Secure Connected Habitat

It is imperative to prioritise large natural spaces and connected habitats of well managed protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures so that tigers and other species can move, breed and thrive. WWF’s landscape approach combines effective management of an area through long-term, strategic collaboration among multiple stakeholders, with the purpose of ensuring tiger habitats are secured and provide critical ecosystem services to people.

FEATURE STORY

Thailand becomes first country in Southeast Asia to increase wild tiger population

In July, the Royal Thai Government announced the country’s national wild tiger population is increasing. After years of concerted conservation efforts wild tiger populations have increased from an estimated 148-189 to 179-223. This marks a significant turn in the tide for tigers in Southeast Asia where most wild tiger populations are in decline, and more concerningly tigers have gone extinct in Cambodia, Laos, and Viet Nam in the last 25 years.

Thailand’s tiger conservation story

A key enabler for the increase in tiger population has been efforts to recover prey populations affected by decades of exploitation. “Over the last three years, The Royal Thai government, supported by WWF Thailand, has released over 100 sambar deer into tiger recovery areas in the Western Forest Complex, with more planned in coming years. In addition, conservation efforts to increase Thailand’s banteng population, a species of wild cattle listed as Critically Endangered, have also been successful with early signs of population increases and range expansion in some well managed protected areas. WWF Thailand recently initiated the development of a national banteng assessment and recovery plan in collaboration with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, and the Faculty of Forestry. The more we support tiger prey, the better supported our national tiger population will be,” explains Dr. Rungnapa Phoonjampa, Western Forest and Mae Ping Wildlife Program Director at WWF Thailand.

In a story of progress, a tigress with three cubs was documented by a camera trap at the end of 2022. The young family became a symbol of hope for conservationists in the country. Fast forward a year and conservationists couldn’t believe their eyes. Camera traps had confirmed that the tigress’s cubs had left her and were establishing their own territory. Then less than a year later, the same tigress was recorded on a camera trap with three new cubs.

“A number of years ago this scenario of a tigress successfully breeding and rearing two sequential large litters of cubs simply wouldn’t have happened. Up until recent years, tigers and their prey have been severely threatened by poachers. But our government has really stepped up anti-poaching patrol teams across our national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, which has had a positive impact on wildlife. The presence of rangers helps to deter poachers and with the help of innovative wildlife monitoring tools such as SMART, it’s possible to monitor and prevent poaching hotspots. This means tigers have a much higher chance of survival in our forests and we’re seeing rare scenarios like this tigress who has had two sets of three cubs so close together,” continues Dr. Rungnapa.

Thailand is a beacon of hope for tiger recovery in Southeast Asia. Further increases in the nation’s wild tiger population could lead to tigers naturally dispersing to places they were once lost from in Thailand, and WWF is already expanding our place based work in Thailand to ready sites for the increasing population.

Tiger Conservation Landscapes 3.0

Where tigers live and how their habitats are changing are critical pieces of information that inform tiger conservation. A new monitoring platform called Tiger Conservation Landscapes 3.0 launched this year and represents a breakthrough in how scientists measure and monitor changes in tiger habitat. The project, which is led by WCS and that WWF is a partner of, involves an unusual blend of space technology, and on-the-ground data gathering, NASA satellite imagery and Google Earth Engine computing. The program focuses on the remaining distinct continuous tracts of habitat where tigers still occur and represents the third iteration of assessing tiger habitat across Asia. The approach represents a breakthrough in how scientists measure and monitor changes in habitat at a pace relevant to decision-making and provides a framework for monitoring other wildlife species across the globe.

TIGER MONITORING

WWF supports the monitoring of tigers and tiger prey across the majority of the 22 landscapes we work in across Asia. Some examples of our site based support during 2024 include:

In China, WWF and its partners supported a tiger camera trap monitoring project to collect wildlife data in Dongning Nature Reserve, situated in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park. The data collected provides a scientific basis for species conservation and human-wildlife conflict management in this landscape which is critical to understand as tiger populations slowly increase in northeast China.

©NCTLNP Dongning FGB

WWF-India continues to monitor and support the monitoring of tigers in 20 Protected Areas and Forest Divisions across six conservation landscapes. Regular monitoring indicates there has been progress towards tiger population recovery in a number of key sites in these landscapes. Emerging evidence exists in Balaghat and Achanakmar in central India, while there are early signs in Anamalai in Western Ghats Nilgiris and Western Rajaji in the Terai Arc landscape where translocated tigresses have started breeding. In addition, WWF-India has developed an AI-based software to identify and count wildlife recorded in camera trap images and videos. A state-of-the-art data management system that could lead to timely insights on wildlife status and trends is in the testing phase now.

