Biodiversity
The tiger is alive!
A success story shows that international cooperation in nature conservation is worthwhile. On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), KfW is funding a tiger conservation project that spans six countries.
Until now, this has enabled the tiger population at the project locations to increase by 40 percent. Around 95,000 people have benefited from the project since it began, for example through income opportunities in ecotourism.
In the impressive mangrove forests of India and Bangladesh, the tiger population has demonstrably recovered thanks to the protective measures.
They are said to have mystical strength: tigers stand for courage, determination and independence. Their habitat is in Asia. These large predatory cats used to be widespread across the entire continent, from the Siberian taiga to the Indonesian islands. There were once said to be around 100,000 of them. But a few decades ago their population began to shrink. By around 97 percent in 100 years.
Then environmental protection organisations began to raise the alarm because they saw the tiger as seriously threatened with extinction. The animal appeared on the International Union for Conservation of Nature‘s Red List as an endangered species. Poaching, loss and fragmentation of their habitats, and fewer prey opportunities caused them problems.
This danger has not yet been averted. But there is reason for hope. Because populations are increasing again. The number of tigers reached its lowest point around ten to 15 years ago, when only 3,200 wild cats were roaming the wild in Asia. Today, the Global Tiger Forum counts over 4,500 specimens again.
The projects closely involve the local population, for example in population monitoring, educational work and reducing human-wildlife conflicts.
This good news is primarily due to the countries affected, which have designated or maintained nature reserves and thus offered the tiger protected spaces. This was important because tigers are not only iconic animals, but also so-called umbrella species: they secure entire communities in an ecosystem. Since they place high demands on their environment, they guarantee the survival of numerous other species. Conversely, their decline signals that an ecosystem is at risk.
The international community deserves a large share of this success. Nature protection organisations such as IUCN and donors such as Germany support the tiger countries in their efforts. On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, KfW is funding a major project called the "Integrated Tiger Habitat Conservation Programme" (ITHCP). It has been running for ten years, is scheduled to continue until the end of 2027 and covers the six countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Nepal. KfW has spent 47.5 million euros in grants on this, and partner organisations have contributed 13 million.
Children and young people learn about the importance of tiger and nature conservation and what they can do to help. They also learn how they can avoid dangerous encounters with tigers.
In short, ITHCP is not only doing something for the tigers and their habitats, but also for the people around them through a clever mix of different measures. Specifically, it is about better monitoring of tiger populations, reducing conflicts between humans and animals, more effective nature conservation and the involvement and support of local residents.
A recent evaluation showed that the tiger population has increased by an average of 40 percent across all project locations. The better protected areas cover a total of around 69,000 km2; that is about 1.5 times the area of Bavaria. In addition, around 95,000 people also benefited from the project; they were able to open up new income opportunities for themselves, for example in ecotourism, agroforestry or sustainable rubber production.
The projects closely involve the local population, for example in population monitoring, educational work and reducing human-wildlife conflicts.
One of ITHCP's project areas is in the Sundarbans on the Bay of Bengal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the border region between India and Bangladesh. The famous Bengal tigers live there in huge mangrove forests, the largest in the world. Sundarbans literally means beautiful forest because it is one of the most species-rich on earth.
Nature conservation also plays an important role here. In 2020, for example, Bangladesh significantly increased the protected area on its centres to more than 50 percent. This creates additional space for the Bengal big cat. Restricting poaching also helps - in two ways: Firstly, fewer tigers are shot, whose bones are considered to be beneficial to health and increase potency in many Asian countries. Secondly, this increases the number of prey animals such as deer and wild boar. The less food tigers find in nature, the less often they reproduce and the more likely they are to attack people. According to scientific data from Bangladesh, reversing this trend has been successful. The number of prey animals has increased significantly, by roughly two thirds.
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KfW Development Bank supports numerous projects in the biodiversity sector. It is committed to protecting tropical forests, species and the oceans.
Read moreAnother goal is to avoid contact and conflict between humans and tigers and to have aid teams on site that can intervene quickly. To this end, volunteers are now forming “Village Tiger Response Teams” and “Forest Tiger Response Teams”; they supplement the work of rangers and provide information to the population. There are also five new education centres in the Sundarbans that impart knowledge about the importance of biodiversity in general and tigers in particular.
The effort seems to pay off. A camera-based evaluation that is currently being carried out shows a clearly positive trend in the Sundarbans: There are more tigers there again, that much is clear, even if the result on their exact number is still pending.
Similar trends are being reported by other Asian tiger countries such as India, Bhutan and Nepal. This means that the disastrous development has been stopped. The tiger is alive!
Published on KfW Stories on 24 October 2024.
The described project contributes to the following United Nationsʼ Sustainable Development Goals
Goal 15: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss
Biodiversity loss is increasing, and with it, the basis of our lives is being rapidly destroyed. According to estimates, 60 per cent of the worldʼs ecosystems have declined or are not used sustainably. 75 per cent of genetic diversity in agricultural crops has been lost since 1990. More than half of the rain forests have been destroyed in favour of producing palm oil, biofuels, animal feed and meat.
All United Nations member states adopted the 2030 Agenda in 2015. At its heart is a list of 17 goals for sustainable development, known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our world should become a place where people are able to live in peace with each other in ways that are ecologically compatible, socially just, and economically effective.
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