The World Bank and National Geographic magazine Wednesday announced they would join forces to save wild tigers and other big cats, symbols of the threat to global biodiversity.

In the Year of the Tiger and on the eve of Earth Day, the World Bank, the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative, the Smithsonian Institution, the Global Environment Fund, and others of the Global Tiger Initiative met in Washington to inaugurate National Geographic's "Vanishing Icons" photo exhibit. The exhibit is dedicated to saving tigers and other big cats from extinction and spreading knowledge about the connection between biodiversity conservation and development.

"We are using the appeal of these charismatic big cats as a clarion call to draw attention to the need to protect biodiversity and to remind people of the wildlife and wilderness we stand to lose if we do not balance conservation and economic development," said World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick before the start of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings.

"If we fail to save the tiger, its loss would be a dramatic indication of our failure to safeguard biodiversity and its largely untapped potential to spur balanced development," he said.

"We must not let this iconic species vanish in the history books. 2010, the year of the Tiger, must be the year when we take joint action to save this majestic species," he added.

The Global Tiger Initiative was launched in June 2008 by Zoellick and others as an alliance of governments, international agencies, civil society and the private sector to save wild tigers from extinction.

The organizations view tigers as indicators of the overall health of the ecosystems they inhabit. Their situation epitomizes a comprehensive biodiversity crisis across the globe with direct implications for long-term economic growth and human well-being.

Climate change impacts, deforestation, habitat degradation, urbanization and infrastructure development all present formidable challenges for countries where tigers are found. Without urgent action, wild tigers could disappear during the next decade.