Research overview: the TX2 goal to double wild tigers

TX2 refers to the global commitment, adopted at the 2010 St. Petersburg Tiger Summit, to double the number of wild tigers by 2022. This overview surveys the science behind the target and how progress has been assessed. Researchers tracked national tiger estimates, reserve-level monitoring, and habitat trends across the thirteen tiger range countries, with India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Russia reporting gains while parts of Southeast Asia continued to lose tigers. Studies examined which interventions drove recovery, including strengthened protection, prey restoration, and reduced poaching, and which structural problems left some landscapes empty. The overview highlights that aggregate doubling was not achieved everywhere, but several countries demonstrated that determined site-based protection can rebuild populations. It matters as one of the most ambitious measurable targets ever set for a single endangered species.