中国呼吁保护野生老虎

An international tiger conservation workshop is underway in Yunnan's capital, Kunming.

Topics for discussion include the protection of wild tigers and combating the illegal trade in animal products.

Shi Kun is the director of the wildlife institute at Beijing Forestry University.

"Indo-Chinese tiger is still distributed in the area. During the last three decades we found some records in the border area inside China in south and southwest of Yunnan province and on the border area with Laos and Myanmar, so we just ran the preliminary survey in the Xishuangbanna nature reserve, which is a hot spot of Indo-Chinese tiger distribution in the area. "

China is home to 4 subspecies of wild tigers which are on the verge of extinction.

Over 30 nature reserves and more than 70 conservation stations have been set up to try to exclusively protect wild tigers in China.

Authorities say this has proven effective in reducing poaching.

Still, Yin Hong, deputy head of China's State Forestry Administration, says more needs to be done.

"I want to call on the international community to pay a close attention on the differences in economic strength, regulation capabilities and the effectiveness of law enforcement between different countries. We should provide more help to poor regions in order to improve protection of wild tigers and combat illegal trade of animal products."

The 3-day session in Kunming has attracted more than 130 participants from a dozen countries and international organizations.