In WWF’s core sites in Malaysia (Belum-Temengor Forest Complex) and Thailand (Upper Western Forest Complex), WWF teams continue long-term camera-trapping to document and better understand the dynamics of low-density tiger populations. This work is essential to identify constraints to tiger recovery and develop appropriate conservation interventions. A number of important peer-reviewed publications that analyze long-term data and provide insights into the recovery of these populations are in preparation for publication in 2025.

Effectively monitoring tiger prey populations is essential for supporting tiger recovery. In central Sumatra, WWF Indonesia (with support from Tigers Alive) undertook a pilot study using randomly placed cameras to estimate tiger prey density using camera-trap distance sampling. This has demonstrated the potential for such an approach within a dense tropical rainforest, and provided important insights into the status of the prey population which has been impacted by African Swine Fever.

© Courtesy of WWF Indonesia and partners

© Courtesy of WWF Indonesia and partners

HABITAT RESTORATION

The restoration of tiger habitat can result in a multitude of benefits for tigers, biodiversity and for people through the ecosystem services provided by these areas.

WWF India has expanded conservation efforts into new areas that hold immense potential for tiger population recovery including Karbi Anglong in Brahmaputra landscape, the Godavari Landscape in central India and the newly created Dholpur Tiger Reserve in western India. In Karbi Anglong, conservation and natural resource management is underway and will be implemented by local communities through an Autonomous Council that governs the area. WWF India is also collecting baseline data which will help to build broad partnerships to advance conservation efforts in these landscapes.

In 2024, WWF China successfully restored 30 hectares of forest, connecting over 1,000 sq km of tiger habitat in the Laoyeling landscape. The restoration strategy included replanting shrubs to create sparse forest cover, including Korean pine and Manchurian ash, for tiger prey. These conservation interventions align with the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park strategic wildlife recovery plan 2023-2030. In addition, a key role of WWF China in this landscape is to pilot such approaches for subsequent government implementation. This is an excellent example of the ‘added value’ of WWF in China. A monitoring period after the restoration recorded Amur tigers, Amur leopards and various ungulates in the area.

In Indonesia, a total of 42 out of 300 hectares of degraded and deforested habitat in central Sumatra has been restored with tree species that both contribute to tiger habitat recovery and benefit local people. The village-based Forest Management Group of Sungai Abu and the company SynecO, a part of Sony which has an expertise on land rehabilitation, conducted a pilot Synecoculture methodology which involves multi-species planting that combines high canopy trees and seasonal vegetables which provide long-term and short-term benefits for communities, as well as accelerating forest recovery in the area.

© WWF Indonesia / SynecO

© WWF Indonesia / SynecO

TIGER PREY

Prey restoration in Mae Wong and Khlong Lan National Park

During 2024, the fourth sambar deer release was completed in Mae Wong Khlong Lan National Parks. These efforts to increase tiger prey populations in Thailand are critical to support an increase in the national tiger population. A total of 13 females and 11 males safely made the journey from Khao Kho Wildlife Breeding Centre to a fenced enclosure at a release site in the Western Forest Complex where they lived for a week to acclimatise before their release. Before release a number of sambar deer were fitted with satellite collars for ongoing monitoring.

A total of 114 sambar have been released into the wild in northern Thailand between 2021 and 2024.

Banteng exhibition and book launch

Banteng are an endangered species of wild cattle found only in seven countries in Southeast Asia, and are a key tiger prey. Banteng have become extremely rare with just a dozen scattered populations remaining, most of which are small and declining. In 2024, the IUCN updated Banteng from Endangered to Critically Endangered - this analysis was led by Tigers Alive. However, a few populations of banteng in Thailand are slowly increasing and provide hope for wider recovery in the future.

In March, WWF Thailand co-organised a national event with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Faculty of Forestry-Kasetsart University and nine other partners to raise the profile of banteng and motivate action for their conservation. The event and exhibition called "Beautiful Banteng...Iconic Rarity of Lowland Forest" was held in Bangkok and also featured the launch of a WWF book on Banteng (available here as an Ebook).

CONNECTIVITY

Tools for monitoring connectivity

Understanding and monitoring connectivity is essential for advocating for sustainable development, new infrastructure and assessing the impact of our conservation interventions. Securing connectivity is critical for tiger range expansion and ensuring coexistence with tigers and their prey. A number of new models and tools have recently been developed for modelling and measuring connectivity including Connecting Landscapes (CoLa) developed by Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), Northern Arizona University and NASA. Tigers Alive is exploring the potential of this tool to drive monitoring connectivity and conservation decision making across our priority landscapes.

