Roads fragment habitat and bring poachers
The key menace is direct poaching of both tiger and its prey. In some landscapes, good habitat is extensive although fragmentation driven by rapid development, especially of road networks, is forcing tigers into scattered, small refuges. These isolate the populations while increasing accessibility for poachers.
In the Lower Mekong Forests region (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam), both tiger and prey densities are generally low due to intensive hunting and weak law enforcement over the past few decades. Habitat fragmentation is a serious problem, especially in Vietnam.
