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Tigers Forever
To learn more about Tigers Forever and how you can support this program, please go to: www.tigersforever.org
In 2006, responding to the ongoing ‘tiger crisis’ across Asia, Panthera, in collaboration with WCS, launched Tigers Forever, an action plan to ensure that tigers remain in the wild forever. This program is an ambitious plan to increase tiger numbers at WCS sites across Asia by 50 percent in the next 10 years. The concept of targeting specific tiger numbers is not customary in tiger conservation efforts. Tigers Forever utilizes an adaptive project management framework incorporating rigorous monitoring of tiger numbers to determine if we are on track to achieve our goals. To implement this innovative science-based strategy, Tigers Forever works in close partnership with local governments, NGOs, and communities committed to tiger conservation. The initial focus is on WCS priority sites across India, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos PDR, Indonesia, Russia, and China where the potential to increase the numbers of tigers is high.
The Human Aspect
In historical times, hundreds of thousands of tigers roamed across Asia; however, tiger populations have plummeted since the 20th century began. Today, tigers occupy just 7 percent of their historical range and are found in only 13 countries in Asia, some of which are home to the densest human populations and have the fastest economic growth in the world.
Threats
 Tigers are faced with a myriad of threats. Their habitat is being converted for both agricultural and commercial needs. People hunt tiger prey—including deer, pigs, and wild cattle—for subsistence or for profit, making food scarce. Without sufficient prey, tigers are unable to survive or breed. Tigers are also direct targets for poachers profiting from the burgeoning illegal wildlife trade. Other threats include people who kill in retaliation after tigers prey on their livestock or those who kill simply out of a primal fear of big cats.
WCS Activities
 Beginning with George Schaller’s first-ever scientific study of wild tigers in the mid-1960s, WCS conservationists have covered the entire range of activities necessary to address both long- and short-term threats to tigers.
These activities include monitoring tiger and prey population dynamics, enhancing local capacity for protection of tigers, prey, and habitats; consolidation of tiger habitats through promotion of voluntary resettlement and land acquisitions; national capacity-building in research, outreach, community education, technical training, and formal education; catalyzing the creation of protected areas; and national and global policy interventions.
Most importantly, all of these interventions have been carried out on the ground, in association with local governmental and non-governmental partners who share our dedication to saving tigers. To date, WCS and its partners have generated most of the key scientific data necessary to provide a basis for action. We are using lessons learned from India and the Russian Far East, where WCS has had great success in securing and increasing tiger numbers. These conservation models will be adapted and applied at core WCS Tigers Forever sites across the tiger range. An adaptive project management framework, incorporating regular review cycles, allows course correction along the way to make sure we reach our targets.
Important Next Steps
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 As of October 2006, every Tigers Forever site has instituted standardized monitoring protocols based on specific action plans and indicators and targets set for that site. The first field season of Year 1 is ending and data will undergo analysis shortly.
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Tigers Forever will continue to hold annual reviews, following the pattern of the launch meeting held in Nagarahole, India in February 2006. These reviews will be used as venues to share best practices, and successes and challenges experienced along the way. Our next review meeting will take place in Bhutan in September 2007, where we will assess progress made in the first year of Tigers Forever activities.
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Continue fundraising to support this groundbreaking initiative. WCS has raised an initial $10 million in seed money from the Panthera Foundation, at $1 million per year for 10 years. In order to reach our goal of a 50 percent increase in tiger numbers across these sites, we estimate we will need an additional $3 million per year.
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WCS and Saving Planet Earth
Tigers Forever’s conservation work in India will be featured in the BBC television series Saving Planet Earth in June 2007, as part of a fundraising appeal.
Donations made through Saving Planet Earth are given to the BBC Wildlife Fund. The Fund organizes the distribution of the funds—usually as grants over three years—to dozens of conservation charity partners. Tigers Forever is one charity partner of the BBC Wildlife Fund, and we will be applying for grant funding in 2007.
Tigers Forever is a 'cross-cutting' initiative between the Asia Program and Science and Exploration Program. To learn more about Science and Exploration, please visit: www.savingwildplaces.org
Tigers Forever is a Panthera project in collaboration with WCS
Please visit: www.panthera-foundation.org
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