There Is Still Time to Save the Tiger

This new crisis galvanized the conservation community. It became clear that saving the tiger was not a battle to be won once and forever, but a continual process of holding old threats in check and preventing new ones from emerging as conditions change.

India addressed this crisis with the 1994 formation of the Global Tiger Forum, an attempt to engage the international community in Tiger conservation.

The U.S. Congress passed “The Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act of 1994” to assist conservation programs in nations with Rhino and Tiger populations. Conservation organizations, such as the World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society, launched new programs and re-energized existing efforts devoted to Tigers.

And new conservation organizations emerged, here and in Tiger range states, to help. Perhaps most important, in the last few years all of these various players have recognized the need for co-operation among themselves.

Where a century ago more than 80,000 Tigers roamed Asia, because of trophy hunting and habitat loss fewer than 4,500 exist today. The newest threat is poaching; since the rise of economic success and prosperity in Asia, the demand for traditional oriental “tonics” and “remedies” using the body parts of endangered species has skyrocketed.

A live Tiger is precious and priceless, but a dead Tiger is worth $100,000. The Chinese revere the strength and power of the Tiger, but are “revering” the Tiger to death.

According to the Fall 1997 Western Canada Wilderness Committee newsletter, “China has hunted the South China Tiger from an estimated population of 4,000 in the 1960’s down to the pitiful 20 today”.