Russian organisations will launch a major campaign to protect the Siberian tiger. Photo / AP Expand

Russian organisations will launch a major campaign to protect the Siberian tiger. Photo / AP

Russian government and environmental organisations say they will launch a major international campaign to protect the endangered Siberian tiger and begin increasing its population.

Officials from the Natural Resource Ministry and the World Wildlife Fund say the ultimate goal will be to double the number of Siberian, or Amur, tigers to 6500 by the year 2022.

A Russian representative of the World Wildlife Fund says countries and organisations involved hope to raise up to US$1 billion ($1.36 billion) for the ambitious programme.

Russia also hopes to carry out a "tiger summit" next year in which government heads of the 13 countries with tiger habitats will participate.

"We decided that this time we should do something serious in order to preserve tigers on our planet," said Igor Chestin, director of the Russian branch of the World Wildlife Fund. "The situation is catastrophic."

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is expected to support the programme, Deputy Natural Resources Minister Igor Maidanov said.

Last year, Putin was given an Amur cub on his birthday and was televised patting a grown female on the cheek after shooting it with a tranquilizer gun as part of a programme to track the rare cats on a Russian wildlife preserve.

Russia hopes to conduct the "tiger summit" in Vladivostok next September at which Putin would host the leaders of countries such as India and China.

The summit would co-ordinate efforts aimed at protecting tigers, their habitats and increasingly scarce food sources, Maidanov said.

Funds would be used to improve habitats in the 13 countries with tiger habitats by providing more park rangers and protecting deer and boar the tiger hunts for food.

TIGER'S TALE

* The population of the Amur tiger - also known as the Ussuri tiger - is believed to be 3200 worldwide, according to the WWF.

* Hunters kill the tiger for its prized pelts and body parts, some of which are used in traditional Chinese medicines, while logging and housing developments have encroached on the tiger's habitats.

- AP