According to WWF the population of the Indochinese tiger subspecies had fallen by more than 70% in just over a decade between 2000-10. Six countries—Thailand, Cambodia, China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Vietnam—are now home to only around 350 of these tigers.
The region contains the largest combined area of tiger habitat in the world—equal to roughly the size of France. However rapid development, such as road construction, is fragmenting habitats. Due to decades of rampant poaching many of the landscapes of this region have no tigers left in them.
There is hope in other remaining Indochinese tiger habitats, which have a relatively low human presence and offer a unique opportunity for tiger conservation. The best hope of the survival of this subspecies is in the Dawna Tennaserim landscape on the Thailand-Myanmar border where perhaps 250 tigers remain. WWF considers the forests of the Lower Mekong a restoration landscape with the possibility of reintroducing tigers as the habitat and prey base are there. Southern Laos and Central Vietnam also have potential for recovery of wild tiger populations.
Access to the areas where Indochinese tigers live is often restricted and biologists have only recently been granted limited permits for field surveys. As a result there is still much to learn about the status of these tigers in the wild.
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