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Species under Threat
Amur Leopard
With
a population of only 30-40 in the wild, the Amur leopard is one of the
most endangered large cats on earth - and one of the most beautiful.
Habitat loss from logging, forest fires, land clearing for farming, and
oil and gas development projects, is the greatest threat to the
remaining Amur leopards.
Like their cousins, the Siberian tiger, Amur tigers are targeted by poachers and
sometimes shot by local villagers when diminished habitat forces them to
hunt close to populated areas. Other threats to the Amur leopard
population include inadequate punishment and poor enforcement of
anti-poaching laws, decline of prey populations, forest fires, and
genetic impoverishment caused by low numbers.
Siberian Tiger
In
the early 20th century, the Siberian tiger (or Amur tiger) was close to extinction,
but its numbers have since recovered and about 450 wild tigers
inhabit Russia’s Sikhote-Alin mountain range east of the Amur River, and
northern China. Poaching, the illegal wildlife trade, and habitat
destruction from construction, logging, and forest fires, are the
greatest threats to this species.
Tigers are most
commonly poached for their fur and body parts, which are used
in traditional Chinese medicine. It is estimated that in 1991 alone,
one-third of the Siberian tiger population was killed to satisfy
medicinal demand in China.
Western Pacific Gray Whale
The
survival of the 100 remaining western Pacific gray whales (of which only about 20 reproductive females remain) hinges on the integrity of
their only known feeding grounds, located off the northeastern coast of
Sakhalin Island. The whales roam these shallow waters from May to
November, fattening themselves for their long winter migration.
The
world's largest integrated oil and gas project, Sakhalin II, entered the region in 1998 when
the large Molikpaq platform was built adjacent to the whales’ feeding
habitat; the ensuing years saw two more offshore platforms and 165 km of
underwater pipelines constructed in the area, pushing the whale
population to the brink of extinction. Today, as the final phase of the project nears
completion, the threat to these creatures grows.
Wild Salmon
Wild
salmon have long been an icon of the North Pacific, binding together the
region’s economies, cultures and ecosystems. The fight to
save wild salmon and the habitats on which they depend must be waged on a
global scale and there may be no more important front in this struggle
than Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula—a land of mountains, geysers and
pristine watersheds that is one of the world’s last truly wild salmon
sanctuaries.
