Saving the Last Tigers of Asia

One of the most difficult challenges for global conservation is repopulating a species facing extinction in areas now largely populated by humans, with their roads, dams, land clearing, and destruction of habitats. Thailand is one of the most challenging countries for tiger conservation, with only two forest areas left in the country, the Western Forest Complex, or WEFCON, and the Dong Pae Yen Ko Yai Forest Complex, or DPKY, a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 2005. The rosewood wars we fought from 2015 saw tens of thousands of illegal loggers in Top Lan National Park, the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. These loggers spent weeks in the forest, cutting down Thailand's last rosewood trees to sell to Chinese furniture makers. They also killed wildlife for food, as they destroyed the forest. The decline of tigers directly correlated to forest destruction during a decade of illegal logging. Global Conservation WCS Thailand and the Top Lan World Heritage Park authorities worked for five years deploying Global Park Defense to stop illegal logging and wildlife poaching, leading to over 1,200 arrests. Today, due to this coordinated effort, the rosewood wars are over, and we are now focused on regaining the forest's loss from land grabbing, clearing for tourism, and agriculture. We are supporting Global Park Defense to protect the adjacent Pangsaida Wildlife Sanctuary, and now the core tiger habitat in the Thung Yai Hua Kha Kheng UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Western Forest Complex. In an exciting win for tiger recovery in Thailand, recent camera trap sightings show that tigers are now returning to Top Lan National Park, where they had not been seen for years. Because of the protection of the forests and their habitat against illegal loggers and hunters, now tigers feel safe again to return to Thailand's forests and bear offspring. By helping Thailand win the rosewood wars, Global Conservation has protected critical habitat for all species in these UNESCO World Heritage Parks, including the last tigers, elephants, Asiatic bears, clouded leopards, Bangtang, Guar, Sambar, Malayan sun bears, hornbills, and hundreds of other threatened and endangered species. The deployment of our Global Park Defense systems in Top Lan World Heritage has resulted in a significant reduction in wildlife poaching inside the park. After the deployment of cellular trail cams in Top Lan against rosewood poachers, the national government purchased hundreds of trail cams for all national parks in the country to help with surveillance against illegal hunting and logging. This success story is a model for conservation efforts in national parks and UNESCO World Heritage Sites all over the planet. So Global Park Defense starts with a threat assessment, planning the park's protection, and then putting in surveillance systems so that we're having real-time feedback and photos coming back from the field of who's entering the park illegally. Also working with the communities to build informant networks, get them involved in the community echo guards as patrols with us, and they start taking heart to the park, why it's important for them to protect it. And then really important is getting sustainable financing in so that either through red credits, government funding, other co-funders, that there's funding after we leave to continue the work that we're doing. Global Park Defense provides the technology, systems, and training for park-wide surveillance, smart patrolling, rapid response, and legal support for arrests and prosecutions of illegal loggers and poachers. In 2020, Thai officials caught two tiger poachers from Vietnam with body parts and videos of their kills on their cell cameras in Wefcom. Global Conservation-supported ranger teams confiscated a large cache of rifles used for hunting in the national park, often for endangered tigers. Step by step, Global Conservation is working to stop all tiger poaching in the World Heritage Parks of Thailand, home to the last 200 Indo-Chinese tigers. With populations now dwindling to unsustainable levels, our efforts are more important than ever. Working with local communities, training residents to be rangers and eco-guards, while also providing new employment opportunities in ecotourism is helping to shift locals away from hunting, logging, and destructive extraction industries. We must support Thailand to protect its critical habitats and the wildlife that live there now, and encourage the government to ensure long-term protection to maintain these conservation gains. As there is again peace in the forests of Thailand, there will be space for tigers to feed, breed, and repopulate. As forests regenerate from decades of fragmentation and unplanned development, communities will enjoy the benefits of a healthy ecosystem for generations to come. Please support Global Conservation by visiting our website. With your help, we are saving the new wild and stopping the extinction of tigers in Asia.