Expand Tiger Range

Tigers remain in less than 8% of their historic range and this trend of decline is continuing: tigers have been lost from more than 135,000km² in the last 20 years.

But hope remains…

A paper released in December 2023 with authors from IUCN, Panthera, WCS, WWF, the Royal Government of Bhutan and other academic and national organisations identified large areas across the historic range of tigers which may be suitable for range expansion. Restoration landscapes covered over 582,000km² in 13 countries: many of these were also identified in the 2022 WWF Tigers Alive report and peer-reviewed paper - Restoring Asia’s Roar.

Returning tigers to these landscapes could increase the range of tigers by 50% and potentially increase the global population close to 14,000.

©WWF Tigers Alive

Ecosystem restoration at this scale would not only benefit tiger conservation but also increase resilience to climate change, retain natural ecosystems that provide water and other essential services to the people of Asia. Tiger restoration across their historic range would also help progress towards the goals laid out in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, specifically the 30x30 Agenda.

Expanding the range (i.e. the area occupied) of tigers can occur in two ways:

The natural movement and dispersal of tigers from places where they currently occur.
Active conservation translocations such as reintroductions when tigers are transported into new landscapes or protected areas from which they have been extirpated.

WWF's 22 tiger landscapes, both current and restoration landscapes. © WWF Tigers Alive

Natural movement is the preferred and relatively low cost option but there are planned reintroductions of tigers in several countries in Asia.

Kazakhstan - Ili-Balkhash

In Kazakhstan there are well advanced plans to reintroduce tigers into the Ili-Balkhash Delta. This would return tigers to central Asia, an entire part of the globe in which the species is currently absent. The ambitious project was initiated in 2017 when an MoU of Programme implementation between WWF International and the Kazakhstan government was signed. Since then WWF has been supporting the Kazakhstan government to secure sufficiently large areas of protected habitat, ensuring there is sufficient food (which in Kazakhstan involves reintroducing Bukhara deer and other species), and working with local communities to ensure that both tigers and people will be safe and respected.

Here's a breakdown of Kazakhstan's tiger reintroduction timeline...

In 2023, WWF continued its work in preparing the site for tiger reintroduction. This included:

Prey Monitoring:

Goitered gazelles have increased to 343 individuals.
Wild pigs are now up to 20 individuals per 1000 ha following increased protection and winter breeding.
50 Kulans (Asiatic wild ass) were released in April 2023 into the Ili Balkhash Reserve and breeding with several foals was recorded before the release.
Monitoring of the over 200 Bukhara deer that have been reintroduced (last release was 61 in July 2023) and have since been breeding successfully with at least 60 fawns recorded in the last three years.

Habitat Restoration:

15,000 new seedlings of Populis, Oleaster and Salix – were planted.
Developed an anti-fire management plan and established a volunteer anti fire brigade given the high risk of fires and their impact on biodiversity and forest health.

Local Communities:

Established the Local Development Fund which will support sustainable entrepreneurial activities of local groups and participation in environmental education projects. This fund was designed following the sharing of lessons learned by WWF in Central Asia. Establishing a similar fund in Kyrgyzstan for instance led to zero poaching in high mountain villages. This fund had already helped to establish a local market for the citizens of Karoy village.
Ecological clubs of young wildlife enthusiasts have held 46 meetings with middle and primary school students of the Ulgili secondary school, each meeting had between 5 and 18 children.

Tiger Reintroduction:

Started construction of enclosures for holding future tigers as part of the reintroduction centre and establishing a centre of observation near these enclosures.

The WWF Network is currently exploring options for opening a local representative office for long-term support of WWF’s operations in Kazakhstan and is hopeful to find an opportunity to do so in 2024.

India - Rajaji

Rajaji National Park in India was split into two sections and the east and west became ecologically disconnected due to increased infrastructure development (such as railways and highways) in the corridor between the two areas. So a tiger translocation project was envisioned about a decade ago and this year in May 2023, an additional tiger and a tigress were brought in from Corbett Tiger Reserve.

