I’ve always been curious about how to effectively harness the power of the Internet to achieve conservation objectives, and I have recently been helping out with one of the most exciting art projects ever. The International Tiger Coalition is building a huge tiger mosaic out of thousands of portrait photos submitted by people around the world.

Here’s how it works – visit www.savethetigerfund.org/mosaic and upload a photo of yourself, this will be added to the mosaic within a few hours or days, depending on how busy the system is. A computer in Switzerland will match the overall color of your photo with a background tiger image and sends you a confirmation number allowing you to zoom in and locate your face. You can see my mug-shot on the link below(I’m dressed all in black).

The final image will be printed out bill-board size and unfurled at the upcoming Convention on Trade in Endangered Species meeting in The Hague. It will be used as a message of support to Asian governments who have banned the trade of tiger parts, and will encourage them to uphold the ban. China is currently considering a proposal to resume the trade in captive tiger parts, something that would escalate demand for, and opportunities to launder wild tigers. This could lead to increased poaching pressure in tiger range countries, an additional pressure that the world’s remaining 5,000 wild tigers could do without.

http://www.savethetigerfund.org/AM/CustomSource/tiger/Mosaic/viewer.cfm?imgid=1352