Tigers Forever (TF), a Panthera project in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), is working to support our bold, science-based declaration that tiger numbers can increase by at least 50% across key sites throughout tiger range over the next decade. This will be achieved through activities that focus on identifying and mitigating critical threats to tiger survival and monitoring tiger populations and prey abundance over time. In its second year, TF is working at WCS long-term sites in India, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Russia and China, where the potential to increase the numbers of tigers is greatest. In subsequent years, TF will expand the model to other tiger-range countries and to partner with other international and local NGOs.
This initiative is built upon decades of tiger research and lessons learned from tiger conservation initiatives across Asia. Beginning with Dr. George Schaller’s groundbreaking work in Kanha, India in the 1960s and Dr. Alan Rabinowitz’s influential work in Thailand in the late 1980s, Panthera’s staff has a long history in tiger research and conservation. More recently, WCS tiger biologists and Panthera Cat Advisory Council members, Dr. Ullas Karanth and Dr. Dale Miquelle, have shown that tiger numbers can be increased at long-term sites in India and the Russian Far East, respectively. Now Panthera and WCS are using best practices at other key sites throughout tiger range to foster the recovery and growth of tiger numbers.
Read Panthera's Tiger Report Card: The State of the Tiger.
Addressing the key threats
Due primarily to a lack of focused effort on the most critical threats to tigers, the species’ survival is in jeopardy across its range. Many conservationists fear that tigers are on the brink of extinction and that little hope remains for their recovery. India’s Sariska National Park, once heralded as a prime tiger-watching destination, was declared void of tigers in 2005. Sadly, Sariska is not alone. Also in recent years, there has been a resurgence in wearing tiger furs as a fashion statement in Tibet, while the traffic of other tiger parts for medicinal purposes steadily increases across Asia. This selective killing of tigers, combined with habitat loss and declining prey populations, bodes ill for the tiger’s future. But while some people prepare for a world without tigers, Panthera sees things differently.
A science based model
Panthera’s Tigers Forever initiative is based on the certainty that we can achieve at least a 50% increase in tiger numbers across key tiger sites over the next ten years. The work of scientists and conservationists over the past three decades has already given us the knowledge base to understand tigers. What has been lacking are focused, coordinated efforts to mitigate the most critical threats to tigers in any particular area, and long-term population monitoring initiatives that inform us whether mitigation activities are indeed working to increase tiger numbers. The TF model of tiger conservation, implemented through international, national, and local partnerships, puts the tiger’s needs at center stage. Intensive and on-going monitoring of tiger numbers tells us if we are succeeding.
Managed by a team of the world’s top tiger scientists and working closely with community and government leaders, Panthera’s efforts will increase tiger numbers at designated sites over the next decade. More importantly, we will create a model that can be readily replicated to bring the tiger back from the edge and create healthy populations throughout tiger range. The sustainability of Tigers Forever will rest with the cadre of young felid biologists and local conservation leaders that are also being nurtured and mentored by Panthera and other organizations. It will be their passion and tireless advocacy that will ensure success in the struggle to maintain wild tigers forever.
