A new dawn for tigers

About Dechen Dorji

Dechen is the vice president for Asia on the Wildlife Conservation team at WWF. Dechen oversees WWF-US’s wildlife efforts in Asia, working across WWF’s network to help develop, implement, and mobilize resources for WWF’s wildlife conservation priorities in Asia. Dechen previously served as WWF’s Country Representative in Bhutan, and he also received the National Order of Merit, Gold, from His Majesty the King for the Bhutan for Life initiative and his services to the Bhutanese environmental sector. Learn more about Dechen.

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Transcript

Dechen: [00:00:00] I think to sustain tiger conservation, we really have to change the narrative in terms of making sure that tiger represents so much more than the tiger itself.

And although we have great support for the species conservation itself, but I think there needs to be a greater recognition and importance of the landscapes that the tigers occupy and what they are important in terms of addressing global climate change issues, global biodiversity issues.

Alexander: Hello and welcome to World Wildlife Fund's Wildlife Café series, where we get to chat about some of the most powerful and inspiring stories in the wildlife conservation space with the voices and people behind that work.

When it comes to iconic and charismatic wildlife megafauna, the tiger instantly comes to mind. It's hard to compete with just how legendary they have become over time.

They are adored by many and are deeply meaningful, not just as ecological icons, but also what they've represented in cultures and personally to so many people across the globe. In this episode of Wildlife Café, I talk with WWF's Dechen Dorji as the lead for Asian species [00:01:00] conservation to talk through how in many ways tigers have been a heartbeat for biodiversity conservation and how they can continue to unify and inspire action for protecting, not just their survival in the wild, but their ecosystems at large.

Be sure to hit that subscribe button to check out more Wildlife Café episodes like this one, and thanks for joining!

Alexander: Welcome to Wildlife Café, Dechen!

Dechen: Yeah. Thanks, Alexander. Nice to see you here.

Alexander: Thanks so much for joining this episode and to talk no less about a shared mutual favorite topic of ours, which is tigers. They really are an iconic figure in the conservation movement. Not only are they really cool, and they're the largest big cat in the world, not just in Asia, but they really do have a profound ability to capture people's imagination and inspire action. And actually the largest initiative, for the recovery of a single species was about tigers with a TX2 campaign or TX2 campaign, which was to double the number of tigers in the wild over 12 years from 2010 to 2022, which were the year of the [00:02:00] tiger.

So, I wanted to talk to you a little bit more about that and hear more about what has been the significance of that period of time for tiger conservation. And how did the reality facing wild tigers shift over those 12 years?

Dechen: Yeah, Alexander. That period of 12 years in the zodiac cycle was really an incredible period for tigers. It was, as you rightly mentioned, it was the whole sort of the world rallied around the recovery of a single species. That was one of the most ambitious campaign, I think ever launched, especially for big cats.

And, yeah, that was, that was an amazing movement. I think we saw, witnessed, leaders from 13 range countries in Asia, which represents close to 30 percent of the global GDP, rallying for support for tiger conservation, because as in 2010, tigers was almost on the brink of extinction.

So that was an amazing campaign that the whole world got together and WWF played a very instrumental role in terms of bringing all the partners, from private sector, from public sector, from the old and the [00:03:00] young, from all people, from all walks of life, including local communities, law enforcement agencies.

So that was an amazing campaign, during that TX2 campaign. Over the years, I think across the 13 range countries, we, of course, at the end of the TX2 campaign, we did manage to bend the curve slightly. We are very close to doubling the number of tigers in the wild, and some regions did much better and also a few countries, especially the Greater Mekong region, Laos, Viet Nam, and Cambodia,

I think those 12 years saw a severe decline of tiger numbers and now pretty much almost functionally extinct in those three countries. But in places like Nepal, who almost, tripled tiger numbers in the wild, India, the most populous country in the world has almost doubled their tiger population in the wild.

So those are some amazing results that was achieved as a result of amazing, important partnership. So I would say that the two from my perspective, most [00:04:00] significant aspects of the TX2 campaign was really about hope and partnership. I think that campaign really gave a lot of hope to many trying to recover an endangered species and amazing magnificent species like the tiger.

And also, I think as a result of that campaign, I think we managed to forge very extensive partnership across the board, across the world, and across communities, across different organizations working for the same mission to recover tigers in the wild.

Alexander: There really was a lot of progress, and you were just pointing to a lot of great successes and wins and really hopeful news and progress that happened over time, but in many ways, the effort to protect tigers in the wild still isn't over.

Um, So what do you, yeah, what do you see as the next 12 years looking like for tigers?

Dechen: Yeah. The work is certainly not done yet. If you look at the numbers, across 13 range countries, we are just, in many countries, [00:05:00] we are dealing with hundreds, in numbers in hundreds. So I think, you know, the whole population viability is a big issue here. So I think there's still a lot of work to be done.

