Thailand’s Tiger Turnaround Contradicts Climate Fear-mongering

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By Vijay Jayaraj

Thailand’s protected forest areas are home to the Indochinese tiger, known by its biological name Panthera tigris corbetti. Recent population numbers suggest that the tiger is making a comeback.

Tiger populations in two of Thailand’s wildlife sanctuaries grew from 42 in 2012 to about 100 in 2022. The resurgence is one more conservation success story that defies the climate-obsessed mainstream media’s doomsday narrative, which has been blaming anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions for real and fabricated declines in animal numbers and even outright extinctions.

Thailand’s Tiger Population Makes a Turnaround

Over the past century, the Panthera tigris has seen catastrophic declines in both its population (96 percent), and habitat (95 percent). The primary cause of the drop in tiger populations in this area has not been climate change but rather hunting.

Because their body parts — such as skins, bones, and organs — are highly valued in traditional medicine and on the black market, poachers have targeted tigers. Both a domestic and international demand for tiger body parts as fuelled a thriving illegal wildlife trade.

However, efforts to save the tiger have benefited greatly from Thailand’s establishment of the Western Forest Complex (WEFCCOM). The WEFCOM is the largest remaining forest tract in mainland Southeast Asia. Spanning nearly 7,000 square miles, the complex includes 11 national parks, six wildlife sanctuaries and 17 contiguous protected areas.

Tiger numbers in Thungyai and Huai Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuaries — two core sanctuaries within the WEFCOM — more than doubled between 2012 and 2022 because of the increased protection. Authorities in Thailand attribute the effective enhancement of tiger habitation areas to the application of cutting-edge technology and intelligent patrol systems.

It is also important to note that Tiger conservation efforts have also resulted in recovery of the populations of other species in the region. Other felines benefiting from the initiative include leopards, marbled cats, fishing cats, Asian golden cats, leopard cats, flat-headed cats, and jungle cats. In fact, the protection of tigers contributes to the remarkable wildlife diversity of WEFCOM, which includes over 150 mammals, 90 reptiles, 40 amphibians, and 108 fish species.

Stop Blaming Anthropogenic Climate Change

The success stories of Tiger conservation in Thailand (and other places like India) show that declines in wildlife populations, especially of large mammals, have been the result of Illegal hunting driven by economic incentives and organized crime networks.

Rhinoceroses in Asia and Africa were hunted down for their horns and skin.

Elephants in Africa and India are killed in large numbers for their ivory, a highly profitable commodity. Declines in South America’s jaguar population were caused by hunting them for their pelts and bones.

Tens of millions of American bison that had successfully adapted to dramatic climatic changes over many thousands of years once roamed the Great Plains in massive herds.

But they were hunted almost to extinction by the late 1800s. And like tigers, their numbers recovered after conservation programs were introduced. Bisons now number in the hundreds of thousands.

As for climate change, recent increases in global average temperatures and concentrations of atmospheric CO₂ have contributed to a greening of Earth, a fact that is supported by NASA.

This is why there is growth in India’s forest area, which in turn aided in the doubling of the Bengal tiger population during the last two decades. In Thailand, tree cover increased by nearly two million hectares between 2000 and 2020.

It is evident that illegal hunting, not the beneficial rise in global average temperatures and atmospheric CO₂ over the past two centuries, has been the primary cause of large-scale decreases in the populations of major mammalian species.

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This commentary was first published at American Thinker, October 31, 2023, and can be accessed here.

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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, UK.