Police and customs officials from 13 Asian nations have agreed to tighten controls and improve cross-border cooperation to curb wildlife crimes involving tigers.
The agreement was reached during an international conference in the Thai capital, Bangkok, this week.
The aim of the conference was to generate agreements, based on law enforcement, to protect wild tigers as well as other rare and threatened species.
Crimes involving tigers are said to be on the rise, and criminals are adopting increasingly sophisticated methods.
"What we'd like to see are these international organisations getting to the top leaders and talking about 'the elephant in the room', which is corruption," said Steven Galster, Director of the Freeland Foundation.
"The number one challenge facing conservationists across the world, and certainly here in Asia, is corruption. Nobody who is powerful, with political connections or with money, gets arrested and goes to jail for wildlife crime. So that's what needs to change in order for these species to survive," he added.
Those attending the conference agreed that a more proactive approach to the problem is necessary.
"We have to gather intelligence and we have to exchange that intelligence, using the services of Interpol, because we're dealing with transnational crime," said Justin Gosling, an Interpol Criminal Intelligence Officer.
"That intelligence can then be used to target wildlife criminals, either in the act or before they've actually completed the full offence of killing wildlife. One of the things I think people fail to realise is that very often with wildlife, by the time it's been detected, it's too late. The animal is either dead or has been taken from its natural habitat."
Seminar participants represented countries where tigers still live in the wild.
"At an international level, we're bringing together all of that expertise so we can provide coordinated support to national authorities, so that we get entire enforcement chain working, because the enforcement and the enforcement chain is only as strong as the weakest link," said John Scanlon from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
"You may be able to detect the crime, but if you cannot prosecute the crime, or you cannot get a conviction, the system fails. So we're working from detection, investigation, prosecution, conviction and penalty."
APTN