🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
Landscape-level conservation planning often emphasizes corridors that link protected areas across human-dominated regions.
The Bukit Tigapuluh landscape in central Sumatra contains tiger habitat that extends beyond formally gazetted national parks. Surveys have documented tiger presence in production forests and community-managed areas. These mixed-use landscapes lack the strict protection status of core reserves. Yet they function as critical corridors between larger habitat blocks. For a species numbering under 400, survival outside park boundaries expands potential territory. However, land-use change pressures remain intense. Logging concessions and agricultural expansion can quickly alter these zones. The tiger’s future depends partly on how multifunctional forests are governed.
💥 Impact (click to read)
Conservation strategies increasingly recognize the importance of buffer zones and secondary forests. Relying solely on national parks may be insufficient for wide-ranging carnivores. Land tenure arrangements influence whether habitat remains permeable or becomes inaccessible. International conservation groups often partner with local authorities to promote sustainable forest management. Economic incentives must align with ecological goals. The boundary between protected and unprotected land becomes blurred in practice.
For tigers navigating these landscapes, protection status is invisible. What matters is prey availability and human disturbance levels. The presence of tigers in working forests challenges assumptions that only pristine reserves matter. Survival may hinge on pragmatic coexistence in partially altered environments. Extinction risk rises when these connective tissues vanish.
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