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Indian tiger
photo: WWF-Canon / Martin HARVEY |
In order to ensure that our children will inherit a planet where tigers still roam wild, WWF is focusing its landscape conservation strategy on four regions, each with its own challenges and threats:
Amur-Heilong
The Russian Far East is part of WWF's Amur-Heilong region and the last stronghold of the Amur (or Siberian) tiger, with a population of 360-406 animals. The key threats that WWF is addressing include the poaching of tigers and their prey, inadequate protection and management of habitats, increased logging and construction of roads, forest fires, and inadequate law enforcement.
Read about "The Forests of the Russian Far East". (PDF, 77k)
Borneo and Sumatra
The Tesso Nilo Landscape of central Sumatra is one of the last remaining lowland rainforests in Indonesia, with some of the highest biodiversity in the world. The forest still harbors tigers and Asian elephants but is severely threatened by deforestation. WWF is working to protect the surviving tigers with better law enforcement, help the communities manage their resources, alleviate human-wildlife conflict, and preserve the remaining natural forest.
Read about the Tesso Nilo Conservation Landscape (PDF, 1.25M)
Another important population of tigers survives within Sumatra's Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (BBS), an island of habitat surrounded by an ocean of human activity, including villages, agriculture, and plantation forestry. Among WWF's primary concerns are encroachment into the park, illegal logging, agricultural expansion, the hunting of tiger prey, and poaching of endangered species.
Read about the Bukit Barisan Selatan in Sumatran Rhinos and Tigers on the Edge (PDF, 96k)
Eastern Himalayas
One of the most spectacular assemblages of large mammals in Asia occurs in the Terai Arc of Nepal and India. In July 2000, WWF started a landscape project with the conservation of tigers, rhinos and elephants as a major objective. The key challenges that WWF is addressing include poaching of tigers and their prey, encroachment and fragmentation of habitat, human-wildlife conflict, and lack of training for national park staff.
Read about the Terai Arc Landscape: Bengal Tigers in the Himalayas' Shadow (PDF, 68k)
Read about the North Bank Landscape: Species Conservation in Northeast India (PDF, 127k)
Mekong
The lower Mekong forest area encompasses the tri-border region of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, and still harbors wildlife species that have otherwise vanished in Indochina. Here we can still find tigers, rhinos, and elephants in the same place, but population estimates are vague. WWF is working to get a better understanding of the tiger population remaining, reduce poaching of tigers and other animals, prevent and reduce habitat fragmentation, train local authorities in wildlife law enforcement and habitat protection, and involve local communities in resource protection.
Read about Tigers of the Eastern Plains Landscape. (PDF, 135k)
View map of present tiger distributions.
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