As Asia's largest top predator, the tiger is the region's most important and charismatic umbrella species. As such the health of
tiger populations is a useful indicator of the health, effectiveness and sustainability of the region's protected area networks.
Moreover since tigers are wide-ranging species which require large landscapes to maintain viable populations, effective
conservation measures are required both within, and beyond, protected area boundaries to maintain biological corridors and tiger
habitats within the broader production landscape and to strengthen policy and regulatory frameworks to protect tigers from
national and international trade. Improved protection of tigers and their habitats, and improved enforcement capacity along
potential trade chains, will benefit other globally-important species with which the tiger shares forests and grasslands within
the range states.
Tigers are Asian religious and cultural icons, the national animal in some countries and figure on the flags of others. However,
within the last century, their numbers have plummeted from over 100,000 to below 4000 animals. Tigers are listed by IUCN as
Endangered, because their total effective population size is estimated at below 2,500 mature breeding individuals, with a declining
trend due to habitat and prey base loss and persecution, and no subpopulation containing more than 250 mature breeding individuals.
The existing wild populations inhabit fragmented and isolated patches of land that constitute just 7 per cent of their historic
range. Habitat loss and trophy hunting were once the primary threats to the tigers' survival. Conversion of habitats to agriculture
and other intrusive uses led to sharp declines in tiger numbers through the 1970s and 80s. Habitat loss is still an issue, but
poaching of tigers and their prey is now the most urgent and immediate threat to tigers. Tigers are killed for the flourishing
illegal trade in tiger parts for traditional oriental medicine, clothing, and home decor. Legal international trade in tiger
products has been banned since 1975 through inclusion of the species in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) . However, the illegal international trade in wild tigers remains highly
profitable, well-structured and has close links to other organized crime. Poaching of tiger prey is a further major threat. Even
though legislation is in place to protect tigers throughout their natural range, wildlife agencies frequently lack resources,
expertise, and sometimes political support for effective enforcement of laws. Much of the illegal demand for tiger parts and
products originates from large urban areas in tiger range states whose own tiger populations have been reduced or extirpated.
Poaching has become so intense that tigers have disappeared even from some protected areas where they were once thought to be
secure. The consequences are particularly damaging in areas with a depleted prey base due to poaching or habitat degradation, where
tiger numbers are already low and growth is slow because cubs are at high risk of starvation. Serious though the situation is, it
has been shown that with good protection, tiger populations can recover quickly and are therefore a reliable indicator of
conservation efforts and healthy ecosystems, as has been well illustrated for the Amur tiger in the Russian Far East
This project will address the major threats to tiger conservation, and the large natural landscapes on which they depend, through
three interlinked components. The project will provide a framework for collaborative efforts between the range states (and the
national and international NGOs working within them) and complement national efforts targeted to individual sites. As part of the
project the Bank will organize high-level Country Dialogue Workshops in each of the range states as well as offer to host a Year of
the Tiger Summit in 2010 to build political commitment and transboundary cooperation. The project will perform comprehensive
analyses of the current financing situation across the range states, examining the current expenditures, the needs, how to cover
the gaps, and provide guidance and strategies for mobilizing new sources of funding. Since the trade in tiger parts is a serious
threat, the project will specifically target capacity building in the relevant national agencies to address international
trafficking of wildlife; this will complement ongoing efforts to strengthen protection and enforcement at tiger reserves.
Transnational consultations and workshops will support development of common and agreed strategies and monitoring frameworks so
that the range states can report progress at regional meetings such as ASEAN and the 2010 Tiger Summit. The project is designed to
encourage early action for greater country and regional commitment and to specifically address regional capacity needs in relation
to curbing wildlife trade, a major threat to tigers and their prey.
Global biodiversity benefits will accrue because tigers need large, relatively intact ecosystems and depend on an adequate prey
base for their survival. Tiger reserves and conservation landscapes harbor the best of Asia's biodiversity - lowland evergreen
rain forest, peat forest, and other forest lands, other threatened predators, large herbivores such as gaur and banteng, and the
most diverse terrestrial communities of wildlife. The tiger habitats are also key protectors of watershed values and are amongst
the most important carbon stores on the planet. Globally significant biodiversity beyond the tigers' range will also benefit if the
demand for tiger and other wildlife products can be contained. With tiger populations depleted, commercial poachers have turned
their attention to the other Asian big cats: Asian lions, leopards, and snow leopards. Indeed, nearly one-tenth of the small Asian
lion population of 300 to 350 individuals in India's Gir Forest were poached in 2007 alone - these are the only survivors of a
subspecies that once ranged from Greece to India.
B. THE CONSISTENCY OF THE PROJECT WITH NATIONAL PRIORITIES/PLANS:
All the tiger range states have Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans which support the conservation of large areas of natural
habitats and the threatened biodiviersity within them. Many of the most important biodiversity areas in each country overlap with
the 76 Tiger Conservation Landscapes identified by the leading tiger scientists . Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia
(imminent), Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, and Thailand all have National Tiger Action Plans which reflect the common needs to control
poaching and the illegal trade, improve capacity development, integrate the needs of tigers with formal development plans, and to
build constituencies of concern at national and especially at local levels.
C. THE CONSISTENCY OF THE PROJECT WITH GEF STRATEGIES AND STRATEGIC PROGRAMS:
The proposed project is consistent with the GEF Strategy for Biodiversity but will also contribute to Sustainable Forest
Management. By utilising the tiger as a flagship symbol and indicator of ecosystem health, improved tiger conservation can
contribute both to the sustainability of terrestrial protected area networks (BD SP3), and the species communities which they
protect, as well as to mainstreaming biodiversity in large landscapes (BD SP4) by strengthening policy and regulatory frameworks. A
programmatic and trans-national approach to tiger conservation, based on building political commitment to conservation of tiger
habitats and building capacity to address major threats such as wildlife trade, will provide the platform for subsequent national
efforts to strengthen protected area management and biodiversity conservation. The project will help to build the necessary
national and regional cap