At least one-third of the protected areas in the world considered to be the ‘safe heavens for the endangered tigers’, may soon lose their majestic cats to poaching, a survey has found.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which along with its partners, conducted a survey of the world’s most critical tiger sites, has called for more funds and better management strategy at these protected areas that are home to endangered tigers.

If needed steps are not taken at the earliest, the global goal to double wild tiger numbers by the year 2022 will remain a dream. Numbers of wild tigers are now thought to be fewer than 4,000.

“One-third of tiger conservation areas surveyed is at severe risk of losing the highly endangered species. The report shows there is urgent need for better management of and more funds for the protected areas that are home to tigers,” said the WWF.

The numbers of tigers stood around 100,000 a century ago, but poaching, habitat loss, and conflict with humans has decimated the population by approximately 97 percent.

The survey is the largest ever assessment of tiger conservation areas and includes places that are home to 70 percent of the world’s wild tigers. However, only 13 per cent of those areas were found to meet global standards of tiger conservation.

“Over a third of sites surveyed had major management issues, leaving the tiger populations in these areas at risk of rapid decline or being lost entirely. The majority of these sites are in Southeast Asia, where they receive low levels of Government funding – a situation which needs to change,” as per the survey.

Despite poaching being one of the greatest threats faced by big cats, 85 per cent of the areas surveyed do not have staff capacity to patrol sites effectively, and 61 per cent of the areas in Southeast Asia have very limited anti-poaching enforcement.

The survey was driven by 11 leading conservation organisations, including WWF, and tiger range governments that are part of the CA|TS Partnership (Conservation Assured Tiger Standards). CA|TS is a set of criteria which allows tiger sites to check if their management will lead to successful tiger conservation.

Of the 112 global sites surveyed, however, it was found only 12.5 percent are currently able to meet the full CA|TS criteria. Half of the assessed sites(52.5 per cent) report fairly strong management although there are improvements needed. The remaining 35 per cent (the majority of which are in Southeast Asia) have relatively weak management.

Basic needs such as enforcement against poaching, engaging local communities and managing conflict between people and wildlife, remain weak for all areas surveyed.

“Ineffective management of tiger conservation areas leads to tiger extinction. To halt and reverse the decline of wild tigers, effective management is thus the single most important action. To achieve this, long-term investment in tiger conservation areas is absolutely essential, and this is a responsibility that must be led by tiger range governments,” said SP Yadav, Assistant Secretary General, Global Tiger Forum.

John Barker, Head of India and China Programmes at WWF said: “It’s clear that many protected areas are not living up to their name. Far from being a safe haven for tigers, there is a real risk that they will be lost forever from a huge number of sites.”

Low investment from governments in Southeast Asia was stated as one reason for the lack of management of these supposedly ‘protected areas’.

To secure a future for wild tigers, functional connectivity between tiger habitats is essential. Through an effective CA|TS framework, robust management plans for the tiger habitats and corridors can be prepared and security protocols can be established, said Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO of WWF-India.