Help Save Tigers Now
How Your Donation Will Help Tigers in the Wild
• Your support will help WWF save tigers across their habitat—from India and Indonesia all the way to the Russian Far East.
• WWF will focus its activities on antipoaching efforts in critical tiger sites.
• WWF will build political will in tiger range countries to protect and connect tiger habitats on a massive scale, and clamp down on tiger trade.
Save Tigers Now is a global campaign by World Wildlife Fund and Leonardo DiCaprio to build political, financial and public support to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022, the next year of the tiger.
Why should we save tigers?
At the turn of the 20th century, it is estimated that India probably had many thousands of tigers in the wild.
The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Government of India, have been conducting tiger estimation surveys in partnership with NGOs. WWF-India was the key NGO partner of the WII and NTCA in conducting the comprehensive country-wide tiger estimation exercise in 2010-11, which revealed a mean tiger population estimate of 1,706.
Based on a census using the pug mark technique, the number of tigers in 2002 stood at 3,642. As per the 2008 tiger estimation exercise conducted by WII in association with the NTCA using camera traps, there were only 1,411 tigers left in the wild in India.
Based on a census using the pug mark technique, the number of tigers in 2002 stood at 3,642. As per the 2008 tiger estimation exercise conducted by WII in association with the NTCA using camera traps, there were only 1,411 tigers left in the wild in India.
The tiger is not just a charismatic species or just another wild animal living in some far away forest.
The tiger is a unique animal which plays a pivotal role in the health and diversity of an ecosystem. It is a top predator which is at the apex of the food chain and keeps the population of wild ungulates in check, thereby maintaining the balance between prey herbivores and the vegetation upon which they feed. Therefore, the presence of tigers in the forest is an indicator of the well being of the ecosystem. The extinction of this top predator is an indication that its ecosystem is not sufficiently protected, and neither would it exist for long thereafter.
If the tigers go extinct, the entire system would collapse.
For e.g. when the Dodos went extinct in Mauritius, one species of Acacia tree stopped regenerating completely. So when a species goes extinct, it leaves behind a scar, which affects the entire ecosystem. Another reason why we need to save the tiger is that our forests are water catchment areas.Therefore, it’s not just about saving a beautiful animal. It is about making sure that we live a little longer as the forests are known to provide ecological services like clean air, water, pollination, temperature regulation etc.
In 2011, Panthera and Save the Tiger Fund joined forces to carry out the most effective conservation activities possible to save the future of wild tigers. This partnership combines decades of experience and success in identifying conservation priorities, utilizing best practices, and implementing proven strategies to address the many challenges facing wild tigers today.
From 1995 to 2011, Save the Tiger Fund supported hundreds of wild tiger conservation projects across tiger range states in Asia. In 2006, Panthera launched the Tigers Forever Program to address the most critical threats to tigers and to improve the effectiveness of conservation actions.
Together, Save the Tiger Fund and Panthera will continue to deploy strategically focused financial and technical resources in order to save tigers in the wild by investing greater resources in on-the-ground tiger conservation initiatives utilizing the Tigers Forever strategy, which aims to increase tiger numbers by at least 50% at key sites over a ten-year period.
In 2006, the world’s premier tiger scientists came together to resolve why tiger numbers were continuing to plummet, despite years of seemingly robust efforts to save them. The group determined that tiger conservation activities were too expansive, suffered from limited financial and human resources, and failed to monitor their effectiveness.
To be effective, the team concluded that a razor-sharp focus on activities that would mitigate the most critical threats to tigers was needed, and thus the Tigers Forever strategy was born.
Today, Panthera’s Tigers Forever program is being carried out across Asia with the goal of increasing tiger numbers at each site by at least 50 percent over a ten-year period.
To be effective, the team concluded that a razor-sharp focus on activities that would mitigate the most critical threats to tigers was needed, and thus the Tigers Forever strategy was born.
Today, Panthera’s Tigers Forever program is being carried out across Asia with the goal of increasing tiger numbers at each site by at least 50 percent over a ten-year period.
Panthera is mitigating the most pressing threats facing the species by training and outfitting law enforcement patrols and investigative teams to secure protected areas; utilizing informant networks to apprehend poachers; identifying and protecting tiger habitats; using cutting-edge technology to prevent poaching, including hand-held thermal imagers and Panthera’s ‘PoacherCams’; and training government and NGO staff to use the best scientific methods to monitor tiger and prey populations.
Panthera is leading or supporting efforts at key sites across six tiger range countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, and Thailand.
Bangladesh The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world, spanning 10,000 km2 across Eastern India and Bangladesh. Tigers in the Sundarbans survive in mangrove swamps that are flooded by tides twice daily – an unusual and unforgiving habitat for tigers. In 2014, Panthera partnered with WildTeam to work with the Bangladesh Forest Department to protect tigers in western Bangladesh, where the country borders India. Activities are focused on training and equipping forest guards, introducing the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) and monitoring tigers and their prey.
India In India, Panthera is implementing programs in five different areas: Central India Landscape, Dibang Valley, Manas National Park, Western Ghats, and Western Terai Arc. At each site, Panthera works with local and global NGOs, including Wildlife Conservation Trust (with whom we've established the Panthera-WCT Wild Cat Program), Aaranyak, and Nature Conservation Foundation, as well as local communities and governmental organizations, like the Wildlife Institute of India, to establish baseline density estimates of tiger and prey populations, monitor changes in these populations, and assess direct and indirect threats to tigers. Depending on the need of the given region, Panthera and its partners support, equip, and train local field teams in law enforcement practices and establish, support, or expand protected areas and corridors.
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