Following the press release by the University of Kent, on our recent research, several news portals carried the article and many versions of it. There were two pieces that stood out:

1. Relocating Humans for Tiger Conservation is a Win for Both by Jason G. Goldman in Conservation Magazine 

2. Would You Ditch Your House to Help Out a Tiger? by Richard Conniff in takepart and on Conniffs strangebehaviors blog

Presented below is the release University of Kent made on our recent articles

Research from the University of Kent has revealed that people in the western Terai Arc Landscape, India, are prepared to relocate their homes and families to help conserve tigers.

Undertaken by researchers from the University’s Durrell Institute for Conservation and Ecology (DICE), the research evaluates the ecological and habitat needs of wildlife in the region and the socio-economic needs and priorities of the local forest-dependent community, known as the Gujjars.

The research aims to provide an objective framework for conservationists and policymakers to prioritise efforts in order to reach their goal of doubling tiger numbers by 2022.

Described in two published papers, the research provides evidence that recovery of wild tiger populations can be achieved hand-in-hand with meeting the livelihood aspirations of the Gujjars.

In the first part of the research, the team found that by reintroducing tigers into a section of the landscape that suffers from a lack of connectivity to high density tiger populations, as well as carrying out targeted actions to recover important tiger prey at specific sites across the landscape, there was the potential to increase tiger populations by around 68%.

Results from the second part showed an overwhelming preference among Gujjars households interviewed for resettlement outside the forests. This signalled an unexpected opportunity to expand inviolate habitat for tigers in a specific human-dominated landscape by meeting larger livelihood issues for local people, such as better access to education and health services.

Identifying realistic recovery targets and conservation actions for tigers in a human-dominated landscape using spatially explicit densities of wild prey and their determinants

Wild tiger Panthera tigris populations have reduced to < 3600 and occupy a mere 7% of their historic range. Recognizing this decline, heads of the 13 range countries convened at the Tiger Summit in 2010 and set an aspirational goal of doubling the population of wild tigers by the year 2022. While large-scale initiatives such as this are among the most effective responses to guide conservation investment, they do not identify targets and actions for site-level conservation. Therefore in this study, we estimate the spatially explicit densities of an assemblage of wild ungulates across a landscape of multiple-uses to evaluate landscape-wide conditions for tigers and identify opportunities for recovery, consistent with global conservation targets.

In this study we carry out one such exercise where we estimate densities of 6 ungulate prey species across a landscape managed under 3 land management categories to predict potential carrying capacities for tigers. Our results indicate that the western TAL that currently supports 2 (2–7) and 225 (199–256) tigers across two fragmented sections of the landscape is capable of supporting 82 (62–106) and 299 (225–377) tigers, representing a c. 68% increase to the existing population. Based on our findings we recommend that this systematic approach of setting realistic population targets and prioritizing spatially explicit recovery strategies should aid in developing effective landscape conservation plans towards achieving global tiger conservation targets and should ideally precede pledging investments to recover tiger populations.