Tiger Conservation Conference 2024

• Bhutan is hosting the Sustainable Finance for Tiger Landscapes Conference on Earth Day 2024 to mobilize $1 billion in new funding over the next decade for the preservation of tiger landscapes across Asia.
• The two-day conference will be hosted by Bhutan under the patronage of the country’s queen, Jet sun Pema Wang chuck.
• It seeks to mobilise the aforementioned amount in new funding over 10 years for the preservation of tiger landscapes, which are vital to maintaining biodiversity, sequestering carbon, supplying resources to over 100 million people, and ensuring the overall health of the planet.
• Co-organized by the Royal Government of Bhutan and the Tiger Conservation Coalition.
• The conference will include expert panels leading insightful discussions on sustainable finance, linkages with the United Nations’ Global Biodiversity Framework, and the role of public-private partnerships in safeguarding tiger landscapes.

ABOUT TIGER CONSERVATION COALITION

• It was formed ahead of the 2022 Year of the Tiger.
• It comprises a diverse group of tiger conservation organisations and multilateral agencies that support tiger range countries in realising their long-term tiger conservation ambitions and delivering impact for nature and people from the local to the global levels.

ROLE OF TIGERS IN BIODIVERSITY

• The tiger is the largest felid in the world. An apex predator, it plays a significant role in the structure and function of the ecosystems on which humans and wildlife rely.
• Tigers are a “landscape” species, needing large areas with diverse habitats, free from human disturbance and rich in prey.
• According to Tiger Conservation Coalition Chair and Lead of WWF Tigers Alive, Stuart Chapman, Landscapes with wild tigers are healthy and vibrant ecosystems which are critically important in a climate changing world. Securing these tiger landscapes through sustainable financing will bring multiple benefits to the people and wildlife across Asia.

GLOBAL TIGERS STATUS

• Data suggested a potential 40 per cent increase in tiger numbers, from 3,200 in 2015 to 4,500 in 2022, despite extreme threats. This represented the first potential climb in the species’ numbers in decades.

TIGERS STATUS IN INDIA

• Tiger population rose to 3,167 in 2022, up from 2,967 in 2018.
• India hosts around 75% of the global tiger population.
• Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers.