An auspicious symbol of strength, health, and protection, the tiger features prominently in art, folklore, myth, and literature around the world. Tigers are also an important top predator, a critical piece holding together the complex puzzle of natural systems across more than a dozen countries in Asia.
Despite the essential role tigers play ecologically, culturally and in our imaginations, they continue to be in danger. We have lost over 95 percent of the world’s wild tiger population in the past century — from an estimated 100,000 wild tigers in 1900 to an estimated 3,900 in the wild today.[1]
It has been nearly a decade since leaders of the 13 tiger range countries (TRCs) came together in St. Petersburg, Russia and committed to more than double the number of wild tigers by 2022 (“Tx2”), from about 3,200 to more than 7,000 by 2022. The timeline for this ambitious species conservation goal is also symbolic, a doubling of the wild tiger population by the next Year of the Tiger on the Asia lunar calendar in 2022 (year 4720 in the Asian lunar calendar). Global progress towards this goal has been uneven. A bright spot in this effort is Nepal, which is on track to be the first country to double their tiger population by or before 2022. A recent census (2017/18) led by the government of Nepal and based on data gathered from camera trap surveys, showed that there are now 235 tigers, a 19 percent increase from the 198 tigers found by a study completed in 2014 and nearly double that found in 2009 (121).[2]
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has been a leading supporter of the world’s efforts to conserve and protect this iconic species. Global Tiger Day on July 29th is an opportunity to learn more about tigers and the work of the GEF and partners to protect them.
The projects highlighted here show that complex, overlapping, and interlinked factors threaten tigers and their habitats and the solutions must rise to this challenge.
To protect tigers is also to protect the well-being of people and of the global environment. Over 50 percent of the world’s human population lives in historical tiger range countries.
Why are tigers important and why are they disappearing?
Tigers play an important role in the maintenance of the structure and function of the ecosystems they live in. Without them, the number of individuals of their prey species can increase rapidly, resulting in increased selective consumption of plants that will ultimately result in permanent changes in the composition of vegetation. In other words, Tigers are truly “keystone” species and their disappearance will likely have large scale and irreversible impact on the integrity of the ecosystem as we know them.
Unfortunately, tigers are disappearing from their natural habitats because of a number of human activities that threaten them directly and indirectly.
Habitat loss and fragmentation: Tigers need space to hunt for prey.
100 square kilometers can typically support 3–12 tigers. In an area such as far eastern Russia, where prey is less dense, the same area of land will support only one tiger.
However, as humans clear land for agriculture and infrastructure and as cities expand, tiger habitats are degraded and fragmented. This results in smaller areas of natural vegetation that are not sufficiently large to support healthy populations of prey species.
The fragmentation of habitats is also equally damaging because smaller patches of vegetation tend to degrade with direct impacts on predator and prey species alike.
What’s being done?
In southern Myanmar, the overexploitation of forests for illegal logging, palm oil and rubber plantations, combined with poaching, severely threaten the landscape — and the roughly 50 wild tigers that live in the 12 million hectare Kayah Karen Tenasserim eco-region.
The “Ridge to Reef: Integrated Protected Area Land and Seascape Management in Tanintharyi” works with local stakeholders in particular communities, local NGOs, businesses and governments to support people’s aspiration for sustainable development. This will be done through integrated land use planning, protecting remaining forest habitats for tigers and prey species, and supporting community livelihoods.
Ensuring that economic development and conservation efforts promote sustainable landscape management will require collaboration among all parties.
Poverty, and lack of economic alternatives: Competition over natural resources in tiger habitat is a lose-lose for people and tigers.
Many rural poor depend on natural resources to survive and without other options they may be pushed to use resources in unsustainable ways trapping them in a cycle that leaves them further impoverished, the ecosystem are further degraded and tigers further threatened.
What’s being done?
By working with communities to find alternatives to overusing limited natural resources, conservation initiatives can benefit both humans and tigers.
In Thailand, the “Strengthening Capacity and Incentives for Wildlife Conservation in the Western Forest Complex” project formalized the community’s right to use land in sustainable and biodiversity-friendly ways.
The community agreed to conservation goals, and the project agreed to assist with community livelihoods through training, equipment, and networking with local institutions. Sustainable livelihoods were developed, such as the planting and processing of indigenous varieties of rice, chili, and herbs.
By supporting alternative, sustainable livelihoods, the community can benefit from conservation, rather than individual short gains and the unsustainable exploitation of resources.
Killing, poaching and trafficking: Retaliatory killing as a result of tiger-human conflict and tiger poaching for the illegal wildlife trade threaten tigers and people.
Human-tiger conflict is found in areas where human populations and tiger populations overlap and often compete for resources. When farms and pastures replace or fragment their natural habitat, tigers have insufficient hunting ground and prey and often resort to hunting domesticated livestock as an alternative food source.
For farmers and herders this loss can have devastating impacts on their lives and they may resort to killing predators to avoid losing more of their stock.
The demand for tiger bones, skins, and teeth drives the killing and sale of tigers. Black market prices for tiger parts are very high, further driving the illegal killing and sale.
The involvement of organized crime syndicates in the illegal wildlife trade further fuels the market and threatens the peace and security of local communities.
What’s being done?
Enhancing the capacity of local law enforcement, transportation and customs authorities helps combat illegal wildlife trafficking. Our projects also work on reducing the demand for wildlife products by educating consumers about the true cost of wildlife crime to biodiversity, national economies, political and social stability and human livelihoods, as well as the legal consequences for purchasing protected or prohibited wildlife products.
Sumatra harbors the last remaining tiger sub-species in Indonesia. But for the farmers who must share the landscape, Sumatran tigers are a deadly threat. There were 184 cases of human death or injury from tiger attack between 2001 and 2016. In the same span of time, 1,247 families lost livestock to tiger predation.
The island is now facing unprecedented tiger habitat loss and fragmentation due to commercial logging and the clear cutting and burning of forests for palm oil and timber fiber plantations.
In villages such as Margomulyo, the Sumatran Tiger Project initiated a project that helped villagers construct 30 tiger-proof enclosures. These enclosures guarded livestock from tigers, giving community members immense peace of mind.
The project also set out to strengthen patrolling and law enforcement capacity in all tiger landscapes, which also harbor species of rhinoceros, elephant, and orangutan that are found nowhere else in the world.
The project trained more forest rangers and patrol units in SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) patrolling, which allowed them to be more efficient in detecting poaching and illegal logging activity. At a Sumatran Tiger Project-supported training in June 2019, field officers learned to identify trees, flowers, carcasses, birds, and animal trails in order to collect evidence on forestry crime.
Using data from the field, spatial mapping software calculates levels of threats and the performance and gaps in coverage of patrol teams. By monitoring these trends, park managers can better plan and monitor patrol strategies.
Today, on this tenth Global Tiger Day, we are proud of what we have achieved together for the conservation of tigers but are humbled by the task before us. Holistic, creative approaches, an increased global consciousness and continued focus and commitment are needed to secure a future where tigers and people can thrive.
For more detailed information on GEF’s work with tigers, read Burning Bright: UNDP and GEF in the Tiger Landscape.
[1] Panthera Tiger Fact Sheet: https://www.panthera.org/cat/tiger
[2] https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/new-survey-results-show-nepal-is-on-track-to-double-its-tiger-population-by-2022/
