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About “Conservation Assured”: Conservation Assured (CA) is a conservation tool to set best practice standards for effective management of target species. CA fulfils the requirement for protected area management effectiveness in international agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Programme of Work on Protected Areas and will help national governments, and their partners in conservation, to meet the CBD’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity. CA is also linked to and partnered in the development of IUCN’s Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, an initiative to encourage, measure and share the success of conservation management.
CA|TS-the first species-specific “Conservation Assured” standards: The first species-specific CA standards are for the tiger (Panthera tigris). Few tiger conservation areas are truly effective refuges for tigers and this has contributed to a catastrophic decline in their numbers. Tigers have already disappeared from several protected areas where they were until recently regarded as secure. The globally accepted goal of doubling the number of wild tigers by 2022 was nearly achieved without a significant increase in the effectiveness of the tiger conservation areas across the remaining tiger range countries but there is immense scope for improvement especially in some Southeast Asia countries.
Launch and standards: Launched at the 1st Asian Parks Congress in Japan in 2013, CA|TS is a global certification system that ensures effective management specifically of tiger conservation areas. It sets benchmarks for protection, habitat management, community involvement, and wildlife monitoring. CA|TS helps identify strengths and improvement areas within reserves, supporting efforts to create safe, sustainable environments for tigers and preserve global biodiversity. CA|TS consists of 7 pillars (Importance and status, Management, Community, Tourism (optional), Protection, Habitat management, Tiger populations) and 17 elements with standards and criteria for managing tiger conservation areas. Five of these pillars are applicable to conservation area management in general (although with a species-specific focus) and represent the Conservation Assured (CA) aspect of the scheme; the two final pillars focus specifically on management issues related to tiger conservation – the Tiger Standards (TS).
Structure: The scheme is structured this way as it is planned to develop standards which focus on other endangered species in the future. Areas containing several species for which standards exist could thus aim for compliance with a range of species-specific standards; the CA standards, which include general good management practices, would only need to be met once. Already draft standards have been developed for two species-jaguars (JAGS) and River dolphins (CA|RDS)
CA|TS is not a ranking system but assesses whether areas meet best practice standards for tiger conservation. Areas can be recorded as Registered or Approved, based on an auditing process involving self-assessment, national audits, and international review. The scheme is voluntary and independent, allowing conservation areas to demonstrate their commitment. CA|TS is adaptable to different conditions, with guidance notes offering examples of best practices. The system aligns with the IUCN WCPA Management Effectiveness Framework.
The CA|TS scheme provides an incentive to those responsible for tiger conservation areas in the 10 tiger range countries to improve the effectiveness of management. The approach is based on long-term experience of both environmental certification schemes (e.g. the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)) and protected area management effectiveness assessments (e.g. the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Management Effectiveness Framework and associated systems) as well as a wide range of conservation management tools and expert knowledge.
CA|TS is not a new management effectiveness system or a ranking of tiger conservation areas; but rather provides the means to tell if a particular area attains the best practice standards needed to conserve tigers. Tiger conservation areas taking part in the system will be recorded as either Registered (but standard not yet attained) or as Approved (achieving the standards as verified through an auditing and independent review process); excellence would be expressed in terms of highlighting specific best practices. Whether tiger conservation areas meet the criteria is based on a process which starts with self-assessment, progresses through a system of national audit and is finally approved by an international executive committee, which ensures equivalence across tiger range countries. CA|TS provides an opportunity for individual tiger conservation areas or networks of areas to demonstrate their commitment to, and success in, protecting tigers. It is a voluntary, independent scheme for any area involved in tiger conservation.
The mission of CA|TS is to secure safe havens for wild tigers. To do this, CA|TS has a:
Wild tigers have spaces to live and breed safe from threat resulting in increased populations and recovery of range
CA|TS aims to provide an incentive for improving the effectiveness of conservation areas as a tool for tiger conservation and to provide a mechanism for monitoring, demonstrating and guaranteeing the effectiveness of the system of tiger conservation areas. CA|TS can provide a range of benefits:-
CA|TS is led by a broad partnership of organisations sitting in five distinct groups plus the tiger conservation areas (TCAs):-
With effect from 1st April 2025, the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) has taken over as the host and secretariat of CA|TS with Dr. Joydeep Bose, Regional Coordinator-CA|TS, IBCA (joydeep@ibca.world) based out of its secretariat in New Delhi, India as the IBCA nodal person for coordinating CA|TS implementation in the TRCs.
IBCA will be working closely with the CA|TS International Executive Committee (IEC) and the Tiger Range Countries through their nodal tiger conservation authorities-mainly through the CA|TS National Committees-where in place and functional.
Goal: IBCA’s Goal for CA|TS is for CA|TS to build/strengthen management capacity of tiger conservation /potential tiger conservation sites as per international standards for effective tiger conservation in harmony with local communities and to provide international recognition/acknowledgement to sites that meet the CA|TS standards.
Objective: The primary objective of IBCA towards meeting the goal is to facilitate/coordinate Institutionalization of CA|TS –as gold standards for tiger conservation-within government systems of TRCs.
There are 132 registered CA|TS sites in seven countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Malaysia, Nepal and Russia), with 34 achieving CA|TS Approved status-26 in India, 4 in Bhutan, 2 in Russia and 1 each in Nepal and Malaysia. There are other sites in TRCs which are undergoing assessments for possible CA|TS approved status in the near future.
Other sites are under assessment for approval.
CA|TS – the first species-specific “Conservation Assured” standards: The first species-specific CA standards are for the tiger (Panthera tigris). Few tiger conservation areas are truly effective refuges for tigers and this has contributed to a catastrophic decline in their numbers. Tigers have already disappeared from several protected areas where they were until recently regarded as secure. The globally accepted goal of doubling the number of wild tigers by 2022 was nearly achieved without a significant increase in the effectiveness of the tiger conservation areas across the remaining tiger range countries but there is immense scope for improvement especially in some Southeast Asia countries.
