A turning point for tigers

With a fearsome combination of stealth and strength, tigers hardly give off an impression of vulnerability. But shrinking habitats, increasing contact— and conflict—with people, and a booming illicit trade in tiger parts have driven these powerful predators to endangered status. By 2010, an estimated 3,200 tigers survived in the wild—a faint shadow of the roughly 100,000 that roamed Asia a century earlier. Today, the big cats are found in less than 5% of their historical range.

Yet as we usher in the lunar Year of the Tiger, there’s reason for hope. “Since tiger met man, the population has been in decline,” says Stuart Chapman, leader of WWF’s Tigers Alive initiative. “Until a moment about five years ago, when the population stabilized and began increasing.”

In 2010, the governments of the world’s 13 tiger range countries came together in St. Petersburg to create a blueprint for tiger recovery. With increased leadership from them—as well as support from conservation organizations, donors, and the communities who live in tiger territory—things are looking up for this culturally and ecologically significant species.

From that first-of-its-kind summit came an international commitment to double the number of wild tigers by 2022. Known as TX2, the initiative has always been an ambitious one, says Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of wildlife conservation at WWF. But not an impossible one. “The goal was grounded in innovative science,” she says. “WWF helped lead the way by developing the latest maps of where tigers existed and where they had potential for long-term survival, and by working with communities to develop a framework of strategies to address the threats.”

Those efforts are paying off. The last official population estimate, in 2016, showed tiger numbers had increased to around 3,900. India, which is home to more than 60% of the wild tiger population and is a global leader in tiger conservation, has seen significant growth in tiger numbers in the past decade. Populations are also on the upswing in Bhutan, China, Nepal, and Russia. The key in those countries is collaboration with local communities, as well as political commitment from the top tiers of government—backed up by adequate funding and resources. “High-level support for tigers is a game changer,” says Chapman. “Where that is in place, we’ve seen steady progress towards realizing TX2.”

Tigers are culturally significant everywhere they live. That doesn’t mean they’re easy to live with. And as tiger populations recover, the big cats are more likely to have run-ins with humans. “Many protected areas in Asia are surrounded by a sea of humanity,” says Nilanga Jayasinghe, a WWF wildlife conservation manager focused on Asian species. “When tiger numbers increase, tigers move out of these areas in search of their own territories and then must often navigate through landscapes inhabited by people. That’s when they may get into conflict situations.”

But such conflicts aren’t inevitable. The WWF Tigers Alive initiative developed the SAFE Systems approach to reduce human-tiger conflict by minimizing risks to people and their assets and risks to wildlife and their habitats. Because the circumstances around human-wildlife conflict can vary widely from place to place, approaches to addressing it must be specific to each individual context, Jayasinghe says. In one village, the focus might be on minimizing livestock predation and preventing retaliatory killings by adding bright lights or predator-proof pens, combined with policies and compensation schemes that support communities when tigers do take livestock. Elsewhere, WWF might help people find alternative livelihoods that don’t require them to forage deep in tiger territory.

“In every case, WWF advocates for integrated, holistic approaches to managing human-wildlife conflict—approaches that should be monitored consistently to gauge their effectiveness,” says Jayasinghe. “Communities are very much essential partners in implementing these measures.”

Managing conflict also means focusing on the positive effects of tigers, not just the risks. Communities near protected tiger areas can earn income from ecotourism, for instance. It’s also important to help policy-makers recognize the less obvious benefits of habitat protection, such as clean water and climate change mitigation, says Hemley. “The people side of the equation is critical,” she says. “Unless we address the needs of people at the local level and really find ways for people and tigers to coexist, we won’t be successful long term.”