The reserves for tigers in Asia could support more than 10,000 wild tigers – three times the current number – if they were managed as areas on a large scale in a position to ensure the sites of coupling is what supports the study “A Landscape-Based Conservation Strategy to Double the Wild Tiger Population “published in the journal Conservation Letters .

The number of wild tigers has decreased from about 100,000 in the early twentieth century to about 3200 due to poaching, habitat destruction and conflict man-tiger. Most of the remaining animals are scattered in small isolated pockets scattered in the 13 Asian countries.

“Policies for the conservation of the tiger combine biodiversity conservation and management aware of the territory,” said John Seidensticker of the Smithsonian Conservation Research Institute. “By saving the tiger we save all the plants and animals that live in the same areas.”

The authors found that the 20 priority areas for conservation with the highest probability of long-term survival could support more than 10,500 individuals, including 3400 females. Historical examples studies provide further evidence that the doubling or tripling of the population are possible if you use large areas.

By contrast, as shown by the two main reserves in India, the lack of connection between the protected areas may preclude the recovery of populations. The tigers are in fact disappeared from the Sariska reserve and Cream in 2005 and 2009 because of poaching and recolonize it was not possible because of the lack of corridors of habitat that connects them. Consequently, we have carried out a forced transfer of some specimens.

But poaching and habitat loss are not the only threats in the next decade in Asia are expected investment of 7.5 trillion dollars in infrastructure projects that threaten the lands of the tiger. Focusing only on sites already protected rather than on large areas could be wrongly considered by policy makers as a way to continue with these projects outside those areas, without the possibility of interconnecting corridors.
“Following the instructions of the Declaration of St. Petersburg, Nepal has committed to doubling the number of wild tigers by 2022,” said Deepak Bohara, Minister of Forests and Soil Conservation of the Asian country. “This analysis shows that this can be done and not only in Nepal but in all areas inhabited by the tiger.”