What can you do to help tiger conservation?
1. Encourage a young person to respect and admire tigers by helping them with a school project or develop a specific intertest in tiger conservation awareness. Encourage them to tell their friends and others. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to inspire the next Greta Thunberg for tiger conservation and even better if this were a young Chinese pen friend?
2.Be a responsible tourist and photographer and visit tiger reserves but travel with tour operators that support the communities that live alongside the tiger reserve and ensure your ecotourist dollars go to help tigers. Be respectful while you are there of the tigers and their habitat, and ensure your driver does the same.
3.Purchase only forest-friendly products – ideally those with the label of The Forest Stewardship Council which means the product is from a responsibly managed forest. This is where trees are harvested legally, highly hazardous pesticides are not used, the rights of indigenous people are protected, and help save the habitat of tigers. This is not trivial – The WWF discovered a link between the use of toilet paper on supermarket shelves in the United States and the destruction of tropical forests and tiger habitat in Sumatra.
4.Increase awareness about tigers and tiger persecution to bring social pressure on people that use tiger products. Do this within your social circles by donating and or becoming associated with the social media of the World Wildlife Fund, Panthera, Smithsonian Tiger Conservation Fund, Born Free and National Tiger Sanctuary. Post your photos on social media and highlight the issues of persecution and habitat destruction and hashtag the organizations doing good work.
5.Adopt a tiger with WWF or Born free where you can symbolically adopt a tiger for yourself or another and help fund the conservation work. There are different adoption packages available, ranging from as little as $5 a month and it is a great way to fire the enthusiasm of a young person.