We managed to get close to our target and at the end of the year of the tiger but now I think going ahead, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. And, in that context, at the end of the TX2 campaign, big global conservation organizations, including ourselves, WWF, IUCN and UNDP, we got together and formed this Tiger Conservation Coalition, saying, okay, now we have done that work for the last 12 years, but we still need to now ramp up and step up, further in terms of sustaining that momentum and sustaining our efforts to recover tigers in the wild for the next 12 years to 2034. So we got together and really formed a clear strategy and a pathway in terms of now, how do we, where do we focus our efforts going forward? How do you mobilize resources? How do you make sure that tiger range is expanded? How do you make [00:06:00] sure that prey is sustained?

And then how do you make sure that people living in these landscapes are benefiting from these efforts as well? So as a result of that, the Tiger Conservation Coalition got together and developed a strategy for a vision in order to sustain connected tiger habitat, continue to recover tigers in the wild, and also within the context of those important landscapes, which has amazing benefits in terms of biodiversity and climate, and then how do you enhance those benefits overall as well?

Alexander: On that last point, I wanted to seize on that a little bit, because yeah, you were just touching on how there's a lot of work that still needs to be done. And there has been such a big push and rallying of support behind tiger conservation for many years. But why do you think it's important to keep having this conversation and push for continued, but also just more support? Over the next 12 years and beyond even?

Dechen: Yeah, for the tiger itself, we're dealing with such low or critical numbers. So I think we have to continue to [00:07:00] push this effort. And also, I think in the tiger landscapes where we work, I know there are important challenges that's happening right now, especially in these, in the emerging and developing economies.

There's a greater emphasis on economic development and greater huge investments. If you look at across the range countries, the infrastructure investment planned for the next probably a decade is over, close to, over 500 billion dollars of infrastructure investments.

So all those infrastructure investments, including over 10,000 miles of linear infrastructure, radio lines, power lines are all going to very impact tiger habitat extensively and severely. So I think we need to really now ramp up our work in terms of partnering with these important financial and development institutions, donor organizations, and private sector.

Collaboration to make sure that these investments are climate smart. These investments much more follow green and sustainable principles so that we don't impact tiger recovery and its habitat and its prey to a large extent.

Alexander: I kind of want to take a [00:08:00] step back and look more overall at how does protecting tigers serve as an entry point into protecting their larger landscape and ecosystem that they're a part of, and how protecting tigers protects biodiversity at large.

Dechen: Tiger landscapes are amazing carbon sinks. They are very important from a biodiversity point of view. When you protect tigers, you protect so much more.

A whole range of wildlife species and also all the plants within those communities. So ecologically, these landscapes are very important to sustain the ecological processes and functions. I think by protecting tiger across these landscapes, I think we protect so much more.

Alexander: Yeah, definitely. And tigers themselves, they've really captured the imagination of so many people around the world, and they have this incredible ability to unify and inspire action and educate about conservation as a whole. Has that been your experience? And I would love to know [00:09:00] more about what it was that initially inspired you to want to work on tiger and wildlife conservation.

Dechen: I think the tiger has a very unique ability to bring people together, because, historically in Asia, a tiger is a very important symbol of their culture, of their tradition. Tiger symbolizes confidence, strength, and tiger has so many manifestations in religious and traditions and cultures across Asia.

And also in modern day marketing, tiger is always being used in so many ways because it's able to capture the imagination and the excitement of people who see this amazing cat. And you'd be surprised that we have for tiger conservation, we have supporters all the way from African continent, from South America, beyond, Asia as well. So I think tiger really has that ability to do it. And I think, as a result of its, I think in a way, of it being such a threatened big cat, and at the same time, the amazing symbolisms that's associated with tiger, I think are able to bring the imagination and the love of [00:10:00] people around the world and rally behind its recovery, because I think it's not just about tigers. I think through tigers, I think it also symbolizes the need to address some of the important issues that the world is facing, in terms of species extinction in terms of recovering these endangered and critically endangered species in the wild.

Tiger is such an important cultural icon in our society. It's featured in religious symbolisms. It's featured in our traditions, and we from very early on, we grew up hearing stories of tigers, from our own parents, from our grandparents.

Because they somehow, they really symbolized the primal connection of human society with the past and also the future of what, what we represent, in terms of our connection to the environment, and to wildlife. It's enigmatic, it's mysterious, it's intriguing, but at the same time, some of the stories that we hear, in terms of livestock depredation, human-tiger [00:11:00] conflict, those are very real.

When we were growing up, we always grew with animals around, we were very close to the tiger habitat, because we lived in those places in a very agrarian society. So I think we hear and see impact of tiger from a storytelling point of view, but at the same time also impacts in real life, in terms of, how it impacts rural life in Bhutan.

So, I think tiger has always been amazing, intriguing story. That's beautiful. In your opinion, how do we go about finding a sustainable solution where tigers are doing well in the wild? What does that image of a successful future look like? Yeah, I think to sustain tiger conservation, what's very important is that the recovery of the species in the wild is important, but I think it can only go to a certain extent. I think we really have to change the narrative in terms of making sure that tiger represents so much more than the tiger itself.

