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Bookmark & ShareSetting Priorities for Conservation and Recovery of Wild Tigers
A new report Setting Priorities for Conservation and Recovery of Wild Tigers: 2005-2015 commissioned by the Save The Tiger Fund and produced by some of the world's leading tiger scientists at World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society, the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park and Save The Tiger Fund, finds that the tigers reside in 40 percent less habitat than they were thought to a decade ago. The tigers now occupy only 7 percent of their historic range.
It calls for specific international actions to safeguard remaining populations. "As tiger range spans borders, so must tiger conservation," said Eric Dinerstein, chief scientist and vice president of conservation science at World Wildlife Fund. "Asia's economic growth should not come at the expense of tiger habitat and the natural capital it protects."
"Saving wild tigers requires tiger range countries to work together," said Mahendra Shrestha, director of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Save The Tiger Fund, which commissioned the report. "This study provides a blueprint for scientists and the countries that hold the key for the tigers' survival."
The good news can be found in southern Nepal and northern India, where a five-year conservation program has connected 12 formerly isolated tiger reserves, and has engaged local communities to help with the project, said Mahendra Shrestha in an interview with Reuters.
Communities around the tiger reserves get 50 percent of the proceeds from the reserves nearest to them. If tigers kill family members or livestock, local residents are compensated, he said. Shrestha said reclaiming the tigers' habitat could have global environmental impact. "The area that the tiger requires is a huge chunk of land," he said in an interview. "If we can save tigers, then that means we are saving a huge chunk of forest ... the global community can benefit from that." A single tiger requires an average of nearly 20 squares miles (50 square km) of good quality forest. Locally, forest products including fruit, nuts and mushrooms benefit neighboring communities. And the clean water needed to support tiger habitat also supports agriculture, fish farming and hydroelectric dams, he said.
