The Countdown Begins...

Image used courtesy of John Downer Productions. Thanks!



Firstly, let me explain how dakini works.



We're a media company, and we (mainly) publish big, beautiful, photo-led coffee-table books. We have a brainstorm every month or so where we say, what would we like to make a book about? Then we have a scout about for the very best writers and photographers, we find a way to pay for it, we make the book, and the book gets sold.



Back in 2008, our director, Lucky, went on safari in India, fell in love with the big cats, and decided that what she really wanted to make was a book about tigers - with all profits going to tiger and wildlife charities. The idea has been floating around ever since, but the opportunity never quite came round to make it happen.



In the meantime, the world's wild tigers have continued to head steadily towards extinction. Poaching, deforestation and a whole host of other issues are making it increasingly difficult for them to survive, and if we don't act soon, it will be too late.



Then, we heard that, this September, the WWF, the World Bank and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (a keen tiger conservationist) are hosting the world's first Heads of State Tiger Summit. So, we got in touch.



The idea of the summit is to address the issues facing tigers, and to figure out how best to meet the WWF's Tx2 campaign targets to double wild tigers by 2022. As it stands, Russia is the only country that has managed to increase its tiger population in recent years, making the country well placed to offer advice to other countries on how to achieve this.



The fact that this issue is the subject of an international summit is a very positive sign, but if it is to be successful it will need to become a global priority. This can only happen with the full support of the public, and the media.



So, we've decided that now is the time to make the Tiger book happen.



It's the Year of the Tiger and the governments of all tiger-inhabited countries are at last poised to discuss what can be done. It is incredibly important that that the event receives extensive press coverage, and that we all make an effort to demonstrate our engagement with and support for the project, now, to make sure that these heads of state take notice, and action.



We want to use the book to create global awareness possible for the campaigns underway, and to raise as much money possible to support the charities and organisations behind these. We are planning to work with newspapers, TV stations, websites and a wide range of organisations to ensure that the book's message reaches a wide international audience.



Over the coming weeks and months, we will be keeping you updated on our progress, and letting you know how you can be involved. We won't be able to get this off the ground before September without support, and so we will be looking for people who are as passionate as we are about the saving the future of tigers in the wild to help us make this work!



dakini x