IBCA Comes into Force as International Organization for Big Cat Conservation

From 23^rd January, 2025, the IBCA and its Secretariat have become a full-fledged treaty based inter-governmental international organization and international legal entity.

To this effect, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India (the Depository of the Framework Agreement) has confirmed that five countries – Republic of Nicaragua, Kingdom of Eswatini, Republic of India, Federal Republic of Somalia and Republic of Liberia – have deposited the instruments of ratification/acceptance/approval, under the Article VIII (1) of the Framework Agreement.

As of now, 27 countries including India have consented to join IBCA and several international/national organisations working in the field of wildlife conservation have also partnered with IBCA. The five countries mentioned above have signed the Framework Agreement to formally become members of the IBCA.

The IBCA was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9^th April 2023, during the event ‘Commemorating 50 years of Project Tiger’. The Union Cabinet, in its meeting held on 29^th February 2024, approved the establishment of IBCA with headquarters in India. It 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 UN countries/the range countries harbouring the said species and non-range countries where historically these species are not found but interested to support big cat conservation.

The IBCA was established by the Government of India, through the nodal organisation viz., National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC), vide order dated 12^th March 2024. 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 gthe lobal 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.

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.

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