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A landscape-based conservation strategy to double the wild tiger population

  1. Eric Wikramanayake1,
  2. Eric Dinerstein1,
  3. John Seidensticker2,
  4. Susan Lumpkin2,
  5. Bivash Pandav3,
  6. Mahendra Shrestha4,
  7. Hemanta Mishra5,
  8. Jonathan Ballou2,
  9. A.J.T. Johnsingh6,
  10. Igor Chestin7,
  11. Sunarto Sunarto8,
  12. Phuntsho Thinley9,
  13. Kanchan Thapa8,
  14. Guangshun Jiang10,
  15. Sivananthan Elagupillay11,
  16. Hemanta Kafley12,
  17. Narendra Man Babu Pradhan13,
  18. Karma Jigme14,
  19. Seng Teak15,
  20. Peter Cutter16,
  21. Md. Abdul Aziz17,
  22. Utin Than16

Article first published online: 25 JAN 2011

DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2010.00162.x

Issue

Conservation Letters

Conservation Letters

Volume 4, Issue 3, pages 219–227, June/July 2011

Additional Information

How to Cite

Wikramanayake, E., Dinerstein, E., Seidensticker, J., Lumpkin, S., Pandav, B., Shrestha, M., Mishra, H., Ballou, J., Johnsingh, A.J.T., Chestin, I., Sunarto, S., Thinley, P., Thapa, K., Jiang, G., Elagupillay, S., Kafley, H., Pradhan, N. M. B., Jigme, K., Teak, S., Cutter, P., Aziz, Md. A. and Than, U. (2011), A landscape-based conservation strategy to double the wild tiger population. Conservation Letters, 4: 219–227. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2010.00162.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    World Wildlife Fund, United States, Washington, DC 20037, USA

  2. 2

    Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC 20013, USA

  3. 3

    World Wildlife Fund Nepal Program, Kathmandu, Nepal

  4. 4

    Save the Tiger Fund, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Washington, DC 20005, USA

  5. 5

    The Bridge Fund, Vienna, VA 22181, USA

  6. 6

    Nature Conservation Foundation, Bangalore and WWF-India, Delhi, India

  7. 7

    Russian Federation 109240 Moscow, Nikoloyamskaya Street 19 bld.3, Russia

  8. 8

    Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA

  9. 9

    Jigme Dorji National Park, Department of Forests & Park Services, Bhutan

  10. 10

    World Wildlife Fund, China Program and College of Wildlife Resources, Northeast Forestry University, P.R. China

  11. 11

    Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

  12. 12

    Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia 65211, USA

  13. 13

    Chitwan National Park, Department of National Parks and Wildlife, Nepal

  14. 14

    Department of Forests & Park Services, Thimpu, Bhutan

  15. 15

    WWF Cambodia, #54, St. 352, Boeung Keng Kang I, P.O. Box 2467, Chamkarmon Phnom Penh, Cambodia

  16. 16

    WWF Greater Mekong Programme, Bangkok, Thailand

  17. 17

    Jahangirnagar University & Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh

*Correspondence Eric Dinerstein, World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20037, USA. Tel: 202-495-4616; Fax: 202-293-9211. E-mail: eric.dinerstein@wwfus.org

  1. Editor Javier Simonetti

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 7 JUN 2011
  2. Article first published online: 25 JAN 2011
  3. Received , 7 October 2010, Accepted, 16 December 2010

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Keywords:

  • Connectivity;
  • conservation;
  • corridors;
  • metapopulations;
  • tigers;
  • tiger ecology;
  • tiger landscapes

Abstract

In an unprecedented response to the rapid decline in wild tiger populations, the Heads of Government of the 13 tiger range countries endorsed the St. Petersburg Declaration in November 2010, pledging to double the wild tiger population. We conducted a landscape analysis of tiger habitat to determine if a recovery of such magnitude is possible. The reserves in 20 priority tiger landscapes can potentially support >10,000 tigers, almost thrice the current estimate. However, most core reserves where tigers breed are small and land-use change in rapidly developing Asia threatens to increase reserve and population isolation. Maintaining population viability and resilience will depend upon a landscape approach to manage tigers as metapopulations. Thus, both site-level protection and landscape-scale interventions to secure habitat corridors are simultaneous imperatives. Co-benefits, such as payment schemes for carbon and other ecosystem services, should be employed as strategies to mainstream landscape conservation in tiger habitat into development processes.

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