Tigers are symbols of all that is powerful, mystical, and beautiful in nature. As an apex species, they reflect the health of the ecosystems in which they live and on which people depend. Unfortunately, adverse human activities have driven wild tigers to the brink of extinction. Over the past century, their numbers fell from 100,000 to about 3,500 today. These remaining tigers live in small refuges scattered across their once-vast domain in Asia. Without immediate, urgent, and transformational
actions, wild tigers will disappear forever. More than 250 experts on tigers and participants from 13 of the 14 tiger range countries met in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 27-30 October 2009.