WWF’s Strategy for in the Wild Conserving Tigers

Tiger populations are estimated to have dropped by about 95% since the turn of the 20th century and turning that around is not an easy job.

But it can be done if we stand together.

Guaranteeing the future of tigers in the wild is a challenge that involves individuals, organizations and goverments in all levels.

With this unity in place, WWF defends a landscape-based approach to tiger conservation supported by a strong programme to address cross-cutting major challenges wherever it occurs

Working with people

Saving the tiger is not only about the livelyhood of an animal. It is mainly about promoting a better quality of life for local communities and allowing humans to coexist harmoniously with tigers in these landscapes.

Reaching this goal depends on a deep involvement of local stakeholders at different levels of planning, policy-making and implementation of solutions such as:

• mitigating conflicts over resources to benefit both humans and tigers
• facilitating creative land-use planning to solve problems facing wildlife and people
• building capacity of local conservationists
• stopping the illegal trade in tiger parts
• strengthening anti-poaching efforts to reduce losses in species numbers

Landscape-based approach

Tiger conservation goes beyond the borders of parks and reserves into entire landscapes by integrating the protection, restoration and sustainable use of the ecosystems in which the tigers live.

This is why in 2002, WWF's Tiger Conservation Programme in partnership with other conservationists and authorities identified seven priority areas for tigers conservation.

Four additional areas were then identified as 'tier-two' landscapes where more information to assess the status of tigers was required.

Within these key landscapes, WWF and its partners work to reduce or remove threats to tigers in the wild by:

• restoring habitat, maintaining connectivity and securing a wilderness landscapes
• monitoring populations to improve management strategies for tigers, including increasing prey populations
  
• focusing on cross-cutting issues such as policies, sustainable forestry and human-wildlife conflict

 

How other species benefit

By conserving the tiger, we can secure a sound future for many other species that thrive in its habitat.

WWF’s Tiger Programme is complementary to its Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy (AREAS) in several key landscapes because tigers, rhinos and elephants sometimes share the same spaces.

These landscapes lie in areas of distinctive biological richness, identified by WWF as Global 200 Ecoregions, a science-based global ranking of the Earth’s most biologically outstanding terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats.