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 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
a) Recognizing those areas which have reached a high standard of management, and
b) 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 of standards and processes 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. 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 or additional cost. 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 of CA|TS 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.

It is both. There is a software “CA|TS log” which can be used for the CA|TS assessments and can work offline. There are paper forms as well and Sites can use either the software or the paper forms. However, subsequently the contents of the paper forms need to be uploaded on the software. Currently, as only the paper forms are being used as the CA|TS log software is based on the earlier CA|TS manual v2.1 of 2020 and since then a new CA|TS manual version 3.0 (Sept. 2025) has been launched which again is undergoing further revision. Once the updated version comes out in 2027, the software will also be accordingly updated and use, resumed.