Tigers get a stimulus plan(remaining populations. The surviv...)

The survival of many tiger populations depends on the countries where tigers occur acting in concert. Building consensus is an essential ingredient in securing a sustainable, long-term future for tigers.

"We welcome the launch of the Tiger Futures project as a first step in building consensus and early action for tiger conservation," said Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group. "The project recognizes that conservation organizations need to act in concert. We also understand that the survival of many tiger populations will depend on actions taken by the governments of the countries where tigers live."

"The struggle to prevent tigers from going extinct is emblematic of the monumental crisis facing biodiversity globally. We are determined to contribute to the protection of the tigers with this new initiative, but we will also start looking at the whole range of threatened species and the ecosystems they depend. Healthy ecosystems, in turn, provide for livelihoods and safety nets for rural people across the developing world. Therefore, starting with threatened species, we can trigger positive outcomes much beyond the reach of the original investments," said Monique Barbut, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF.

Today's announcement was made at New York's Rockefeller University at a symposium celebrating the career of renowned WCS conservationist George Schaller, who pioneered studies of tigers in India in the 1960s.

Tigers originally ranged over most of Asia, from the Caspian Sea in central Asia through Java and the Russian Far East. Tigers are now estimated to occupy about seven percent of their former historical range. They now only occur in relatively fragmented areas in South and Southeast Asia, with a few small populations in the Russian Far East and northeastern China. Within this reduced range, tiger populations with reasonable reproduction rates probably occupy only about 10 percent of the rem
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