In the Amur region, tracks left in the snow by a female tiger and two cubs spark new hope. photo: WWF-Russia

Four of WWF's priority regions are important for tiger conservation: Amur-Heilong, Borneo and Sumatra, Eastern Himalayas and Mekong.

Amur-Heilong: In the 1940s fewer than 40 Amur tigers remained in the wild, but with the support of the Russian government, local people, WWF and other conservation organizations, the population has recovered to more than 400 and has remained stable for the last decade. Today, WWF works with partner organizations, local communities and government bodies in the Russian Far East to save the Amur tiger which makes its home in the temperate forests of the Amur-Heilong watershed. WWF has educated 60,000 students and 200 teachers on tiger issues, and laid the groundwork with Russian partners for the designation of Annuisky National Park, Mataisky Special Reserve and Kluchevskoy Nature Park. WWF supports vigorous anti-poaching efforts and is also part of an effort to establish a region-wide Econet, an ecological network of protected areas that will become a connected habitat for the tiger. Recently, the tracks of two cubs and a female tiger were discovered 400 miles northwest of their core range, indicating tigers are breeding and exploring new habitat.

Borneo and Sumatra: The Sumatran tiger has a few strongholds remaining, and WWF is working to secure their long-term viability on the island of Sumatra. We successfully lobbied corporate partners and the Indonesian government to declare the Tesso Nilo rainforest on Sumatra a protected area. Tesso Nilo - one of the best remaining blocks of lowland topical forest for the Sumatran tiger - is fast disappearing because of large-scale conversion to commercial plantations and illegal logging. WWF helped document illegal logging and forest conversion fueled by demand of two of the world's largest pulp and paper mills located near Tesso Nilo. Our ongoing work has resulted in commitments to protect some of the most important remaining forest homes for tigers. In Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, in the southern most portion of Sumatra, WWF has established community patrols and built guard posts to reduce tiger poaching activities. WWF is also working with the American Red Cross in the wake of the Tsunami to ensure reconstruction efforts do not put further pressure on forests in which tigers live in the northern part of Sumatra.

This tiger explored a camera trap in Terai, where WWF has led successful efforts to connect nature preserves via wildlife corridors. photo: WWF-Nepal

Eastern Himalayas:
To save the Bengal tiger, WWF works with many partners to strengthen anti-poaching efforts, eliminate illegal trade, establish well-connected protected areas, restore natural habitat and reduce human-tiger conflict. We have successfully led in establishing ecological corridors in the Terai Arc located along the border of Nepal and India, as well as improving the livelihoods of local people and reducing their pressure on forests and grasslands. Recently, tigers and elephants have been detected in one of Nepal's wildlife corridors, indicating that efforts to connect parks and nature preserves are succeeding. In addition, a tiger was caught on infrared camera set at 14,000 feet above sea level in Bhutan, perhaps the last place in the world where tiger and snow leopard habitat overlap. Bhutan, a small country in the Eastern Himalayas still has over 60 percent forest cover intact and holds a population of 90 to 120 breeding tigers.

Mekong: In the Mekong Forests of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam, WWF identified core areas and corridors for protection and monitoring of the Indochinese tiger and other key species. In 2005, WWF was instrumental in creating two new protected areas in the Eastern Plains Dry Forest landscape of Cambodia which resulted in a 2.5 million acre area of connected and contiguous tiger habitat. This connected landscape restores precious tiger habitat and creates a viable area to develop an income-generating ecotourism industry in the region. Tigers have already made a comeback in this newly protected habitat and are now being monitored carefully. WWF is also working with government partners to promote sustainable forest resource management and improved management of protected areas with a focus on law enforcement to reduce poaching and illegal trade of wildlife and timber. This effort is greatly aided by the formation of the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (WEN) in December 2005, developed by all Southeast Asian nations to confront the increasingly sophisticated wildlife crime syndicates based in the region. TRAFFIC, a joint program of WWF and IUCN, along with Wildaid is supporting the operations of ASEAN WEN.

View map of present tiger distributions.