Tigers

Brought back from the brink

By the 1940s, hunting had driven the Amur tiger to the brink of extinction, with no more than 40 individuals remaining in the wild. The subspecies was saved by Russia, becoming the first country in the world to grant the tiger full protection – and also by the Cold War, which saw the tiger's forest home completely closed off to most people. By the 1980s, the population had increased to around 500. Despite an increase in poaching following the collapse of the Soviet empire, continued conservation and anti-poaching efforts by many partners, including WWF, have helped keep the population relatively stable.

Protected areas in the Mekong

In the Mekong forests of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam, WWF identified core areas and corridors for protection and monitoring of the Indochinese tiger and other key species. In 2005, WWF was instrumental in creating two new protected areas in the Eastern Plains Dry Forest landscape of Cambodia which resulted in a 2.5 million acre area of connected and contiguous tiger habitat. This connected landscape restores precious tiger habitat and creates a viable area to develop an income-generating ecotourism industry in the region. Tigers have already made a comeback in this newly protected habitat and are now being monitored carefully.

Big win for Sumatra

WWF successfully lobbied corporate partners and the Indonesian government to declare the rainforest of Tesso Nilo on the island of Sumatra a protected area. Tesso Nilo - one of the best remaining blocks of lowland topical forest for the Sumatran tiger - is fast disappearing because of large-scale conversion to commercial plantations and illegal logging. WWF helped document illegal logging and forest conversion fueled by demand of two of the world's largest pulp and paper mills located near Tesso Nilo. Our ongoing work has resulted in commitments to protect some of the most important remaining forest homes for tigers. In Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, in the southern most portion of Sumatra, WWF has established community patrols and built guard posts to reduce tiger poaching activities.

Successful connection

WWF successfully led the establishment of ecological corridors in the Terai Arc landscape located along the border of Nepal and India, improving the livelihoods of local people and reducing their pressure on forests and grasslands.