Prior to translocations, tigers occupied 17 percent of the habitat in the western part of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve, with photographic evidence suggesting the presence of just two females and no signs of breeding since 2006. Translocation of tigers was therefore considered a necessary step towards species recovery, but long term success will require further action, such as restoring connectivity with eastern Rajaji via functional corridors, increasing protection, and putting in place conflict management mechanisms. Since the project started there have been four tigers reintroduced to the area, and more tigers will be translocated into western Rajaji, likely in the near future. At least two tigers (both males) have also dispersed naturally into the area since 2020, and this was enabled by the construction of vehicle overpasses in the corridor. One of these tigers has since wandered west, in the lower Himalaya of Himachal Pradesh, highlighting how tiger recovery in Western Rajaji can enable range expansion further west.

Tiger being released from a temporary enclosure into the wild in Rajaji ©Siddhant Umariya / WWF India

All the translocated tigers have on ‘very high frequency’ satellite collars and a dedicated team, that includes a veterinary officer, that has monitored these animals post release.

Over the past decade, WWF-India has played a pivotal role and worked closely with the Uttarakhand Forest Department, Wildlife Institute of India and National Tiger Conservation Authority on this impactful project. These measures have included strategic support to strengthen protection within Rajaji and in surrounding areas, training field staff of the Uttarakhand Forest Department in radio-telemetry based monitoring, engagement with local communities through solutions to manage human-wildlife conflict and meet their energy needs, and sustained support for restoring connectivity in key wildlife corridors.

Thailand - Mae Ping-Om Koi Forest Complex

During 2023, WWF-Thailand began preliminary work in the Mae Ping-Om Koi Forest Complex, located north of the Western Forest Complex, to support natural tiger range expansion. This ground work will support the launch of a program in three protected areas in the Mae Ping-Om Koi Forest Complex. Tigers were eradicated in this forest complex decades ago but recent evidence on camera traps in the area suggest some individuals are returning. WWF-Thailand will collaborate with protected area managers in Mae Ping to support wildlife surveys, SMART patrol, and ensure community involvement and run awareness campaigns for the local communities. Recent modelling has suggested that northern Thailand has more potential range for tiger recovery than almost any of the other nations across the species’ range in Asia. Improving the enabling conditions for recovery in Mae Ping will set the stage for further northward range expansion in the years and decades to come.

Expanding tiger range in Thailand through OECMs

In 2023, WWF-Thailand co-hosted along with IUCN and Thailand Office of National Environmental Policy the first national technical workshop on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs). Since then, WWF-Thailand has spearheaded the public-private national working group that is developing a national policy framework and selection criteria, and will soon initiate a nationwide mapping and pilot site planning process. This work is a crucial component to expanding tiger range in Thailand and provides opportunities to identify OECMs across Thailand, especially on government lands not managed for biodiversity conservation. Identification of these lands will serve to ensure habitat connectivity between protected areas, allowing movement by the full range of native species, including tigers.

Bringing back the Roar in Lao PDR

On Global Tiger Day 2023, the Lao Government announced its commitment to develop a National Tiger Action Plan (2022-2034), in partnership with WWF-Laos. The plan slated to launch within the next two years, will provide a focused conservation strategy to overcome the major threats that are driving tiger population declines and will be developed in close consultation with stakeholders including local communities.

WWF-Laos has been supporting the Government of Lao PDR to conduct applied conservation for more than two decades, much of this in Nam Poui National Protected Area, once a home for tigers — spanning 1,900km² in the west of Laos.

“The ambition to recover tigers in Laos goes beyond the single species. The presence of tigers indicates a healthy, thriving ecosystem capable of supporting the country’s rich biodiversity and the millions of people who rely on it. We cannot miss out on this rapidly closing window of opportunity to bring back Asia’s iconic big cat, particularly in areas which still maintain high tiger recovery potential such as Nam Poui National Protected Area, where WWF-Laos has been working for 14 years,” said Dr. Akchousanh Rasphone, Conservation Director, WWF-Laos.

Dr. Akchousanh Rasphone, Conservation Director, WWF-Laos. © Lauren Simmonds / WWF-International

Dr. Akchousanh Rasphone, Conservation Director, WWF-Laos. © Lauren Simmonds / WWF-International

Nam Poui is a prime location for the revival of this iconic species due to its strategic location on the western side of the country with lower levels of industrial snaring and hunting and its proximity to potential source populations of tigers in Thailand. The National Protected Area is under consideration to become an ASEAN Heritage Park, further emphasizing its importance in regional conservation efforts.