changeadminOn 9th April 2023, during an event ‘Commemorating 50 years of Project Tiger’, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA).
IBCA was launched with the aim of conservation of seven big cats – Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Cheetah, Jaguar and Puma – with a membership of all countries harbouring the said species and non-range countries where historically these species are not found but interested to support big cat conservation.
The primary objective of IBCA is to facilitate collaboration and synergy among stakeholders, consolidating successful conservation practices and expertise to achieve a common goal of conservation of big cats at the global level.
This unified approach, bolstered by financial support, aims to bolster the conservation agenda, halt the decline in big cat populations, and reverse current trends.
Big cats, like tigers, lions, leopards, cheetahs, and others, face a variety of threats that jeopardize their survival.
As their natural habitats shrink due to climate change, deforestation, urbanization, and agricultural expansion, big cats are forced into smaller, more fragmented areas, which leads to isolation, reduced genetic diversity, and difficulty finding food.
Another big challenge is poaching and illegal trade, as they are killed for their fur, bones, and other body parts, which are sold on the black market for traditional medicine, luxury goods, or trophies. Further, human-wildlife conflicts, diseases and inbreeding are also harming big cat populations.
IBCA envisages synergy through a collaborative platform for increased dissemination of gold standard big cat conservation practices, provides access to a central common repository of technical know-how and corpus of funds, strengthens the existing species-specific intergovernmental platforms, networks and transnational initiatives on conservation and protection and assists securing our ecological future and mitigate adverse effects of climate change.
The IBCA with its headquarters in India was established by the Indian government, through the nodal organisation viz., National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC).
From January 2025, the International Big Cat Alliance and its Secretariat have become a full-fledged treaty-based inter-governmental international organization and international legal entity.
As of now, 27 countries including India have consented to join IBCA and several international and national organisations working in the field of wildlife conservation have also partnered with IBCA.
Today it was confirmed that five countries – Nicaragua, Eswatini, India, Somalia and Liberia have signed the Framework Agreement to formally become members of the International Big Cat Alliance.
Add comment