Contents
Its Significance
Tiger Facts
Tigers Status and Distribution
Tiger Threats
Fate of the Tiger
Solutions
WWF Action Plan

 Acknowledgements
 References


Year For The Tiger


WWF TIGER STATUS REPORT: 1998

In the Chinese calendar, 1998 is the Year of the Tiger. There could hardly be a more appropriate time to assess the tiger's past and present status.

At the turn of the century, eight sub-species of tiger were found from the Caspian Sea to Bali. In the last 50-60 years - around five cycles of the Year of the Tiger - three sub-species (the Bali, Caspian and Javan) have disappeared. Today, there is little to celebrate about current status as tiger populations dwindle even further: the Bengal tiger may number around 3,000, the Indo-Chinese just over 1,000, the Sumatran and Amur around 400, and the South China tiger is at an all-time low of just 20.

Experts across tiger range states have provided forecasts for the fate of the species' future by the next Chinese Year of the Tiger in 12 years. Specialists in Russia and Indonesia give some hope for both the Amur and Sumatran tiger, but the prognosis from India is gloomy - only 500 tigers in a handful of reserves. Indo-Chinese tiger populations will be declining rapidly and the South China tiger will become extinct.   

Threats to the tiger are all too familiar: loss of habitat, illegal hunting for its body parts for use in traditional Chinese medicines, and retaliation for attacks on local farmers' livestock. Urgent action is needed now to ensure the tiger is saved. With this in mind WWF is determined to undertake some key actions in 1998 in the following areas:

  • public awareness and education worldwide;
  • the setting up of a rapid response tiger emergency fund;
  • supporting the strengthening of controls on illegal tiger trade in tiger parts in key countries;
  • a feasibility study to assess the status of tigers and threats from development in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh - a major tiger habitat with perhaps the single largest population of Bengal tigers left in the world.

These activities complement WWF's 37 continuing projects which will:

  • strengthen tiger population monitoring and tiger protection measures by providing training and technical assistance to anti-poaching brigades and wildlife biologists;
  • help to resolve the human-animal conflict by protecting villagers' livestock from tiger predation, for example, and reducing their dependence on forest resources;  
  • strengthen and increase the network of tiger protected areas, especially those identified as high priority tiger habitats (Level 1 tiger conservation units);
  • strengthen the capacity of range states, especially in Indo-China (Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) to control wildlife trade by providing training and technical assistance for trade control and enforcement;
  • strengthen national and international laws to control the tiger trade;
  • reduce the demand for tiger products and build public support for conserving tigers in the wild through campaigns that target consumers of tiger products.

WWF alone cannot save the tiger - but if the governments and people of range states have the will to conserve them, then WWF and its partners can help. Together, we aim to ensure that the Year of the Tiger becomes the Year for the Tiger.

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