Launched at the 1st Asian Parks Congress in Japan in 2013, CA|TS is a global certification system that ensures effective management specifically of tiger conservation areas. It sets benchmarks for protection, habitat management, community involvement, and wildlife monitoring. CA|TS helps identify strengths and improvement areas within reserves, supporting efforts to create safe, sustainable environments for tigers and preserve global biodiversity. CA|TS consists of 7 pillars (Importance and status, Management, Community, Tourism (optional), Protection, Habitat management, Tiger populations) and 17 elements with standards and criteria for managing tiger conservation areas. Five of these pillars are applicable to conservation area management in general (although with a species-specific focus) and represent the Conservation Assured (CA) aspect of the scheme; the two final pillars focus specifically on management issues related to tiger conservation – the Tiger Standards (TS).
No single entity-including WWF “owns” CA|TS. CA|TS was developed by a set of international experts including from WWF. CA|TS is led by a broad partnership of organizations sitting in five distinct groups (please see governance structure above) plus the tiger conservation areas (TCAs). WWF is the main CA|TS implementing partner of the TRC National Committee/Jurisdictional committees as part of the National committees and or/part of the CA|TS partnership and management teams. Currently, with effect from 1st April 2025, IBCA is the secretariat and host for CA|TS with the CA|TS Regional Coordinator on secondment from WWF-India to IBCA till the position gets fully institutionalized within IBCA.
No, CA|TS is not a funding agency and does not per se fund Registered/Approved sites. CA|TS is a Protected & Conserved Area assessment and Accreditation tool. The assessment gap analysis and recommendations are used by the Protected Areas/National committees/other tiger conservation Governance/nodal bodies for raising funds to meet the gaps and recommendations from Government and Non-government funding agencies. The CA|TS Management team may assist with fund raising for the CA|TS Registered and Approved sites.
This is covered under “Why implement CA|TS section” in detail. The setting of standards implies a dual approach of both recognizing those areas which have reached a high standard of management, and making a focused and concerted effort to work with areas not yet at this level to develop management systems which meet these standards. CA|TS is thus both a diagnostic and Accreditation tool-assessments help in conservation gap analysis as per international standards that can be used for generating resources-including financial- for gap feeling. Secondly, CA|TS Approved status provides a site with international recognition and pride value. This again can be used appropriately to improve site profile and generating additional relevant and necessary resources for maintaining CA|TS approved status over the years.
Assessment and certification systems differ in the extent to which they provide information on success or failure; some give a “score”, others a simple pass/fail, while others rely on a more general description of management strengths and weaknesses. The usefulness of assessments, and implementation of results, can often be improved if there is a clear understanding of what managers should be aiming for, by agreeing some basic standards against which to judge an assessment. The importance of this standard setting has been reinforced by the CBD, which requested the development of standards for protected areas in its Programme of Work on Protected Areas. As a result of the new emphasis on standards, voluntary assessment and certification schemes based on compliance with management standards have begun to be developed for protected areas.
Till CA|TS was developed, there was no set of standards and criteria which provided clarity on, or encouraged further development and sharing of, best practice management across tiger range countries based on uniform standards and criteria across the Tiger Range Countries.
CA|TS is not a new management effectiveness system or a ranking of tiger conservation areas; but rather provides the means to tell if a particular area attains the best practice standards needed to conserve tigers. Tiger conservation areas taking part in the system will be recorded as either Registered (but standard not yet attained) or as Approved (achieving the standards as verified through an auditing and independent review process); excellence would be expressed in terms of highlighting specific best practices. Whether tiger conservation areas meet the criteria is based on a process which starts with self-assessment, progresses through a system of national audit and is finally approved by an international executive committee, which ensures equivalence across tiger range countries. CA|TS provides an opportunity for individual tiger conservation areas or networks of areas to demonstrate their commitment to, and success in, protecting tigers. It is a voluntary, independent scheme for any area involved in tiger conservation.
Yes. A site may implement multiple MEE/accreditation tools/systems in the same site, e.g. CA|TS, IUCN-Green List, etc. Also general MEE is a pre-requisite for CA|TS.
CA|TS is based on an audit of the normal monitoring and assessment processes applied in a tiger conservation area and therefore adds little to the workload. The self-assessment should not take long if good systems of record keeping are in place. Being recognized as achieving CA|TS should not be confused with the effort that may be required at some areas to develop best practice management systems; for many areas this may entail significant capacity development over several years. In areas which need to draw up action plans to develop the management process and systems to comply with the CA|TS criteria, additional funding may be required. The development of a clear action plan to assist compliance with CA|TS may help generate funding for enhancing management.
A two-day training course has been developed to introduce the contents of the CA|TS manual (i.e. the processes, standards and criteria) and to any persons involved in CA|TS implementation. It is expected that representative from sites registering for CA|TS, national committee members and expert reviewers will participate in the course.
Once a site gets CA|TS Approved, the Approval remains valid indefinitely. Every three years, a simple assessment is carried out and if there are no major” red flags”, the CA|TS Approved status continues. In case of major issues/red flags, the site is required to undergo re-assessment following the CA|TS assessment process.
Yes, A “CA|TS Lite” version is available for quick assessment of a site based on a 40 question questionnaire requiring just scoring against four options. This can be done through self-assessment of PCA managers themselves or with external stakeholders.
CA|TS uses both paper based forms for the assessment process as well as a “CA|TS log” software which works offline. Based on convenience of the sites, they have the option of choosing either option.
