The Himalayan Tiger Foundation (HTF) was statuary founded September 5, 2013.
However, the first activity of the foundation was the organization of the Conference ‘Big cats are vital ecosystem engineers‘, March 4, 2011, at the Kathmandu Summit Hotel.
Flyer of our first activity in March 2011.
Statutory objects and means of Himalayan Tiger Foundation HTF
1- The objects of the Foundation are to support organizations, institutions and persons who protect and aim to prevent the extinction of endangered animal species in general, and more in particular felines, as tigers living along the Himalayas, and to do all that is directly or indirectly connected therewith or may be conducive thereto, all to be interpreted in the broadest sense, provided that such is in the general interest.
2- The Foundation shall strive to achieve its objects by:
(a) to support with financial means and/or to give advice to organizations, institutions and persons who protect and aim to prevent the extinction of endangered animal species in general, more in particular the Himalayan tiger;
(b) raising of funds;
(c) all that directly or indirectly supports or may support the objects of the Foundation.
HTF activities 2011 until now
In the following years conferences were organized in which Nepalese and Dutch scholars presented papers on wildlife management and biodiversity.
The Foundation planned its activities in cooperation with:
– The Center of Molecular Dynamics Nepal, Nepal (CMDN),
– National Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal (NTNC),
– Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Nepal (DNPWC),
– Kathmandu University (KU), Nepal
– Centre for Environmental Studies, Leiden, The Netherlands (CML),
– Wageningen University and Research, Wagenngen, The Netherlands (WUR).
Furthermore:
– In 2014 HTF established a Research Station near Bardiya National Park.
– Prof. Dr. Jacques van Alphen (Leiden and Amsterdam) and Dr. Laura Bertola (Leiden) presented courses for Nepalese students on topics of Nature Conservation.
– We wrote a research program and supervised Master students for research in Bardiya National Park. – The Himalayan Tiger Foundation has supported the International ’Double the tiger number (2xT) program’ by making it more ‘evidence-based’.
From 2015 on Professor Herbert Prins (Wageningen) and Hans de Iongh supervised several Nepalese students for their PhD in Wageningen, Leiden and Antwerp.
The Foundation supplied major funding to young and ambitious Nepalese conservation officers to obtain a doctor’s degree from Dutch Universities as Leiden:
– Living with the large Carnivores (Babu Ram Lamichhane, 2019),
– Human-wildlife interactions in the western Terai of Nepal (Subodh Kumar Upadhaya, 2019).
Three Nepalese PhD candidates are funded by the Foundation for their research in Wageningen:
– Shyam Kumar Thapa (Grazing lawns of Tiger in Bardiya National Park, (2023),
– Bishnu Shresta (Distribution Tiger in relation to predation, food and condition, (2022-2026),
– Ashok Subedi (Resource Ecology of Snow leopard and bharal, (2018-2025).
Since 2022 the Foundation participates as Co-funding partner in the NWO-research program
‘Save the Tiger! Save the Grasslands! Save the Water!‘ (STSGSW).
As partner in the project HTF is coordinating activities of the Nepalese cooperation partners. In this program various academic institutions participate, coordinated by Prof. Dr. Jasper Griffioen (Utrecht University.