19th November

Gala opening of international youth tiger forum

It was Friday, Gala opening of the International Youth Tiger Forum. The day is very important in the history of tiger conservation. The day is perfect with fair weather and plenty of snow outside. Despite chilliness we are keen of playing on pallid snow but then we have to get ready for breakfast and to attend the gala ceremony. From 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. we had breakfast after that all the delegates departed to Vladivostok for the forum gala. The opening of the gala took place underground hall in Vladivostok state university of economic and services.

The opening ceremonial was attended by Governor of Primorsky Province, S. M. Dar’kin; the Consul General of India in Vladivostok; the Consul General of Vietnam in Vladivostok; Igor Chestin, WWF Russia's Chief Executive Officer; student of the university; delegates from 14 countries and media group. There was successive welcome speech by governor, and all the counsel presented on the opening. After the opening festivity we continued our activity at Sportivnaya Gavan embankment in Vladivostok waterfront. Where we have ceremonial opening of “Tiger Trail”, there was the presence of Pimorsky administration, local people, mass media and we the participants. The ceremony commence  with brief speech from governor followed by insertion of specially manufactured stone which has tiger prints and name of the countries, along the river side. Each country placed a tiger foot print tile on the pavement which was conduct of pledge, from tiger rage countries for conservation of tiger. Vladivostok governor truly supports this action; the road where the tiger trail is positioned in a strategic place where people always walk by; this is one excellent way to spread the awareness to local society about Tiger conservation. This accomplishment of the day was covered by Russian media people.

 Thereafter we went back to our accommodation and had our lunch at 2 p.m. precisely at 3 p.m. we gathered at restaurant hall for presentation. The presentation started with introductory lecture from Yury Daraman, head of WWF Russia Amur branch. He basically stated the status of tigers today, the threats/ challenges and ways of conserving the species. Then all the delegates did a presentation about tiger situation in their country and further action plan. The presentation lasted for 5-10 minutes for each country. In the middle of presentation we had a break for dinner from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. then we recommence the presentation. Line up with presentation we had a discussion, question and answer session. The complete presentation for all the delegates lasted till 10 p.m.

After long hours of sitting and listening we are tired and called for conclusion. In the conclusion we highlighted the key point of presentation. Then we spend short time to divide the groups for next day field trip and dispersed to our room.