BEYOND SURVIVAL: SECURING A FUTURE FOR TIGERS AND PEOPLE

Across Asia, tiger conservation has achieved something once considered almost impossible – after decades of decline, tiger populations have started to recover. However, recovery alone does not secure the future of one of the world’s most charismatic species. The next challenge is strengthening coexistence between people and wildlife and developing the financial mechanisms that underpin the transition to resilient landscapes. Through WWF’s Global Tiger Innovation Fund, we’re backing a diverse portfolio of bold ideas from partners, communities and local WWF offices across Asia with an initial investment of AUD1.5m (~USD1 million) to test new ideas that could help make that future possible.

Long before tigers became a flagship species for nature conservation, they occupied a profound place in the human psyche. For thousands of years, tigers have been revered across Asia’s cultures, religions and belief systems – as deities, guardians, ancestral spirits and symbols of power, courage and protection. Tigers appear in ancient art, folklore, poetry and oral tradition, woven into the identities of communities that have shared landscapes with them for generations.

Today, tigers are one of the world’s most celebrated species, sharing their lands and waterways with over 50% of the global human population and inspiring awe far beyond their range. The tiger occupies a rare space where culture, spirituality and conservation intersect. Their survival is about more than preventing the extinction of a species – it is about preserving a living symbol that connects us to our histories, our values and our enduring connection to the natural world.

Beyond their cultural significance, tigers also play a vital role in maintaining the health of the ecosystems they inhabit. As a keystone species, the tiger helps maintain the balance of ecosystems that support countless other species. Flourishing tiger populations are often a sign of healthy, resilient landscapes. These landscapes store carbon, regulate water supplies and provide vital ecosystem services that support millions of people.

Despite their cultural significance and ecological importance, tiger populations have faced immense pressures over the last century. Habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching and human-wildlife conflict pushed tiger populations to the brink of extinction, with tigers now absent from around 95% of their historic range across Asia.

Thanks to efforts from governments, local communities and conservation organisations, global tiger numbers have nearly doubled in the last fifteen years, with ~5,600 wild tigers now roaming through Asia. Although tigers are still Endangered, their recovery in recent years is one of conservation’s most remarkable success stories. But tiger recovery also brings a new challenge: as tiger populations grow, so too does the need to support mechanisms for people and tigers to coexist in their shared landscapes. Coexisting with Tigers is a practical WWF roadmap to help realise equitable, community-centred coexistence between people and tigers. Coexistence is not only about protecting tigers, it is also about strengthening the systems that allow people and wildlife to thrive together. Read the full report here.

The challenge is creating a future where tiger recovery can be sustained and scaled alongside resilient communities and ecosystems. One of the greatest barriers is the lack of long-term funding, with many conservation efforts relying on short-term funding commitments from government and philanthropists. This can make it difficult for communities and local partners to maintain momentum and support outcomes beyond the lifespan of individual projects.

To remain effective in a rapidly changing world, conservation approaches – and the funding systems that support them – must evolve. We need social, economic and financial systems that support community-defined objectives, reward stewardship of nature and create lasting incentives for conservation. This means scaling what works while piloting bold new approaches to overcome some of conservation’s most persistent challenges.

It was this need that inspired the creation of WWF’s Global Tiger Innovation Fund (GTIF): a commitment to finding and testing new approaches that could help secure a future where both tigers and communities can coexist. Drawing on decades of tiger conservation experience across Asia, one message emerged consistently: the challenge is creating the systems that enable communities, governments and investors to work together in support of community-defined priorities, conservation and long-term stewardship of nature.

GTIF backs bold, locally-led ideas with the potential to transform how conservation is delivered, financed and sustained. Guided by WWF’s commitment to inclusive conservation, every project must align with local aspirations and centre community voices in decision-making and benefit-sharing, because the people living alongside tigers are among its most important stewards.

GTIF has committed its first AUD1.5m (~USD1 million) to innovation projects in Bhutan, Thailand and India. Selected through a competitive process, these projects were chosen for their potential to address key barriers to long-term tiger conservation, support coexistence approaches between people and wildlife, and generate evidence for strategies that can deliver lasting impact across diverse tiger landscapes. Although each project tackles a different aspect of coexistence, all aim to create solutions that can be adapted, expanded and sustained over time. To read about our funded projects, visit our website and be on the lookout for the stories we will share from these projects in the coming year.

As we learn from the first round of projects, our ambition is to mobilise more capital, support more innovators and accelerate ideas that can strengthen coexistence between people and tigers, respond to locally defined priorities, and help sustain tiger recovery across resilient landscapes.

Partner Acknowledgement

Certain GTIF projects are being implemented in collaboration with WWF's partners in the Tiger Conservation Coalition. WWF is a founding member of the Tiger Conservation Coalition (TCC), a partnership of organisations united by a shared ambition: securing a future where tigers and people can thrive together. In 2024, the TCC joined with the Royal Government of Bhutan and other partners to launch an ambitious goal to mobilise USD1bn over the coming decade to conserve tigers and their landscapes. GTIF plays a unique role within this vision by testing approaches that can later be scaled through governments, investors and other funding partners.

Funding Acknowledgement

The fund was made possible through the extraordinary generosity of the late Marjorie Kristiansen. Inspired by a lifelong love of nature shared with her husband Kris, whose fascination with tigers began while growing up in India, the gift Marjorie included in her Will helped catalyse the creation of GTIF. Today, her legacy is creating new opportunities for communities, conservation practitioners and partners to reimagine what tiger conservation can achieve.