Project Description
Tiger Prey Augmentation Planning
Compass undertook a Structured Decision Making (SDM) process to support the development of a long-term strategic plan to support wild tiger populations in western Thailand.
Thailand’s Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM), northwest of Bangkok, is home to approximately 250 wild Indochinese tigers – the largest single population remaining for this subspecies. While wild tiger populations in Thailand have stabilized in recent years and may be showing signs of increase in some areas, populations remain well below desired levels here and in the nearby Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex (KKFC).
World Wide Fund for Nature: International (WWF) in Thailand is one of several non-governmental organizations supporting the Thai government’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation (DNP) in advancing tiger recovery through various approaches. Research is increasingly identifying prey availability as a significant limitation to tiger recovery across its range in Thailand, and tiger prey augmentation is seen as an important catalyst for accelerating recovery. Further, since many of the ungulate species that tigers prey on are themselves endangered, ungulate augmentation is seen as an opportunity to boost both tiger and rare ungulate populations.
Compass was engaged to design and carry out a Structured Decision Making (SDM) process to support WWF and DNP in creating a long-term strategic plan for ungulate augmentation across the Western Forest and Kaeng Krachan Complexes to meet both goals.
A six-month remote process culminated in a two-day workshop in Bangkok in February of 2023. Compass supported DNP managers from throughout the region, as well as experts and academics from other organizations, in developing and evaluating alternative strategies to distribute ungulates from breeding centers throughout Thailand in the most effective location(s) using an SDM approach that helped explicitly balance benefits and potential adverse effects.
Through this process, Compass refined Terraviz, a new web-based tool for visualizing various forms of spatial data to support decision-making.
This report documents our approach to the planning and execution of this workshop, with findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
