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IEG Review of 20 World Bank-Funded Projects in Tiger LandscapesBiodiversity is critical to maintaining the integrity of ecosystems and the ecological processes that support species and human well-being. The world is facing an unprecedented rate of species extinction: one in eight bird species, one in four mammals, and one in three amphibians are threatened. Species can recover with concerted conservation. As a charismatic endangered species, tigers have become a powerful symbol of biodiversity loss globally, as their numbers have dropped from 100,000 at the turn of the 20th century to an estimated 3,000-3,500 tigers in the wild today. The need to protect tigers has taken on great urgency, and international efforts are attempting to pull them back from the edge of extinction. From November 21 to 24, 2010, the Russian Federation hosted leaders from 13 tiger range countries at a conference in St. Petersburg. The goal was inter alia to eliminate illegal trade in tiger parts while protecting tiger habitats and to double the tiger population by 2022. The World Bank has provided strong leadership and support for the initiative. Biodiversity interventions can have potentially large co benefits: biodiversity conservation, climate change stabilization, food and water security, and poverty reduction. The World Bank has been the largest financier for biodiversity, with commitments of more than $2 billion over the last two decades and substantial leveraging of co financing. However, the number of new projects approved that contain biodiversity activities has dropped considerably since the mid-2000s. At present, the Bank is according importance to biodiversity by taking a leading role in strategic partnerships, such as the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI), the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF), and the Save Our Species (SOS) program. By prioritizing such initiatives, the Bank aims to bring crucial attention and funding to ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. It is also crucial at the same time to integrate conservation in development projects in sectors such as infrastructure and rural development, which can have negative effects on biodiversity without adequate mitigating actions. This review has shown that as important as these targeted biodiversity efforts is the need for the Bank, countries, and partners to strengthen efforts to integrate biodiversity conservation into projects in sectors where they can have negative biodiversity impacts without mitigating actions, such as rural transport, watershed management, or integrated rural development.
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Smart Green Infrastructure in Tiger Range CountriesThis report presents the results of
 extensive work of the smart green infrastructure task force
 commissioned by the World Bank under the Global Tiger
 Initiative (GTI). The report benefited from advice, ideas,
 and information about tigers and tiger-friendly
 infrastructure development from staff at the World Bank, and
 from several institutions that promote tiger and
 biodiversity conservation throughout the world. This study
 addresses infrastructure's impacts on tigers at
 international, national, sectoral and project levels in
 combination with the mitigation hierarchy which is based on
 avoidance, mitigation, minimization and compensation of
 impacts. It examines infrastructure policy challenges and
 opportunities, using lessons learned from case studies,
 along with regional and in-country analyses. While there are
 opportunities for improvement in all countries, Russia,
 India, Bhutan, and Nepal has, in particular, developed good
 foundations for tiger-related conservation, planning, and
 policy efforts. Best practices, drawn from case studies in
 non-tiger range countries, provide additional insights into
 infrastructure practices that could benefit tiger
 populations. Avoiding Tiger Conservation Landscapes (TCLs)
 is the best and cheapest option available to all parties for
 saving wild tigers.
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Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Adaptation : Nature-Based Solutions from the World Bank PortfolioClimate change is a serious environmental challenge that could undermine the drive for sustainable development. Since the industrial revolution, the mean surface temperature of earth has increased an average of 1degree celsius per century due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Furthermore, most of this change has occurred in the past 30 to 40 years, and the rate of increase is accelerating, with significant impacts both at a global scale and at local and regional levels. While it remains important to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reverse climate change in the long run, many of the impacts of climate change are already in evidence. As a result, governments, communities, and civil society are increasingly concerned with anticipating the future effects of climate change while searching for strategies to mitigate, and adapt to, it's current effects.