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Strengthening Landscape-level Tiger Conservation
Potential tiger habitat extends over vast areas of Asia and there
simply aren't sufficient financial resources to save tigers everywhere.
Necessity forces us to identify the best places to invest, where we feel
that tigers have the strongest chances for survival. In order to meet
these needs and to help other conservation donors come up with a
coordinated investment strategy, Save The Tiger Fund commissioned the
most comprehensive report on the state of wild tigers ever
“Setting Priorities for the Conservation and Recovery of the
World's Tigers 2005-2015”. It serves as a roadmap to guide
conservation investors, practitioners, development agencies and
governments in their efforts to save wild tigers.
Tiger conservation priorities at a glance
Tiger conservation landscapes (TCL) were assessed and prioritized by
analyzing three data sets: land cover derived from satellite images;
human interference data based on a global human footprint analysis; and
tiger distribution records from on-the-ground tiger sightings and signs
that were gathered from 160 of the world's leading tiger conservation
experts and over 3000 tiger location points.
Bad news
- Tigers occupy only 7% of their historic range.
- Tigers use 40 % less area than was estimated in 1997.
Good news
- Over 1.1 million square km of habitat remains, an area more than
twice the size of Texas, and 23% of this is protected.
- Four strongholds could support more than 500 tigers: 1) Russian Far
East-Northeast China, 2) Terai Arc Landscape (India/Nepal), 3) Northern
Forest Complex-Namdapha-Royal Manas (Myanmar/India), 4) Tenasserims of
Thailand/Myanmar.
Going forward
STF explores creative ways to increase conservation investments,
improve transboundary conservation, and create human-tiger friendly
landscapes that have core protected areas where tigers can raise their
young, surrounded by buffer zones and connected by corridors so that
humans and tigers can co-exist.
Essential goals for the next 10 years:
- Secure tiger populations in all global-priority tiger
landscapes;
- Obtain reserve status for 10 places with unprotected breeding tiger
populations;
- Establish at least five tiger habitat corridors between fragmented
tiger conservation landscapes.
- Expand the range of breeding tigers in at least five priority tiger
conservation landscapes.
- Implement a holistic conservation strategy that engages regional
development organizations, government officials, NGO's and businesses to
consider tiger conservation needs in national and regional development
plans.
STF is committed to implementing this plan, but cannot do so alone.
We are coordinating with other funding agencies to ensure that this
conservation vision is realized. STF is the premier tiger conservation
organization in the world and our conservation investment strategy has
input from over 160 tiger conservation experts, which, combined with a
decade of experience in grant-making in Asia allows STF and its donor
partners to maximize the 'bang for their conservation buck.' As an
independent funding agency without any of its own field programs Save
The Tiger Fund acts as a neutral convener for governments, businesses,
funding agencies and NGO's. It provides both technical assistance and
encourages cooperative on-the-ground actions to minimize the duplication
of efforts, offering financial resources as incentives to those groups
willing to work together.
Download the full conservation priorities report and explore online
tiger maps here.
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