Tiger numbers have dropped 95% and now their protection is at imminent risk
Tigers urgently need your help. Only 4,000 remain, and 100 are perishing each year to trafficking alone. The funding that keeps them alive is starting to fall, which could spell their extinction.
Only a century ago, there were around 100,000 tigers alive in the wild. One by one, they’ve been tracked down, snared and slaughtered so their teeth can be carved out as jewellery and their bones ground into powders and pastes.
The only thing keeping the last 4,000 alive was the tireless work of local people who patrol the wild, day in, day out, removing snares and deterring poachers.
But – at the worst possible moment – a funding shortfall is threatening to carve a gaping hole in ranger defences across Southeast Asia.
These local teams can’t do their jobs without equipment. They can’t effectively patrol dense forests with empty first aid kits and GPS units with flat batteries. They can’t dismantle snares with their bare hands. They can’t spend weeks at a time in the jungle without a fair salary that allows them to put food on the table.
To make matters worse, experts believe traffickers stockpiled tiger parts throughout the Covid pandemic. Now, their stockpiles will be running low, which will incentivise poachers to slaughter for new supply.
We cannot let protection slip at this pivotal moment.
To sustain it, we urgently need donations to address the most critical elements of the funding gap, and to enable patrols to maintain protection throughout the potential poaching surge later this year.
What your gift will do:
£3000
could help build a new ranger outpost in an area where tigers are most at risk.
£980
could help buy a patrol motorcycle allowing teams to rapidly respond to calls about a snared tiger or sighting of a poacher - this could mean the difference between life and death for a tiger.
£88
could help buy a new GPS unit, enabling specialist teams to conduct highly coordinated patrols in the most vulnerable areas.
£28
would be enough to help provide a new ranger team with the wire cutters and screwdrivers they need to remove snares, along with the essential training they need to dismantle them safely.
How many tigers are left in the wild?
There are only around 4,000 wild tigers left on the entire planet – some estimates even suggest the number may be as low as 3,000. Shockingly, there are more tigers in captivity in the USA then there are left in the wild.
This presents a crisis not just for tigers, but for the ecosystems they are crucial to.
Their role as top predators makes them the very backbone of ecological stability. They regulate countless populations of animals, keeping all species and their impact in balance – something so sorely absent from much of our modern world.
With 100 tigers being lost each year to trafficking alone, our planet is rapidly running out of tigers left to save.
Why tiger poaching might be about to surge
Poaching remains a constant threat as traffickers attempt to feed the demand for tiger parts. Some believe their bones to have medicinal properties and will grind them down to be used in wine or as a paste. Tiger claws and teeth are used for jewellery, and their skins for decoration.
During the Covid pandemic, some experts believe that selling these products became incredibly difficult for traffickers, so they stockpiled any tiger parts they could secure during that time. Now, however, those stockpiles are running out, so traffickers are turning their attention to pressuring poachers into hunting more wild tigers.
It’s therefore vital that our defences do not let up – for which we are completely reliant on people like you.
How is Fauna & Flora protecting tigers?
Fauna & Flora is saving tigers through four main tactics:
- Anti-poaching forest patrols: We have trained hundreds of rangers to remove snares and deter would-be poachers. We are also working closely with local information networks to support investigations and the prosecution of tiger poachers and traders.
- Human-tiger conflict mitigation: Due to shortage of prey many tigers now find themselves roaming further to find food. We’re helping ensure any encounters with human settlements end peacefully.
- Population monitoring: To assess the impact of the conservation work we carry out with our partners, we set remotely activated camera traps in the forest to monitor tiger population trends – this monitoring supports and informs tiger protection and conservation strategies.
- Engaging local people: We’re working at landscape level to address the threats to tiger habitat, to engage local people in conservation solutions and to develop sustainable livelihood approaches and local enterprises to diversify their income sources.
These methods have seen incredible results. In one key area of Myanmar for instance, the number of snares had fallen from 237 in 2021 to just two in 2023.
It’s crucial that this work isn’t jeopardised by a lack of funding when it’s beginning to see such success.
Day after day, tiger protection teams destroy deadly snares like this one. If their patrols cease - even for a short period - snare numbers will build up rapidly and countless tigers will lose their lives.
Why Fauna & Flora?
Fauna & Flora has been working in tiger conservation for decades. When black market prices rocketed in the early 2000s, the tiger protection units that we helped to establish were able to hold the line against a huge surge in poaching. Many in the conservation world didn’t think this was possible.
The heroic teams of local people responsible for that feat are still working in tiger conservation today, and they have the expertise to address the crisis. We just need to continue supplying them with the right resources to maintain what they’re doing.
If we’re going to save tigers, the experience and connections built up from our extensive work so far will be indispensable. But we cannot do it without your support. Please donate now, and together we can save the tiger.
If Fauna & Flora is unsuccessful in raising its target of £46,402 for this appeal, all donations will still be spent directly on tiger conservation.
Any donations raised above £46,402 will be used on additional tiger conservation and work with other species around the globe.
When I look at contributing to an organization I look for two things: high ratings by a charity watchdog and whether they are doing critical on the ground work that few others are doing. When it comes to the fight to save the remaining endangered tiger populations in the world, Fauna & Flora meets both criteria.
Lori Scinto
Supporter
I can’t thank or praise Fauna & Flora enough for their compassion, vigilance and tireless dedication to preservation. The tiger project needs the extra support and awareness, and it’s only by the sheer hard work of Fauna & Flora that such an important message can possibly reach the masses.
Carl Swann
Supporter
If we do not conserve apex predators such as tigers ecosystems become unbalanced and unsustainable. Fauna & Flora has over a century’s experience of conserving species and their habitats, which is invaluable in conserving tigers.
Alan Dixon
Supporter
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