Analysis of 12 tiger range states highlights urgent need for legislative reform to reduce threats to the world’s tigers

For the first time, a comprehensive review of laws in 12 tiger range countries exposes critical gaps in legislation that may help facilitate the trafficking of tigers. 

The new report, Law of the Tiger: A Comparative Study of the Laws Governing Tiger Trafficking in 12 Tiger Range States, reveals critical legal gaps and inconsistencies that unless addressed would hinder efforts to counter the trafficking of tigers — undermining decades of conservation efforts and putting wild tigers at risk.

Published today, the Legal Atlas, WWF and TRAFFIC report provides the most in-depth analysis of laws related to tiger trafficking ever undertaken across tiger range countries. It examines the extent to which national laws address the trafficking of tigers from source to sale. It draws on national legislation and policy and CITES obligations to assess each country’s readiness to tackle one of the world’s most enduring illegal trades in wildlife.

There are an estimated 5,700 tigers left in the wild across 10 countries (Global Tiger Forum, 2025) with very low numbers in much of Southeast Asia including national extirpation in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam in the last 20 years.

Previous research has shown that, between January 2000 and June 2022, more than 3,300 tigers were seized from illegal trade globally, 85% of them within tiger range countries, underscoring the continued failure to disrupt the trade routes supplying tiger products to international and domestic markets. Strong legal frameworks are a foundational part of addressing tiger trafficking, alongside the effective enforcement of these frameworks, engagement with local communities and the reduction of demand for tiger parts and products. 

“Legal loopholes are the trafficker’s best weapon — and the tiger’s worst enemy. Our analysis exposes how gaps in law — from unregulated captive facilities and the absence of law directed at tiger hybrids to failures in criminalising the full trade chain — create opportunities that traffickers can easily exploit. Closing these gaps is essential if we are to give tigers a fighting chance, in the courtroom and, more importantly, in the wild.” said lead author James Wingard, JD, Legal Director, Legal Atlas.

The report found significant gaps and inconsistencies across multiple countries and provides recommendations for legislative reform and policy priorities for national governments, including to:

• Criminalise the full tiger trafficking chain (including digital transactions); 

• Clearly define “wildlife trade” to cover gaps such as advertising, display, brokerage, and possession; 

• Create permanent, inter-agency enforcement units with full investigative powers to tackle illegal wildlife trade;

• Ensure all relevant enforcement agencies have the necessary arrest, search, seizure, and investigation powers, which are complemented with training on code of conducts and ethical behaviours for law enforcement personnel, that promote the protection and respect of human rights;

• Require stockpile protocols and the destruction of confiscated specimens not used for scientific or educational purposes;

• Regulate captive tiger facilities through licensing, traceability, registration of individual tigers and reporting;

• Prohibit the sale or advertisement of any product claiming to contain, or marked as containing, tiger parts or products; 

• Bring hybrids under the same legal protections as wild tigers; and

• Recognise tiger trafficking as a serious crime and as a predicate offence under anti-money laundering laws, enabling the use of financial investigation tools and international cooperation in order to dismantle organised networks. 

“Governments must eliminate legal loopholes and build legal systems that can stand up to transnational, organised crime,” said Heather Sohl, Tiger Trade Lead at WWF. “Protecting tigers from trafficking, strengthening rule of law and ensuring that wildlife crime is treated as a serious crime relies on having effective legal frameworks.” 

The findings are available via the Legal Atlas digital platform (www.legal-atlas.net), offering up-to-date legal data and tools for reform. The report is published ahead of the upcoming CITES CoP20 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan in November 2025 where global leaders will review progress on commitments to combat illegal wildlife trade. The report can support the implementation by tiger range countries of CITES Resolution Conf. 12.5 (Rev. CoP19), which calls on countries to strengthen their legal responses to illegal trade in Asian big cats. 

Sarah Baker Ferguson, Director of Policy at TRAFFIC, said, “Strong laws are the first line of defense against the illegal tiger trade. This report shows the urgent need for governments to close legal gaps, enforce existing protections, and recognise tiger trafficking as the serious crime it is. Only by strengthening legal frameworks can we secure decades of conservation progress — and help tigers thrive.”

ENDS

About the Report:
Law of the Tiger examines the laws of 12 Tiger Range Countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Viet Nam). The study does not assess law implementation but instead focuses on the written legal frameworks that guide national responses to tiger trafficking. The full report can be found here