Tigers had already been brought to their knees, but now — without action — they are facing a true crisis.
Only a century ago, around 100,000 tigers were alive in the wild. One by one, they've been tracked down, snared and slaughtered — their teeth carved out as status symbols and their bones ground into powder for medicines.
Now, fewer than 4,000 remain — and that number's still going down. 100 tigers are lost each year due to trafficking alone.
The only thing holding these creatures back from complete extinction is the heroic efforts of local people, patrolling the forest each day to remove snares. In one key area, their work has been so effective that the number of snares had fallen from 237 in 2021 to just two in 2023.
But now it's all at risk.
The funding that keeps those local people equipped — and thereby keeps tigers alive — is starting to fail. If it collapses completely it could spell their extinction.
To compound the crisis, this is the worst possible moment for the funding to start failing.
Many experts believe traffickers stockpiled tiger parts throughout the covid pandemic, but their stockpiles are now running low, incentivising poachers to slaughter for new supply — meaning poaching could simultaneously be about to surge.
This would be catastrophic.
We urgently need your help — please donate now and keep the teams equipped to face this onslaught.
If we can't get essential equipment into their hands, they simply cannot do their jobs. They can't effectively patrol dense forests using broken GPS units or dismantle snares with their bare hands.
And if every Care2 member who opens this email donates just €28, we could fill that gap before the week is over.
The good that would do, and the number of tigers it could save, would be extraordinary.
This €28 will be used to directly to fill this funding gap. It will be spent on boots, machetes, wire cutters, camping gear, rucksacks and all the necessary equipment that rangers use while out on patrol. It will pay for patrol mapping and pay rangers' wages so they can put food on the table.
If you're able to give more, then an extraordinary €88 could help buy a new GPS unit, enabling specialist teams to conduct highly coordinated patrols in the most vulnerable areas. This can amplify ranger teams' effectiveness by multitudes.
Tiger populations are so fragile that we cannot afford protection to let up for even a moment as poaching surges. The damage that would do, and the tigers' lives we'd lose, would be unbearable.
So please, donate now.
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