- Top predator in the food pyramid,
- Umbrella species,
- Flagship of Terai PAs
Status
- Protected (NPWC Act 2029)
- Endangered (IUCN Red List)
- Appendix I (CITES)
Distribution:
Tigers in peril
- 40% habitat loss over last decade
- 93% of the tiger‟s original range has been lost in the past 150 years,
- Only 11% of original habitat remains in Indian subcontinent,
- Ca. 100,000 in 1900 to 35,000 in 1960s to 3,200 today
Wild Tigers in Crisis?
- Main threats:
- Loss of habitat and prey base, Poaching, Trade, Human-Tiger conflict
Tiger Conservation Action Plan
Goal : to preserve, recognize, restore and increase the effective land base that supports tigers in Nepal, to maintain a viable tiger population
Objectives
- Tiger and prey information
- Habitat management
- Conflict resolution
- Anti-poaching operations
- Trans-boundary cooperation
Objectives
- Increase tiger population to at least 250 adults by 2020
- Maintain, restore and conserve at least 6,500 km2 of additional tiger habitats
- Reduce national and international trade of tiger parts and products and control poaching
Landmarks in Nepal’ tiger conservation
- Enactment of NPWC Act and Regulations
- Establishment of protected areas in Nepal‟s Inner/Terai
- Tiger conservation action plan
- Management plans
- Inclusion of Armed force
- Launching of TAL
- Buffer zone initiative
- Taking lead amongst in Global Tiger Forum
- Tiger, preybase and habitat monitoring
Trans-boundary Cooperation
- Transboundary meetings at National and local level,
- Fostering cooperation with neighboring countries,
- Organizing Global and Regional Workshops/Meetings,
- Building partnership/collaboration
Year of The Tiger-2010
- Kathmandu Global Tiger Workshop (Oct 2009)
- Asian Ministerial Conference - Thailand (Jan 2010)
- Summit of Range State Leaders during the Year of the Tiger (Sept. 2010)
Kathmandu Recommendations
- Secure core tiger breeding areas
- Ensure local support in favor of tiger conservation
- Develop innovative sustainable financing mechanisms
- Build institutional capacity
- Significantly reduce poaching and illegal trade
- Reduce demand for tiger parts
Nepal’s Commitments during KGTW
- Formation of National Tiger Conservation Committee
- Establishment of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau
- Declaration of Banke National Park
Experiences from India
- Project Tiger since 1973, 38 Tiger Reserves in India
- National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau legally approved on 17th of September 2006,
- National Board for Wildlife chaired by Prime Minister (45 members),
- Tiger Task Force (2005)
TAL: Priority Conservation Landscape
- Core Tiger Breeding Areas as 'No Go' Zone for development projects,
- Buffer as multiple use zone,
- Corridors as conservation and restoration zone,
- Bottlenecks as conservation friendly land use
Banke National park
- Commitments from Government of Nepal during KGTW
- National Park: 550 sq. km. & Buffer Zone 344 sq. km
- Suitable habitat for Tiger
National Tiger Conservation Committee (16 May, 2010)
- Chaired by Prime Minister and Minister for Forests and Soil Conservation as Member Secretary, Ministers of Home, Finance, Environment, Defense and Law and Justice Ministries, Chief Secretary of GoN, two national/international tiger experts nominated by the Committee and a high level representative of national/international organization contributing to tiger conservation in Nepal nominated by the Committee
Objectives: Policy guidance and high level coordination
Prop. Wildlife Crime Control Bureau
- Central level body, Equipped mobile squad with full fledged legal authority
- To control and check illegal trade of wildlife and their parts,
Transboundary Cooperation
- India and Nepal join hands for biodiversity conservation, 29 July 2010, Kathmandu, Nepal
- Nepal signs MoU with china for biodiversity conservation, 3 June 2010, Beijing, China
Global Tiger Recovery Plan
Asia's most iconic animal faces imminent extinction in the wild. Tiger numbers have plummeted from about 100,000 a century ago, to about 35,000 in the 1970s, to below 3,500 today, and they continue to fall
TRC, Range and TCLs
- At present, suitable habitat for wild tigers covers about 1.2 million km2 in 13 Tiger Range Countries (TRCs) in Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russian Federation, Thailand and Vietnam.
- Mostly forest, this habitat has been categorized as 76 Tiger Conservation Landscapes (TCLs).
GTRP Goal
- To reverse the rapid decline of wild tigers toward extinction and to strive to double the number of wild tigers (Tx2) across their range by 2022 (3,566 tigers to 5,835, 64%)
- The Tx2 goal embodies the larger goals of conserving and managing sustainably 1.2 million km2 of forest habitat and 115 inviolate core breeding areas, including 42 source sites, covering about 135,000 s km2.
Nepal NTRP Goal and Activities
- 250 adult tigers by 2022
- Manage the TAL as a priority conservation landscape
- Controlling prey and tiger poaching
- Institutional strengthening and capacity building
- Tiger human conflict and community engagement
- Scientific monitoring, research and surveys
- Transboundary management
Policy and Institutional
- Amend the NPWC Act 1973 and Forest Act 1993 to enable landscape conservation
- Gazette the TAL as a priority conservation landscape and place TAL conservation as a high-profile feature in the political agenda
- Establish a National Tiger Conservation Committee (NTCC), WCCB, and SAWEN
- Create separate and specialized wildlife conservation and enforcement units.
