Kazakhstan plants tens of thousands of trees to reintroduce tigers

(Web Desk) - Tigers will soon roam Kazakhstan for the first time in over 70 years as conservationists undertake a gargantuan effort to restore part of their lost habitat.

The last of Kazakhstan's Caspian tigers disappeared in the late 1940s, after years of hunting, habitat loss and declines in prey numbers. Now, the Central Asian country has an ambitious plan to reintroduce the world's largest cats to their historic lands.

So far, two captive tigers (a male and a female) are already in Kazakhstan as part of a breeding-and-release project, while the country is expecting its first wild tigers to be transported from Russia in the first half of 2026. However, for the program to be a success, the tigers need plenty of places to live. That's where an enormous tree-planting project comes in.

Last year, the Kazakhstan tiger reintroduction program — led by the government of Kazakhstan with support from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the United Nations Development Programme — planted 37,000 seedlings and cuttings near a giant lake in southeast Kazakhstan's South Balkhash region, where tigers used to live, according to WWF Central Asia. This adds to the 50,000 seedlings planted between 2021 to 2024.

Tree planting is a key part of Kazakhstan's massive ongoing greening initiative. The country has planted around 1.4 billion trees since 2021, and officials say they are on track to reach 2 billion trees by 2027.

"Already, wild ungulates have been seen foraging on the restored sites, indicating that the ecosystem is beginning to function," a spokesperson for WWF Central Asia told Live Science in an email.

"Each planted seedling is therefore a direct contribution to the future of the tiger in Kazakhstan."