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Threats to Tigers
Tigers are a keystone species, crucial for the integrity of the ecosystems in which they live. When tigers thrive, the whole ecosystem thrives.
In the past century, the world has lost three of the eight tiger subspecies. The Bali, Caspian and Javan tigers have all become extinct, and the South China tiger is facing the same fate. Historically, the tiger ranged from Turkey eastwards to the coasts of Russia and China, and from as far north as Eastern Siberia to the Indonesian island of Bali. This historical range has shrunk dramatically over the years and today the remaining tigers, numbering perhaps no more than 6,000, occur patchily across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and the Russian Far East, with a small number still surviving in China and possibly North Korea.
Tigers are a keystone species, crucial for the integrity of the ecosystems in which they live. As top predators, they keep populations of prey species in check, which in turn maintains the balance between herbivores and the vegetation upon which they feed. In short, when tigers thrive, the whole ecosystem thrives. The tiger is a universal flagship and an ambassador for other species living with it. Tigers are part of our planet's natural heritage as well as symbols of the variety of cultures that live across their range. People of faiths such as Hinduism and Buddhism revere tigers as icons. In certain national parks and nature reserves, particularly in Nepal and India, tigers are a major tourist attraction, drawing much-needed revenue.
Were it not for the tiger, many protected areas would not exist today.
Local people in tiger ranges must be able to see and derive benefits from tiger conservation.
Tigers and Human Communities
Until the 1930s, sport hunting was the main cause of declines in tiger populations. Although trophy hunting persisted as a major threat to tigers up to the early 1970s, the greatest threat between the 1940s and the late 1980s was loss of habitat due to encroachment by a burgeoning human population, logging, and conversion of forests into commercial plantations such as oil palm and pulpwood.
In the 1990s, hundreds of tigers were killed to meet the demand for their bones and other parts, which are used for traditional medicines especially in China, Taiwan, and South Korea but also in Japan and Southeast Asia. Tigers parts are also exported illegally to ethnic Asian communities all over the world.
Compounding the threat to tigers is a growing conflict between the tiger and the interests of neighboring communities. Revenge killing of tigers, often by poisoning or electrocution, to protect livestock is on the rise. Over-hunting of the tigers' natural prey is also emerging as a major factor causing declines in tiger populations across their range, and a factor that also contributes directly to cattle lifting.
— adapted from Conserving Tigers In the Wild: A WWF Framework and Strategy for Action 2002-2010 (World Wildlife Fund International, February 2002)