Author: GTFAdmin

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.

A virtual orientation program on CA|TS log software was organized by the Global Tiger Forum and WWF-India on 15 June 2020 for the CA|TS registered sites of Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) India.

The said training was conducted by CA|TS Manager, WWF-International and attended by senior officials/site managers from Uttar Pradesh Forest Department, Uttarakhand Forest department, CA|TS reviewer, GTF and WWF-India representatives.

Pilibhit is well known for its ‘sugarcane tigers’. The tigers-human interface is a great challenge, warranting partnership with local people. GTF and U.P. Forest Department have launched a proactive community stewardship programme with gains to locals as part of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES). Response is encouraging with regular updates!

Under the ongoing Protection and Enforcement Training Curriculum Standardization and Institutionalisation Project, the second regional workshop for the Central and Western Zone was held at Nagpur on the 31^st January and 1^st February 2020. The workshop was attended by senior officials from forest departments and training schools of the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Goa and Maharashtra along with participants from National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Central Zoo Authority (CZA), Global Tiger Forum (GTF), Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT), WWF- India & WWF-International, TRAFFIC-India, School of Wildlife Forensic & Health, and Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University.

The said workshop was conducted in continuation to the 1st regional workshop held at Guwahati, Assam in December 2019, for collecting inputs/suggestions from states of central and western region of India to draft a supplementary curriculum that compliments and strengthen existing syllabus of frontline staff.

A two days regional workshop for the ongoing project “Protection and Enforcement Training Curriculum Standardization and Institutionalization” was organized by Global Tiger Forum (GTF) in partnerships with WWF-India, TRAFFIC-India and forest department of Assam on 11-12 December 2019 at Indian Institute of Bank Management (IIBM), Guwahati. The said workshop was attended by forest officials and directors/incharge/instructors of forest training schools from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Odhisa and West Bengal; officials and representatives from National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), AFPI, WCCB, Aaranyak, ASICA, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), GTF, WWF-India; WWF-Myanmar; WWF-Singapore, TRAFFIC-India.

The workshop was focused on:

• Aim and objectives of the workshop
• Importance of Institutionalizing protection and enforcement modules within the curriculum of training schools
• Overview of existing training curricula in different training schools of Eastern India
• Discussion on training modules of South African Wildlife College
• Discussion on training modules of NGOs like Aaranyak, WWF-India, TRAFFIC-India, WTI, and Panthera
• Overview of the training guidelines developed by the International Ranger Federation (IRF)
• Discussion on integrating Human Rights issues into forest and wildlife enforcement training
• Gap assessment of different training schools and discussions on the best practices available

The aim of the workshop was to collect information/views/comments from experts of the forest training colleges across Eastern states of India, senior forest officials, regional protection & conservation organizations, and other enforcement agencies in line with protection, wildlife crime, intelligence networking, wildlife forensics, the human-wildlife interface among others.

The gaps and findings of the workshop will help in drafting a supplementary curriculum that compliments the existing syllabus of the frontline staff.

Under ongoing GTF and Uttar Pradesh forest department project to address human-wildlife interface issues, the second “Capacity building workshop” was conducted at Pilibhit Tiger Reserve from 17 to 18 October 2019. The said workshop was attended by officials from GTF, Pilibhit and Dudhwa tiger reserves, Katarniaghat WLS, North Kheri forest division along with frontline staff of the said sites. The workshop was also attended by representatives of WTI and WWF-India along with community stewards.

The two-day workshop was focused on:

• Community Stewardship and Forest Frontline Collaboration for managing human-wildlife interface issues
• Use of data recording formats
• Micro-planning for community stewardship
• Mapping and use of GIS
• Use of equipment, accessories, and technology
• Action portfolio for senior officials

The Workshop concluded with reiteration by GTF, U.P forest department & other partner agencies to work in association with all stakeholders and work on joint mechanisms for mitigation of human-wildlife interface.

A sensitization workshop was organized by Global Tiger Forum (GTF) in coordination with Madhya Pradesh (M.P.) forest department and the World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India) on October 15, 2019, at the RCVP Noronha Academy of Administration, Bhopal. The said workshop was attended by officials from M.P. forest department, GTF & WWF-India,
including site managers of the 24 sites registered under CA|TS in M.P. and independent CA|TS reviewers.

The sensitization workshop was focused on:

• Process of CA|TS assessment
• How to undertake the CA|TS self-assessment form and MEE format
• Provide hands-on training to the site managers on recently launched, “CA|TS log” software

The workshop concluded with the reiteration of inter-agency cooperation, to complete the assessment process within a given timeframe and work continuously to create safe havens for tigers and other wildlife beyond Tiger Reserves and other PAs.

Tiger habitats in high altitude require protection through sustainable land use, as they are a high value ecosystem with several hydrological and ecological processes providing ecosystem services and adaptation to mitigate the ill effects of climate change. Since several high-altitude habitats in South Asia have the spatial presence of tiger, active in-situ efforts are called for ensuring their conservation.

The instant situation analysis study aims to provide the rationale for stepping up high altitude conservation of the tiger, while identifying possible viable habitats, corridor linkages, anthropogenic pressures, and induced landscape level changes for evolving an in-situ conservation roadmap.

The study, led by the GTF, with range country governments of Bhutan, India and Nepal, along with conservation partners (WWF and country specific collaborators), has been supported by the Integrated Tiger Habitat Conservation Programme (ITHCP) of the IUCN and KfW.

The report for the same is provided below:

Status of Tiger Habitats in High Altitude Ecosystems of Bhutan, India and Nepal (Situation Analysis)

The Global Tiger Forum (GTF), in collaboration with USAID and WCT, organized a trans-boundary consultation between Malaysia and Thailand on Addressing Illegal Wildlife Trade and Trafficking at Aloft Hotel, KL Sentral, Malaysia on 7 – 8 August 2019. The workshop was attended by representatives from the Perak State Parks Corporation (Malaysia),  Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources (Malaysia),  Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Malaysia), Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (Thailand),  National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), U.S. Embassy (Kuala Lumpur), WWF, UNDP, TRAFFIC and GTF.

The two-day consultation focused on key areas for collaboration between the two countries, including assessment of tiger/wildlife in the Royal Belum-Hala Bala-Bang Lang landscape, status of wildlife crime across the two countries, past actions, and suggestive framework for trans-boundary collaboration, including draft agreement/MoU between Malaysia and Thailand.

The consultation concluded with a strong commitment from partners for working towards the signing of the MoU between Malaysia & Thailand and strengthening transboundary cooperation towards tiger & wildfire conservation in a global tiger priority landscape.

      

The Global Tiger Forum, GTF has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) on 26 July 2019 at Kathmandu. The MoU was singed by Rajesh Gopal, Secretary General, GTF and Man Bahadur Khadka, Director General, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) in the presence of senior government officials from India & Nepal and representatives from conservation agencies of both the countries during an inauguration ceremony of ‘Capacity building workshop on countrywide assessment of Tiger, Prey and its Habitat’ from 26 – 27 July 2019 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The MoU between two inter-governmental agencies will strengthen regional cooperation to combat tiger/wildlife crime, facilitate frontline training and capacity building and synergize joint actions with national/state level agencies and conservation partners in South Asia.

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