Help ensure friendly habitat for rare Amur tigers

Ensuring communities that live in and near Amur tiger habitat have a stake in tiger conservation, minimizing conflict between people and tigers and their prey, and promoting careful usage of forest resources are critical to the success of all our tiger conservation efforts. Ecological education and outreach can turn tiger and prey poachers into tiger and prey protectors and forest abusers into forest guardians.

During the last three months the Phoenix Fund allocated funds donated by our GlobalGiving supporters to Uragus eco-centre that works with residents of Terneisky district for many years.

Terney is a strategically important place for tiger education. Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Nature Reserve is located in the district. In 2005, Phoenix established ties with the Uragus Ecological Centre led by Galina who devoted the greater of her life to teaching children Biology and Ecology. Central to the philosophy of the educator is the conviction that ecologists and community inform each other and are partners in their contribution to nature conservation. Since very beginning, Uragus started collaborating with the scientists in education and outreach among the youth, inviting them to lessons and ecological festivals, such as Tiger Day. Schoolchildren take care of a wonderful garden in the club’s yard and Zamanikha Park, go hiking to picturesque corners and have visits with performances by their peers from villages, at times very remote ones. The eco-centre offers lectures, workshops and seminars, produces public actions, and provides a variety of environmentally oriented actions and information to Terney community.

During the summer, the teacher held 18 nature-oriented events for 172 children and 17 adults. Many of the Centre’s members worked under the supervision of the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve’s specialists. Several events were organized for local residents of Terney where the audience got acquainted with conservation projects. In June, during Doors Open Day the children attended five education stations “Nature Reserve through the microscope” and took a quiz. During the reported period, the children regularly visited a field centre named Ecologovo (EcoDen) at Khanov guarding post. Ecologovo represents an educational site for nature conservation practices and ecological outreach. The children observed and studied birds and tracks left by ungulates, rodents and martens. Galina together with the schoolchildren set a few camera traps on wildlife trails. And as a result, a fox, a hare, red deer, a bear, a tiger, a wild boar and a raccoon dog were caught on the camera traps. The children were very excited looking at the images of the animals. Also, during the reported period Uragus Ecological Centre in cooperation with Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve and Local Education Authority held a regional conference titled “We are the present and future of the Earth”.