By Vijay Jayaraj

Radical organizations such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion routinely blame the fossil fuel industry and rapid industrialization for damaging ecosystems.

One such claim is that climate change is killing polar bears and myriad other species. “Climate change could wipe out one of world’s largest tiger strongholds,” claimed a headline at EarthDay.org. But how true are these assertions?

As an apex predator and keystone species, tigers play a crucial role in maintaining the health and balance of their ecosystems. Contrary to the fearmongering, their populations are increasing, even as warmer temperatures and higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have helped increase forests within their habitats.

Once roaming across vast swaths of Asia, tiger numbers dwindled dramatically due to habitat loss and poaching. However, the decline has been reversed, thanks to conservation efforts.

The tiger population in Bhutan, a small Himalayan nation wedged between China and India, has increased by 27% since the census in 2015. At least 131 tigers roam freely in the forests and hills of the picturesque nation. A study revealed that tigers breed at various elevations throughout the nation, indicating that the regional recovery may be experienced in various geographical pockets.

The Bhutan government and the Tiger Conservation Coalition have committed to spending $1 billion for the conservation of tigers in the region. The country is a partner in a cross-border tiger conservation program with India in the Transboundary Manas Conservation Area (TRAMCA). India’s tiger population has doubled in recent decades.

The World Wildlife Fund says, “Bhutan has implemented a suite of strategies to increase wild tiger populations, from adopting a global conservation tool that sets best practices and standards to manage wild tiger sites to equipping rangers with improved monitoring and reporting technology to make them more effective in stopping wildlife crime.”

Note that Bhutan’s success in preserving these majestic beasts has nothing to do with climate. Over-hunting and poaching are the culprits, not the burning of coal.

Another Himalayan nation sharing borders with China, Nepal, has also registered a phenomenal increase in its tiger population. The number of wild tigers in the country more than doubled to an estimated 355 individuals by 2022 from a mere 121 in 2010, according to a survey, which identified adult tigers based on distinctive stripe patterns that are comparable to a person’s fingerprint,

Even China, whose image has been tarnished by controversies surrounding human rights abuses and environmental degradation, has had remarkable success in the conservation of the Amur, or Siberian,  tiger, a native of Russia and China.

Spanning 14,000 square kilometers, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park (NCTLNP), has 70 Siberian tigers, up from the 27 tigers living there before 2017. The NCTLNP, Sanjiangyuan National Park, the Giant Panda National Park, Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park and Wuyishan National Park together represent 230,000 square kilometers of protected area, which will be part of what China plans to establish as the world’s largest national park system by 2035.

Advancement in satellite technology increasingly contributes to the success of conservation initiatives. Scientists funded by NASA’s Ecological Conservation program have developed a tool using Google Earth Engine and NASA Earth observations to obtain data for tiger management.

An initial assessment has revealed large forested areas in China, Nepal, Bhutan, India, and Southeast Asia where tigers can be repopulated. For instance in India, tigers have been relocated to new habitats—such as Sahyadri Tiger Reserve, where I worked as a wildlife ecologist—to expand their territory. The latest NASA tool could be used to replicate this across Asia.

Clearly, conserving large mammal populations and the health of forests depends on successful conservation strategies and not on attempts to control an essentially uncontrollable climate.

This commentary was first published at Bizpac Review on May 31, 2024

Vijay Jayaraj is a Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, Virginia. He holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, U.K.