Human intervention

Negative ways: The influence of human activities such as direct persecution of tiger, infrastructure development, and conversion of tiger habitat to other land use changes and hunting of prey species play key roles for tiger distribution. Until the 1930s, tiger numbers declined due to sport hunting. Trophy hunting persisted as a major threat to tigers up to the early 1970s. Due to encroachment accelerated by human population growth, logging and conversion of forests to commercial plantations such as oil palm and pulpwood, the greatest threat to habitat took place between the 1940s and the late 1980s. In China, several thousand tigers were killed off under the progress and development programme during the Cultural Revolution. In the 1990s, hundreds of tigers were exterminated for traditional medicines, especially in China, Taiwan, and South Korea, but also in Japan and Southeast Asia. Their parts are exported illegally to ethnic Asian communities all over the world, including those in Australasia, Europe, the USA and Canada (WWF, 2002). The illegal demand from China for traditional medicine is still a strong reason for the poaching pressure on tiger populations over its range of distribution.

In Myanmar, the status of the tiger population was also uncertain for many years due to illegal hunting and poaching for the trade of traditional Chinese medicine, hunting of tiger prey species and forest clearance to meet human needs. The hunting of tigers has a long history in Myanmar (Pollok and Thom, 1900) because they were traditionally considered as pests. The government provided licenses and rewards for killing them until 1931. This induced depopulation on a large scale through sport hunting. Most of the tiger habitat areas are located in tribal areas and they were mostly hunted by various tribal groups with the purpose of supplying trade (Rabinowitz et al., 1995), leading to their extirpation in some areas (Rabinowitz, 1998). The sale of tiger products was banned by CITES since 1975. The size of the trade is difficult to measure. Between 1970 and 1993, East Asian countries imported at least 10, 000 kg of tiger bone which represents 500 - 1, 000 tigers (Hemley and Mills, 1999). Direct hunting of tigers drives the Myanmar tiger population to extinction (NTAP of Myanmar, 2003). By the early part of the 20th century thousands of tigers had been reported to have been killed in Myanmar (Lynam, 2003). According to a study by Thant (2006), less than one third of the supposed previous tiger population has survived on less than 25% of the HVTR‟s area. Continued depletion at this speed would lead to the tiger‟s extinction in the next 2 decades. The first reason for the disastrous tiger

decline in the HVTR is illegal hunting/poaching of tigers for profits. Intensive illegal hunting of prey species is an additional threat to the few remaining tigers. Plans to conserve the species are still required due to the limited knowledge about where tigers live and how they are threatened in their habitats (Lynam, 2003). The question of “how to conserve wild tigers” needs to be urgently answered by the scientific community. Habitat and prey play important roles for the long- term survival of tigers in the wild. But it is still illegal to trade tiger parts that may lead to extinction. Tiger parts are still sold on the Chinese markets despite legal protection, prohibition of international trade, anti-poaching efforts and millions spent by NGOs and governments over most of its range (Lapointe et al., 2007)

Positive ways: GOs and NGOs activities in the conservation of tigers: Tigers are a conservation dependent species. They require protection from killing, an adequate prey base and adequate habitat area (Sanderson et al., 2006). Numerous international governmental organizations (GOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have supported conservation strategies to recover the tiger habitat and help to immediately begin the reverse of declining wild tiger populations (see Table 5). Globally, NGOs spent more than US $31 million in tiger conservation from 1998 to 2003 (Christie, 2006). The tiger is one of the priority species for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and it provides financial and technical support in most of the tiger range countries. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and the CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) also support the conservation of tiger. The Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) was constituted in June 2008 by the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institution, GEF (Global Environmental Facility) and an alliance of governments and international organizations. The aim was to repopulate and recover the tiger‟s habitat towards sustainable population sizes. The GTF (Global Tiger Forum) is working with tiger range countries by using the convening power of the World Bank and is unionizing with international organizations such as WWF, WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and SI (Smithsonian Institution). GTI has started six themes to focus both on saving wild tigers and building foundations to sustain conservation efforts to other wild species, habitats, ecosystems and local people. These six themes are composed of wildlife enforcement and governance, capacity building, smart green infrastructure, demand management and consumer education, community incentives and innovative financing.

The International Tiger Conservation Forum or The Tiger Summit was held in Russia on

November 21-24, 2010. Representatives from the 13 countries where tigers live today attended to this summit. The resulting commitment is based on:

- the establishment of new funding from governments to support tiger conservation programmes, and,

- the endorsement of 13 tiger range countries for the Global Tiger Recovery Programme by the next 5 years.

WWF acted as the summit to encourage the world‟s political leaders for tiger conservation.

The WWF also committed to spending US$50 million over the next 5 years on tiger conservation, and set the goal to increase this amount to US$85 million. The WWF seeks emergency measures to save the tiger, as well as a long-term foundation to secure the future of the tiger. WWF efforts are focused on:

- securing funds to prevent poaching in the most critical tiger landscapes - securing political will and taking action to double wild tiger numbers by 2022

- protecting tiger habitats at an unprecedented scale, including clamping down hard on the illegal tiger trade (WWF, 2012). The 12 landscapes have been identified by the world‟s top Figure 9: Twelve important landscapes for future tiger conservation (for the names see Table 4) (from WWF, Save Tigers Now, 2012).

11

1

2 3

4

5 6

7

8

9

10

12

tiger expert. The orange coloured areas in figure 9 will be focused on as priority tiger conservation landscapes in future.

Table 4: 12 WWF Priority Tiger Landscapes (for map see Fig. 9) (WWF, Save Tigers Now, 2012).

9. Forests of the Lower Mekong-Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam 10. Banjaran Titiwangsa-Malaysia

11. Central Sumatra-Indonesia 12. Southern Sumatra-Indonesia

GOs NGOs

Bangladesh Conservation International-CI Wildlife Conservation Nepal

Bhutan The Corbett Foundation WCS

Cambodia David Shepherd Wildlife Wildlife Trust of India

China FREELAND Foundation World Association of Zoos and Aquariums

India Global Tiger Patrol World Bank

Indonesia Humane Society International WWF Lao International Fund for Animal

Welfare The Zoological Society of London

Malaysia Save the Tiger Fund ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network Myanmar Smithsonian Institution Aaranyak

Nepal Smithsonian‟s National Zoological Park

American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Russian Species Survival Network Animals Asia Foundation Thailand Tigris Foundation Animal Welfare Institute

Vietnam TRAFFIC Association of Zoos and Aquariums

The above 13

21^st Century Tiger British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums

World Society for the

Protection of Animals Born Free

WildAid Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

Wildlife Alliance Care for the Wild

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