Insiders Series: Big Cats and Biodiversity

In 2010, the global wild tiger population was at an all-time low and the future of wild tigers was at risk. This prompted leaders from 13 tiger-range countries to work together towards an unprecedented goal: doubling the number of tigers in the wild by 2022, the next Chinese Lunar Year of the Tiger. WWF played a critical role in this effort, known as Tx2. One of the most ambitious global recovery efforts ever undertaken for a single species, Tx2 marked a significant turning point for tiger conservation and tiger numbers across key landscapes in Asia are on the rise. Now, as we come to the end of the Year of the Tiger, we are building on that momentum and applying lessons learned through Tx2 to create and implement solutions that help populations of other big cats– jaguars, snow leopards, and lions—recover and protect biodiversity. In this video, hear from Ginette Hemley, WWF’s senior vice president for wildlife conservation, about how we are taking the lessons learned in our efforts to save one iconic species and applying that same model to save big cats.