The International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 2 September 2026 in New Delhi to jointly advance tiger landscape conservation through sustainable financing. The agreement was formalised during the two day International Workshop on Tiger Landscapes inaugurated by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav. It aims to position tiger habitats as natural capital where conservation, bioeconomy and ecotourism together support ecological security and local livelihoods.
What Is the International Big Cat Alliance and Why Was It Created?
The International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) is a treaty based intergovernmental organisation with headquarters in New Delhi at Shanti Niketan. India launched it on 9 April 2023 at Mysuru in Karnataka during the event to commemorate 50 years of Project Tiger. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the alliance, building on his call at the Global Tiger Day celebration in July 2019 for a global alliance of leaders to curb poaching and illegal wildlife trade.
The Union Cabinet approved the establishment of IBCA with headquarters in India on 29 February 2024. The alliance was established through the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) as the nodal organisation on 12 March 2024. Its Framework Agreement came into force on 23 January 2025, after which IBCA became a full fledged international legal entity. India has provided a one time budgetary support of ₹150 crore for five years from 2023-24 to 2027-28. The governance structure includes an Assembly of Members, a Standing Committee and a Secretariat, with the Director General heading the Secretariat. Dr. S. P. Yadav is the current Director General of IBCA.
IBCA brings together 95 big cat range and non range countries, conservation partners, scientific organisations and business groups on a common platform. Any UN member state can join. Membership is formalised after depositing an instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval. Partner organisations, including United Nations organs, can join as strategic partners with observer status without voting rights in the Assembly. As of 2026, more than 30 countries have joined as members, including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Nepal, Malaysia, Mongolia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria, Peru, Suriname and others, while several range countries participate as observers.
The core objective is conservation of the seven big cats, namely Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Cheetah, Jaguar and Puma. India has special experience with four of them, including its successful tiger recovery and recent Project Cheetah translocation at Kuno. IBCA works to consolidate successful practices into a central repository, enable knowledge exchange, build capacity of range countries, mobilise resources, lower costs of finance and technology, and strengthen existing species specific platforms without duplicating them.
What Is the Asian Development Bank?
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a multilateral development bank that promotes sustainable, inclusive and resilient growth across Asia and the Pacific. It was established on 19 December 1966 under an agreement signed at Manila on 4 December 1965. The bank is headquartered at 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is owned by 69 members, including 50 regional members from Asia and the Pacific and 19 non regional members. Masato Kanda is the current President of ADB.
ADB provides loans, grants, equity investments and technical assistance, and it also acts as a knowledge partner that helps members design policy and share best practices. India is a founding member of ADB and its fourth largest shareholder. Although India joined at inception, lending operations to India began only in 1986. The India Resident Mission was opened in 1992 in New Delhi and serves as the main operational link for policy dialogue, programming and portfolio management.
In 2026, ADB marks 40 years of partnership with India. Since 1986, it has committed more than $63 billion to public sector projects and over $10 billion to private sector operations in India. The current Country Partnership Strategy for 2023 to 2027 aligns with India’s priorities in urban development, skills, job creation, clean energy and climate resilience. ADB also administers special funds such as the Asian Development Fund (ADF), which gives grants to low income developing members. India has contributed $127.6 million to ADB special funds, including $104.7 million to the ADF.
Country Director for India Mia Oka represented ADB at the workshop and noted that India’s experience in ecological conservation and sustainable social and economic development can be shared with other big cat range countries through this new partnership with IBCA.
The International Workshop on Tiger Landscapes: What Happened in New Delhi?
The two day International Workshop on Tiger Landscapes was held on 2 and 3 September 2026 in New Delhi. It was jointly organised by IBCA, ADB and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under the MoEFCC. Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav inaugurated the workshop.
The theme was “Tiger Landscapes: Conservation, Bioeconomy and Ecotourism as Pillars for Livelihood and Income Generation”. The deliberations focused on recognising tiger landscapes as natural capital, valuing ecosystem services, and finding ways to make conservation a driver of sustainable livelihoods and income generation.
In his inaugural address, Bhupender Yadav said conservation with harmony and human nature coexistence should be the foundation of ecological conservation. He stressed that the survival of tigers is linked to the health of forests, grasslands, rivers, prey species, wildlife corridors and local communities. Tiger landscapes, he noted, provide critical services such as water security, carbon sequestration, climate regulation, biodiversity conservation and livelihood support. He called for a shift from species centric protection to integrated landscape management that advances both ecological security and social and economic development. He also underlined the need to codify traditional knowledge of local communities and bring wisdom from the Global South into conservation policy, alongside nature based solutions, innovative financing and community based ecotourism.
Who Attended and What Was Discussed?
The dais included Tanmay Kumar, Secretary, MoEFCC, Sushil Kumar Awasthi, Director General of Forests and Special Secretary, MoEFCC, S. P. Yadav, Director General, IBCA, and Mia Oka, Country Director for India, ADB. Participants included representatives from tiger range countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal and Vietnam, officials from State Forest Departments and tiger reserves, development partners, researchers and conservation practitioners.
Sessions were designed to cover valuation of ecosystem services, corridor connectivity including transboundary landscapes, human wildlife conflict mitigation, use of technology such as camera traps and AI for monitoring, and models of community owned ecotourism that have worked in reserves such as Periyar, Kanha and Kaziranga. The workshop was positioned as a platform for sharing India’s conservation experience with other range countries while identifying new financing and management approaches that keep both habitats and communities viable.
IBCA-ADB MoU: Areas of Collaboration for Tiger Landscape Conservation
A central outcome of the workshop was the signing of the MoU between IBCA and ADB. The MoU strengthens collaboration in five linked areas, namely landscape conservation, sustainable development, capacity building, knowledge exchange and nature positive financing initiatives.
This partnership marks a shift from protecting a single species inside a protected area to managing the entire tiger landscape. A tiger landscape includes the core reserve, buffer zones, corridors, surrounding forests, grasslands and river systems, plus the villages and land uses that lie within and around them. ADB’s role will be to bring finance, knowledge and innovation to this landscape approach, to help range countries restore habitats, improve connectivity and promote coexistence between people and wildlife.
Concretely, the collaboration is expected to support identification of priority tiger landscapes, design of sustainable financing tools, creation of livelihood linked conservation models, and sharing of India’s tested practices such as eco development, corridor restoration through nine wildlife overpasses on National Highway 44 in Pench, and community led tourism. ADB will help bring big cat range countries together and create sustainable financing opportunities for ecological conservation, including concessional funding and technical assistance.
How Will Landscape Conservation, Bioeconomy and Ecotourism Work Together?
The workshop framed three pillars that will reinforce each other:
| Pillar | What It Means | How It Generates Value |
|---|---|---|
| Conservation | Protection and restoration of forests, grasslands, rivers, prey base and corridors across the whole landscape | Secures natural capital, water and carbon services and the prey base that tigers need |
| Bioeconomy | Sustainable use of biological resources such as medicinal plants, honey, bamboo, non timber forest produce and bio based products | Creates value chains for local communities through collection, processing and marketing without degrading the forest |
| Ecotourism | Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well being of local people, as per India’s Guidelines on Sustainable Eco Tourism in Forest and Wildlife Areas 2021 and NTCA ecotourism guidelines | Generates revenue through homestays, nature guides, safari management and gate receipts that are recycled for village eco development and protection |
Together, these pillars reduce dependence on destructive resource extraction, give communities income that is tied to healthy habitats, and make the landscape economically productive while it remains ecologically intact. The Minister noted that conservation of land also protects quality food and helps combat desertification, soil moisture depletion and soil degradation.
What Is Bioeconomy and What Is Ecotourism?
Bioeconomy is the knowledge based production and use of biological resources, such as plants, animals and microorganisms, and natural biological processes to provide products, processes and services within a sustainable economic system. In tiger landscapes, this translates to bio based livelihoods such as sustainable harvesting of medicinal plants, honey, bamboo, resins and other non timber forest produce, biofuels and bioplastics, and enzyme based applications. India’s bioeconomy has grown rapidly, from $10 billion in 2014 to about $151 billion in 2023 and $165.7 billion in 2024, contributing about 4.2 to 4.25 percent of GDP. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) track this growth through the annual India BioEconomy Report. The report projects the bioeconomy to reach $300 billion by 2030 and projects longer term growth towards $1 trillion by 2047. Key sub sectors include BioPharma (about 36 percent), BioIndustrial (about 48 percent), BioAgri and BioIT and research services.
Ecotourism is responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well being of local people. It is distinct from mass tourism. It is low impact, community based and science based, and it follows a carrying capacity plan that specifies sites, routes, seasons and visitor numbers. In India, ecotourism in forest and wildlife areas is guided by the Guidelines on Sustainable Eco Tourism in Forest and Wildlife Areas 2021 issued by MoEFCC and by NTCA Normative Standards for Tourism Activities and Project Tiger Guidelines 2012 for tiger reserves. The guidelines allow only up to 20 percent of the core or critical tiger habitat to be used for regulated tourism, and no new tourism infrastructure inside the core. The focus is kept on the buffer zones, where activities such as guided walks, safaris, homestays and nature interpretation are managed with local communities. Income from gate receipts and services is recycled through the Tiger Conservation Foundation for community welfare, patrols and habitat management.
In the IBCA-ADB context, bioeconomy and ecotourism are not add ons. They are mechanisms of nature positive financing, where biodiversity outcomes and local incomes are designed together, so that protecting a tiger corridor also protects a village economy.
