Tigers

If we save tigers, we’ll save so much more. Wild tiger habitat not only provides a home for tigers, but satisfies  the needs of many other species. The forests and grasslands that are home for tigers also sequester carbon, filter water, provide food and forage for human communities, and protect some of the richest biodiversity in the world.

Despite the benefits of tiger habitat, threats to this species and its habitat have increased.  In less than 100 years, entire sub-species –the Caspian, Javan and Balinese – of tigers have gone extinct . The South China tiger hasn’t been seen in the wild in 25 years. The tiger’s once wide distribution has shrunk by 93 percent and, in most cases, tiger populations are restricted to a few desperate refuges in these last remaining patches of habitat.

This year, the Year of the Tiger, scientists raised a red flag for wild tigers because tiger populations have plummeted to a shocking low. Compared to 100,000 a century ago, as few as 3,200 tigers cling for survival in the wild. The few that remain have to elude poachers in vastly reduced forest homes, fight to find food as prey populations shrink and try to survive retaliatory killings by local communities.

What WWF is doing

WWF began working on wild tiger conservation in 1961 – the same year WWF was founded. In 1966, WWF supported some of the earliest tiger surveys in India’s main wildlife sanctuaries, including the famed Corbett National Park. Our conservation efforts evolved with experience and in response to needs on the ground.

This year, in response to the urgency of the crisis, WWF has launched the Tigers Alive Initiative. We are active in 12 of the 13 tiger range countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. Our goal is to stop the decline of the wild tiger and help create and support the conditions to double the number of tigers in the wild in the next 12 years. We hope that doing so will help to ensure viable populations can thrive long into the future.

Reaching this goal will require intensifying and strengthening the approaches that have been delivered results. WWF, with its  partners, is mobilizing the full force of our vast network — from the field biologists monitoring the tiger and its prey, trainers building the capacity of forest staff, and rangers protecting critical sites for tigers, to the financial experts working to create new ways to fund tiger protection, and the policy and advocacy specialists working with decision-makers.

Our intensive tiger conservation efforts have yielded extensive knowledge. We now know how to protect, manage and monitor tiger and prey populations and their habitat. We know more about why people want to buy tigers and their parts. WWF uses this knowledge to help stop the tiger’s decline. New partnerships have been forged. Government engagement is growing and financing options are more broad and creative than ever before.  

WWF refuses to let the tiger slip away. We are dedicated to bringing the wild tiger back from the brink of extinction and doubling its numbers in the wild.