical to recognise these extraordinary economic benefits that come from saving her species in the wild. She literally provides livelihoods for thousands of people from forest guards to wildlife guides, drivers to hoteliers!.”
TOFT Lifetime Achievement Awards will be made tonight, (Friday 24th April) to Ranthambhore’s famous tigress Machali and Bandavgarh’s celerity male Tiger, known as B2 (or Sundar) in recognition of their star pulling power in Ranthambhore and Bandavgarh Tiger Reserves.
The two tigers - though not personally accepting the awards – with be given the prize at the launch of the TOFT Wildlife Tourism Awards, being held at the Residency of the British High Commission in Delhi.
TOFT has calculated that the extraordinary pulling power of Machali has earned nearly US$100 million (48000 crores) for the Indian Economy since she became a dominant resident female in the Tourism zone of Ranthambhore in 1998 as well as bringing up 11 cubs, two of whom are now in Sariska NP. Like all good stars she even has a Facebook page, has been seen by over 150000 visitors and millions on TV across the globe.
B2 in Bandavgarh is also an extraordinary tiger. He has sired over 35 tigers, 90% of which lived to adulthood, an extraordinary high ratio itself thanks to the protection he has been able to afford his many lovers! The sizable majority of tigers living in Bandhavgarh today are his sons and daughters. As Head of the family business, B2 has been estimated to have earned US$30m over his 7 year reign in the Tala Tourism range.
There is an old maxim - if it pays it stays - and these two tigers justify the extraordinary efforts and costs that going into preserving her, her kin and her forest habitat.
“The award is being made to two tigers tonight on behalf of the wildlife tourism industry but of course it is also very much in recognition of the hard work and dedication of all the Park staff – forest guards, wildlife and forest officers and administrators over many years. So to all of these people let us all say a big thank you.”
Accepting the Award on behalf of Machali is Ranthambhore’s Field Director, Shafaat Hussain, and his colleague Mr Shekawhat, DFO.
Abhishek Behl, TOFT India Director, added……
“These awards mark the launch of a new Annual Award’s we are running to highlight the work of all those involved who are using the wildlife tourism industry, its entrepreneurship, manpower and visitors most effectively to support conservation and restore wildlife habitat. It will reward best practice and sustainability across the lodge community, enhance cooperation and partnership with parks, motivate guides and guards and highlight the best community tourism initiatives wherever they are found. This is an exciting time for wildlife tourism, it has an extraordinary potential to be a major force for good in helping protect the tiger and we know these TOFT Wildlife Tourism Awards will become a key event in the Wildlife Tourism and Conservation calendar.
Notes to Editors
Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) and Travel Operators for Tigers India Wildlife Association (TOFT India) are international not for profit organisations representing all sectors of the wildlife tourism community including over 160 International tour operators, Indian destination management companies and local wilderness hotel and lodge operators.
TOFT was established in 2004 by Julian Matthews - who was also the founder of a pioneering nature travel operator in the UK - it’s aims is to encourage best practice in wildlife tourism, thereby creating a more visionary, more sustainable and more environmentally responsible conservation tool for saving Tigers and their habitat across India.
New Awards highlight the best in EcoTourism, but also call for better policies and regulation of Tourism in India’s Wild Places.
Speaking at the HSBC presented “Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) first annual Wildlife Tourism Awards” held on the 30th September in New Delhi, the TOFT Chairman said :-
“Tonight we have been celebrating the people and the companies that show the vital part that Ecotourism has to play in conservation. Well planned tourism offers visitors a chance to enjoy India’s stunning wildlife and landscape while also providing local communities with new services, employment and enhanced opportunities. This in turn can helps take extractive pressure off India’s increasingly denuded forests.
“Our winners tonight show what can be done with flair and imagination – projects such as Village Ways Homestays in Binsar, or Help Tourism in Manas National Park - use tourism to help support village communities while giving tourists a fun and rewarding experience. Our Lodge of the Year – Camp Forktail near Corbett is also a shining example of how well directed tourism can actually help rewild barren lands. Visitors come back again and again to the bush camp created by Ritish and Minakshi Suri. Eight years ago they took over highly degraded land and now they run a popular lodge, amongst lush jungle.
“The judges also highlighted the work of the Forest Department in Satpura National Park. There the Department have been promoting new ideas to enable visitors to experience far more to India’s rich wilderness than chasing after a photograph of a tiger !”
“ All our winners use tourism in a way that benefits local communities. TOFT believe these ideas need to be encouraged, but we also believe that better regulation is essential if good practice is not outpaced by the bad. Visionary policy and much better legislation and enforcement is needed. Tourism is now a major industry with 650 million trips taken in India each year. The tigress ‘Machali’ in Ranthambhore is calculated to have earned INR522crore (US$120m) in her lifetime in direct tourism revenue. Tourism is also India’s largest employer. We hope Government appreciates the need to act soon.
Chairman of Judges, film maker and conservationist extraordinaire, Mike Pandey added a personal message to two Award Winners......
“Congratulations also to Wildlife Guide of the Year - Rajesh Kumar Dwivedi of Bandhavgarh and to Naturalist of the Year - Kartikeya Singh Chauhan of Mahua Kothi Lodge also of Bandhavgarh. People like Rajesh and Kartikeya are key to giving visitors an experience of a lifetime- their knowledge and passion for wilderness and wildlife really show through. I hope their approach can inspire others”
For more details call Julian Matthews on 09971708070 or Abhishek Behl on 09873344304.
