28 July 2020 – In a major boost to tiger conservation ahead of Global Tiger Day, India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change today announced the adoption of the Conservation Assured Tiger Standards [CA|TS] across all of the country’s 50 tiger reserves.
These 50 tiger reserves are spread across 18 states covering an area over 7000 sq. km and contain over 80% of the world’s tiger population.
The announcement means India is the first among the 13 tiger range countries to nationally adopt CA|TS, which are a set of minimum standards setting the benchmark for managing conservation sites. This brings India’s total number of registered sites to 94 (which includes sites not in tiger reserves).
CA|TS is a conservation tool that sets minimum standards to manage target species, and encourages assessments to benchmark progress. Tigers are the first species selected for the initiative. Launched in 2013, the tool was developed in collaboration with field managers, tiger experts and government agencies engaged in tiger conservation.
This announcement further strengthens India’s contribution to the global goal set in 2010 to double the number tigers in the wild, known as TX2. India reported a population of 2,967 wild tigers during the last census in 2018, which is more than double the last estimate in 2006.
Dr. SP Yadav, ADG (Project Tiger) and Member Secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change: “The CA|TS framework provides an avenue for key tiger sites to assess and identify where their management strengths and challenges are, set goals and evaluate their progress toward achieving those goals. In addition, the framework provides a robust lens through which we can view the benefits of tiger conservation and creating safe havens for tigers in the wild.”
Stuart Chapman, Lead of WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative: “India’s adoption of CA|TS across its tiger reserves has brought the majority of the world’s wild tigers under one conservation management standard. This will strengthen efforts for continued tiger recovery in India and provide a model for other tiger range countries to follow”.
Sugoto Roy, the Chair of CA|TS International Executive Committee: “CA|TS is an excellent diagnostic tool designed to help site-based tiger management and conservation to be effective and assist in identifying gaps, challenges and resources needed to catalyse the recovery of tigers.”
Dr Rajesh Gopal, Secretary general of Global Tiger Forum: “The countries that have still not adopted the CA|TS framework must be encouraged to do so, as this will assist in establishing a uniform and robust framework for the global tiger recovery programme.”
The seven tiger range countries implementing CA|TS include Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Malaysia, Nepal and Russia.
CA|TS is a partnership of tiger range governments, inter-governmental agencies, institutions, NGOs and conservation organisations. WWF is helping tiger range countries to implement CA|TS, and is joined by other key global organisations, such as Equilibrium Research, Fauna & Flora International, Freeland, Global Tiger Forum, Global Wildlife Conservation, IUCN, Panthera, Smithsonian Institution, UNDP, WildTeam, World Commission on Protected Areas and the Zoological Society of London.
CA|TS is being adopted for use beyond tigers, including potentially jaguars, lions and freshwater dolphins.