ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[Rishi]

Urbanization & migration to cities may boost tigers, study finds

• Asia is undergoing a demographic transition, as populations grow more slowly and become more urbanized.
• Depending on policy decisions around migration, urbanization, education & economics, trend toward urbanization could provide more space for tiger numbers to rebound.
• A team of researchers modeled five different “socioeconomic pathways” for the continent, showing that a focus on sustainable living could result in fewer than 40 million people living within the tiger’s range by 2100, 30% less than in 2010. But that number could also balloon to 100 million if countries veer away from international cooperation & poor management of urbanization.
• In April 2018, Sanderson and Walston demonstrated that the global shift toward city living could reshape conservation. Instead of being built around stemming the hemorrhage of species loss, conservation could be focused on recovery, they wrote in a study published in the journal BioScience.
  

*This image is copyright of its original author

Researchers from a prominent non-profit feel that Asia's increasing urbanisation and rapid demographic transition could mean that tiger range areas would be more free of people. For example; 50% of India's population is expected to be urban by 2050.

“If we want a world with tigers, forests, and wildness to persist beyond the 21st century, conservation needs to join forces with groups working to alleviate poverty, enhance education for girls, reduce meat consumption, and build sustainable cities,” said Joe Walston, a co-author of the study and vice president of field conservation with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

“Urbanisation and the subsequent human demographic transition is arguably the most important historical trend shaping the future of conservation. How that transition plays out is not pre-determined. Rather, it depends on the policy decisions that governments, and the societies they represent, take with respect to fundamental matters such as urban governance, education, economic reform and the movement of people and trade goods. These decisions matter for us and tigers too,” says Eric W Sanderson from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), who has co-authored the study Implications of the shared socioeconomic pathways for tiger (Panthera tigris) conservation. It was published in the journal Biological Conservation.

Sources:
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/urba...tudy-63136
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/urbani...udy-finds/ Reply