Connectivity success in Nepal

The Someshwor Corridor, which links the high-density tiger source populations of Chitwan National Park and Parsa National Park to adjoining habitats in Nepal and the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in India, has seen a significant increase in tiger numbers. Surveys conducted in 2023 and analysed in 2024, reported a rise from just three tigers in 2018 to 14 individuals. Additionally, six tigers were documented crossing the international boundary into India’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve, highlighting the Someshwor Forest as an effective biological corridor within the eastern Terai Arc Landscape.

A tiger recorded on camera traps set up in the Someshwor Corridor. © WWF Nepal

Farming communities in India are benefitting from regenerative agriculture projects that also help to encourage biodiversity and maintain connectivity across landscapes. © WWF India

Restoring wildlife corridors across India

WWF India continues to support and advance efforts in protecting and restoring wildlife corridors across the country. WWF is working closely with the Forest Department, NHAI and other agencies to advocate for mitigation structures along roads to be built in wildlife corridors and other forest areas. These interventions are crucial to maintain landscape connectivity.

WWF India also continues to monitor important corridors across the country to assess how wildlife uses these areas. This information informs conservation and restoration plans with relevant stakeholders, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities. In the Satpura-Pench corridor of central India, WWF are advancing a "production landscape approach" to maintain connectivity in multi-use corridors, as well as conducting extensive documentation of cultural associations between people and forests, wildlife and the aspirations of local communities — towards building a vision for local stewardship of forests in the corridor.

With the Coalition for Wildlife Corridors, WWF India has continued to develop informative corridor profiles that identify conservation opportunities and challenges in these areas, and convene multi-stakeholder workshops to build synergies across government departments for better land-use planning.

Mitigating highway infrastructure impacts in the Terai Arc Landscape

The upgradation of a two-lane highway to a six-lane expressway posed a significant threat to the Western Terai Arc Landscape in India, potentially dividing it into two parts and severely hindering, if not eliminating, the movement of tigers and other wildlife. However, timely intervention by officials from the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department, acting on inputs from WWF India and other agencies, prevented this outcome. They mandated the construction of a 12-kilometre-long vehicular overpass, ensuring the safe passage of tigers, elephants and other wildlife beneath the expressway.

WWF India’s comprehensive wildlife surveys in the Shivalik Forest Division, combined with support for tiger recovery efforts in Rajaji Tiger Reserve, provided critical data that informed this crucial decision. The overpass has now been completed, and the expressway is set to be inaugurated by India’s Prime Minister in the near future. This overpass is likely one of the largest wildlife-mitigation structures globally and sets a high standard for sustainable, “green” infrastructure development in wildlife habitats.

Encouragingly, tigers have begun to breed in Western Rajaji, and a male tiger has dispersed across the region, crossing the overpass into Eastern Himachal Pradesh—an area where tigers have not been recorded for decades.

EFFECTIVE PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT

Developed by WWF, Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CA|TS) is an accreditation scheme that encourages tiger conservation areas to meet a set of standards and criteria, created by an international group of experts and protected area managers, that assures effective and long term tiger conservation.

WWF Malaysia drives national expansion of CA|TS

In June 2024, WWF Malaysia strengthened its role in tiger conservation as the Technical Support Group to Malaysia's newly established National CA|TS Committee, chaired by PERHILITAN. The committee, formed to advance the CA|TS programme, marks a pivotal step in safeguarding the Malayan tiger. Building on the success of the Royal Belum State Park's CA|TS Approved status, WWF Malaysia’s technical expertise is now focused on supporting the expansion of these rigorous conservation standards to other key tiger landscapes in Malaysia.

CA|TS standards achieved by Bhutan

CA|TS assessments for two sites, Jigme Dorji National Park and Zhemgang Forest Division, were completed by the National CA|TS Committee and re-submitted to the CA|TS International Executive Committee for final accreditation. Expanding CA|TS to non-protected areas, such as Zhemgang Forest Division, is crucial for tiger conservation as it ensures effective management of habitats outside of protected areas. Non-protected areas often serve as essential corridors for tiger movement, connecting core habitats and supporting genetic diversity. CA|TS accreditation and meeting recommendations of the assessments is expected to bring increased focus of different stakeholders to the sites and strengthen conservation practices including promotion of community engagement, help in reducing human-wildlife conflict and expanding safe landscapes for tigers in Bhutan.

Secure connectED habitat