And although we have great support for the species conservation itself, but I think there [00:12:00] needs to be a greater recognition and importance of the landscapes that the tigers occupy and what they are important in terms of addressing global climate change issues, global biodiversity issues.

So tiger really represents much bigger than what it is. So I think that's a very important element of tiger conservation.

I think going forward, a successful tiger conservation, again as I was saying, and it has to be a whole of society and a whole of government approach, I think it really needs to,as we did in the past 12 years, I think we have to further extend that partnership, because there is so much need.

I think we have to, of course, in places where we have lost tigers, I think there are opportunities for reintroduction, in places where there are tiger habitat. I think there are opportunities for natural dispersal of tigers. And definitely, I think there are also bigger landscapes that needs to be connected.

So the connectivity of tiger habitat is very important. And, as per our tiger conservation landscape study, I think there's, again, an opportunity to further expand tiger range. I think that's going to be very important. Hopefully, if we can double the current [00:13:00] range in the next, 10, 20 years, I think that would be a very huge success for not just for tiger, but also for, for biodiversity conservation writ large.

And also for making sure that there's enough local community benefits, through these protection of these big landscapes. And I think, what's more important is also tiger resource mobilization. Investments that go into tiger conservation is really, very, it's not up to what's needed on the ground.

And so I think if we need to really make sure that sustained tiger conservation across these landscapes, we have to further expand our efforts in terms of resource mobilization, because I think there's a great need, not just for addressing the protection, the patrolling, the science, the community, human-tiger conflict work, and also, addressing, making sure that sustainability, infrastructures are sustainable and green. So I think there's a great need for resource mobilization as well.

Alexander: It really does sound like if you tackle these big issues and really bring lots of different people and perspectives to the [00:14:00] table, you were mentioning so many different areas of work, you help solve tiger conservation and protect these habitats at scale and that tigers really in a way are an entry point to the larger conversation and to just biodiversity overall and so many other species that occupy their homes and their habitats with them. But I'd love to ask you finally, if there was one thing that you could change that would help protect tigers. And you had the power to do so with a wave of the wand. What would that be?

Dechen: Yeah, if I had a magic wand, I think the ambition that will develop as a Tiger Conservation Coalition to really mobilize billion dollars in the next 10 years for tiger conservation for tiger landscapes. At the end of the day, we have the science and we have the know how. We have a great capacity on the ground. And I think many of the tiger range countries are still, they are emerging economies. Most of the countries are still least developed countries. So [00:15:00] the biggest issue that they still face is resources and investments.

So I think if you're able to mobilize at least a billion dollars, in addition to what we're spending right now, about a hundred million dollars per annum in those tiger landscapes. In addition to that, if you can mobilize a billion dollars for the next 10 years, I think that will really help put our tiger recovery in the wild on a positive pathway.

I think without allocation of such resources at scale, I think we won't be able to really be successful in not just tiger conservation, but all the landscapes that we are trying to protect. I think if we can mobilize an additional billion dollars, that would really help tiger conservation succeed in the next, 10, 12 years.

In our world of conservation, especially people who are very committed. And of course, there is, we're all committed to this cause, but I think there are also a whole group of people, mostly local people who are working on the ground, who doesn't have the same opportunity in terms of a platform or an avenue to [00:16:00] express some of the experiential and knowledge in terms of conservation.

And I think, sometimes, listening hard to their voices can really change the way we do work on the ground, and I think it's very important to be able to listen to those voices and who have such intimate knowledge of some of the challenges and opportunities they have on the ground.

So I think that's an area that we must continue to learn to listen more to those voices and also give them an opportunity to be able to express and find space in our conservation decision making process, because oftentimes I think you know those voices get muted. Those voices don't get heard.

So I think we are in an eventual, perpetual discussions around the same models of conservation. And I think it's time that we also maybe relook at some of these voices as well, and maybe find a true meaning and a true path to do conservation.

Alexander: I do also [00:17:00] just want to ask if you have ever had the incredible opportunity to see a tiger in the wild? And if you did, what that experience was like?

Dechen: I actually didn't encounter a tiger in the wild. My encounter is a very strange encounter. Actually, a tiger in our capital city in Thimphu, capital of city of Bhutan, one evening we got a call saying, there's a tiger that straight into the suburban of the capital city, and Bhutan's capital city is not that big. It's only about 100 - 200,000 people who live there. Just in the periphery of the capital city, so there's a tiger that sort of, you know, straight into the residential area.

So we had to, at 3am in the morning, we went and looked for it. And we managed to anesthetize it and capture it and then take it to the rehabilitation center. So that was really, I think, a wild tiger that I saw, but not really in the jungle, but in the, you know, in the urban jungle.

Alexander: Still maybe a bucket list item for you to see a tiger in the wild One day, one day hopefully. Well, what a delight this has [00:18:00] been, Dechen, and really so incredibly inspiring. It really is a global movement in so many ways that you were alluding to, with people like you and a whole diverse suite of talented and passionate individuals. So thank you so much again for joining Wildlife Café, and I hope to see you again back on here.

Dechen: Thanks, Alexander. Thanks.