"The tiger has made the world realize that there is a crisis in nature taking place. Our development philosophy needs to find a balance between the economy and nature," said Keshav Varma, director of the Global Tiger Initiative at the World Bank.

The high-profile conservation conference called by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and World Bank chief Robert Zoellick mobilized political, financial and celebrity support to double the number of wild tigers by 2022.

"This summit has created the high-level government backing that we needed to create a platform to immediately reverse the decline of wild tigers, which is threatening them with extinction," said Michael Baltzer, head of WWF's Tigers Alive initiative.

But the summit ended with concerns remaining about financing and concrete action. Several states are skeptical that the World Bank – which has funded many hydropower and other infrastructure projects that have eroded tiger habitats – has genuinely changed its spots.

"Overall, this summit has been positive for tigers, but it won't stop poaching and trafficking because they haven't put in place a mechanism to support enforcement," said Steven Galster, director of Freeland, an organisation that helps to train wildlife authorities in south-east Asia. "They spent $1.4m on this meeting. Why not spend $7m to set up an emergency fund to support enforcement?"