Why Tiger Landscape Conservation Matters for India
Tiger conservation in India sits on a long trajectory. Project Tiger was launched on 1 April 1973 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after the 1972 census recorded only 1,827 tigers. The project began with 9 reserves covering 18,278 square km. After the Sariska crisis of 2005, when tigers were locally extinct there, the government created the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2005 through an amendment to the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. NTCA is a statutory body under MoEFCC that approves Tiger Conservation Plans, sets tourism norms, monitors tigers with M-STrIPES and camera traps, and supports corridor and buffer management.
Results have been significant. The All India Tiger Estimation shows a steady rise: 1,411 in 2006, 1,706 in 2010, 2,226 in 2014, 2,967 in 2018 and 3,682 in 2022 (range 3,167 to 3,925). India now holds about 75 percent of the world’s wild tigers. The network has expanded to 58 tiger reserves covering about 85,000 square km, which is about 2.3 percent of India’s land area. The largest reserve is Nagarjunsagar Srisailam (3,296 square km) and the highest tiger count is in Jim Corbett (231). Madhya Pradesh leads with 9 reserves and 785 tigers, followed by Karnataka and Uttarakhand.
Yet only institutions inside the forest cannot secure the tiger forever. Studies estimate about 35 percent of tigers live outside protected areas. Forests between reserves have shrunk by about 5 percent between 2005 and 2015 in the Central Indian landscape, while agriculture and settlements expanded. Corridor loss isolates populations, and no single reserve is genetically viable alone. Landscape conservation addresses this by connecting core habitats, protecting dispersal areas and working with people who live in the broader matrix. When landscapes are healthy, they sustain water, pollination, soil fertility and climate stability for millions beyond the forest edge.
The economic stake is large. Tiger landscapes overlap with rural economies that depend on forests, water and tourism. If managed well, bioeconomy value chains and ecotourism can replace unsustainable extraction, fund protection through earmarked revenues, and build local ownership. That ownership is essential, because the fate of a tiger often rests on whether nearby communities see the forest as a shared asset.
The Way Forward for Big Cat Conservation
The IBCA-ADB MoU signals a move from project funding for isolated parks to portfolio financing for connected landscapes. For India, the next steps will involve identifying priority tiger conservation landscapes, including high density clusters in Central India and the Western Ghats where populations have shown decline, and transboundary corridors such as Kanha Pench.
Collaboration can help in five practical ways. First, capacity building for frontline staff and community institutions such as Eco Development Committees and Tiger Conservation Foundations. Second, knowledge exchange of best practices among range countries, drawing on India’s reserve management, reintroduction models and corridor engineering. Third, innovative finance, such as concessional loans, grants and nature positive instruments that reward ecosystem services. Fourth, community led ecotourism plans with science based carrying capacity, waste and plastic controls and integration with Gram Panchayat Development Plans. Fifth, codifying traditional knowledge into policy so that native wisdom shapes conservation, bioeconomy and ecotourism design.
For the alliance, the MoU also broadens IBCA’s partnership model beyond earlier MoUs with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and others, by linking a conservation treaty body with a multilateral development bank. If implemented with strong safeguards for habitat integrity and community rights, the partnership can show that big cat protection and rural prosperity are not competing goals but the same landscape strategy.
Key Takeaways
- IBCA and ADB signed an MoU on 2 September 2026 in New Delhi during the International Workshop on Tiger Landscapes to collaborate on landscape conservation, sustainable development, capacity building, knowledge exchange and nature positive financing.
- The workshop theme was “Tiger Landscapes: Conservation, Bioeconomy and Ecotourism as Pillars for Livelihood and Income Generation” and was inaugurated by Union Minister Bhupender Yadav and jointly organised by IBCA, ADB and NTCA under MoEFCC.
- IBCA was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 April 2023 at Mysuru on 50 years of Project Tiger, became a treaty based intergovernmental organisation on 23 January 2025, is headquartered in New Delhi and aims to conserve seven big cats, namely Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Cheetah, Jaguar and Puma.
- ADB was established on 19 December 1966, is headquartered in Manila, Philippines, has 69 members, and in 2026 marks 40 years of lending operations in India since 1986, with over $63 billion committed to India’s public sector.
- India’s tiger story under Project Tiger (1 April 1973) and NTCA (2005) shows growth to 3,682 tigers in 2022 (about 75 percent of world wild tigers) across 58 tiger reserves covering about 85,000 square km, making landscape connectivity the next conservation frontier.
- Bioeconomy is the sustainable use of biological resources for goods and services (valued at $165.7 billion in 2024, about 4.2 percent of GDP, projected to reach $300 billion by 2030) and ecotourism is responsible travel that conserves nature and supports local communities, together forming the MoU’s livelihood engine.
