SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS

Animal activists raised the alarm as the International Tiger Forum -- the highest-level political meeting to ever discuss a single species -- was under way this week in St. Petersburg, Russia, Inter Press Service reported Tuesday.

"Illegal trade poses the most immediate and dire threat to the survival of tigers. Moreover, it puts all Asia's big felines at serious risk", says TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Regional Director William Schaedla.

The region needs to put a stop to black markets along the shared borders of Myanmar, Thailand and China, the group says.

"Wildlife laws in Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand clearly prohibit trafficking in tigers and other big cats. We urge authorities to bring the full weight of the law to bear upon traffickers", Schaedla said.

TRAFFIC's "The Big Cat Trade in Myanmar and Thailand" report documents black market sales of various body parts of an estimated 400 large wild felines during nearly a decade of investigations in the region.

"With as few as 3,200 wild tigers worldwide, the ongoing large-scale trade documented in this report cannot be taken lightly", Schaedla says.

Tiger populations in the Mekong region, including southwest China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, have fallen from an estimated 1,200 in 1998 to about 350 today, Inter Press Service said.

 BREAKING STORIES

Schumer says GOP would privatize SoSec

Unions: Trade deals can threaten jobs

Russia halts imports of pigs from Germany

Recovery? Large pickup, cargo van sales up

Russia WTO talks could be done in April

Trade limits frame Hu visit

Report: Afghan opium trade flourishing

Funeral held for Christina Green

At trade show: A magic kitchen

Leaked cable: U.S. urged to wage trade war

Canada bans export of narwhal whale tusks

Nation's first carbon cap-and-trade set

Canada urged to stop asbestos export

Red Sox trade for Adrian Gonzalez

White House seals trade agreement with South Korea

China halts Australian lobster imports

Illicit trade threatens Asia's tigers

Settlement for WTC first responders OK'd

S. Korea, U.S. race to finish trade deal

EU to stop export of nuclear waste