Strengthening Conservation and Resilience of Globally-significant Wild Cat Landscapes through a Focus on Small Cat and Leopard Conservation Secure populations and habitats of wild cats subject to habitat encroachment, human-wildlife conflict, poaching and illegal trade in priority landscapes of northern, north-eastern and western India Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency. Overall, this project will secure the conservation of the globally-significant wild cat landscapes of Dudhwa in the northern Indian State of Uttar Pradesh and Pakke-Eaglenest in Arunachal Pradesh in the north-east through a landscape conservation approach in line with the National Wildlife Action Plan 2017-31, that broadens and brings together the conservation programs of individual species, connects stakeholders and empowers communities, and operates across PAs, identified tiger corridors and in buffer zones surrounding and connecting these areas. In addition, it will support the existing WWF-led landscape conservation programme at Ranthambhore in Rajasthan through limited interventions and knowledge exchange. The landscape conservation approach represents a shift away from the traditional approach of focusing resources solely on increasingly isolated protected areas, given that these PAs are ecologically and socio-economically inter-dependent on the mosaic of land uses in their surrounding landscapes. The landscape approach recognizes protected areas as core areas for biodiversity conservation and aims to ensure their integration with sustainable land use in buffer zones[1], and biological corridors that connect PAs in order to deliver sustainable and climate-resilient natural resource management, and addresses the conservation of globally significant large ranging mammals (e.g. tiger, rhino, elephant) as well as the suite of wild cat species and their prey. This approach is based on integrated ecosystem management[2], operating at the scales required to capture representative biodiversity and conserve major ecological processes and services.     The landscape conservation approach necessitates working across multiple scales and stakeholders in the natural resource management sector, including local communities, local forest user groups, and small-scale agriculture users. This recognizes that a sustainably managed landscape and provision of ecosystem services is critical for local livelihood provision, and likewise, sustainable and biodiversity-friendly community land use options are key to landscape conservation. The landscape conservation approach recognizes emerging threats to each of the project landscapes, particularly in the form of habitat fragmentation driven by economic development and increasing human populations, and includes coordination with production sectors, towards reducing threats to biodiversity, increasing sector engagement in landscape conservation, and facilitating local – state - national dialogue. The project will also seek to embed Global Wildlife Program threat-reduction priorities regarding combating human-wildlife conflict, poaching and illegal wildlife trade.    Wild cats themselves, being at the pinnacle of their respective food chains, have a vital role to play in maintaining the health of ecosystems by regulating prey populations. From the available literature it appears that small cats are largely specialised on rodent prey[3] and, especially in human landscapes, could play a vital role in regulating rodent populations and hence in disease control, apart from other economic benefits in preventing crop losses from rodent attack. Surprisingly, this has received little attention from research, funding and conservation circles. A study in Sariska TR, Rajasthan estimated that one Jungle Cat and one Caracal together eat around 5,000 rodents, equalling around 183 kg of rodents per year[4].    The global environmental benefits that will result from the GEF Project Alternative include ‘mainstreaming biodiversity across sectors as well as landscapes and seascapes through the Global Wildlife Program to prevent extinction of known threatened species’ and ‘addressing direct drivers to protect habitats and species and improve financial sustainability, effective management, and ecosystem coverage of the global protected area estate’. These will be achieved through the integrated and coordinated management of globally-significant wild cat landscapes in western, northern and north-eastern India; the improved management of 389,572 ha[5] of PAs in Dudhwa and Pakke-Eaglenest landscapes, including improved conservation of associated KBAs; and improved management of an estimated 100,000 ha of agricultural and forest mosaic that buffers and connects PAs and provides important habitats for small cats. These benefits are reflected in the GEF 7 Core Indicators in Annex F. In addition, the project will contribute directly towards the conservation and sustainable management of globally significant ecoregions – Dudhwa landscape is located in the Global 200 Terai-Duar Savannas and Grasslands ecoregion; Ranthambhore falls in the Kathiawar-Gir dry deciduous forests Ecoregion; and the NE India landscape lies in the East Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspot[6], and is part of the “East Himalayan Endemic Bird Area”[7]; its upper reaches are also recognised among the Global 200 Ecoregions as the “Eastern Himalayan Broadleaf and Conifer Forests” ranked as Vulnerable[8]. Each of these landscapes supports small wild cat populations such as fishing cat (VU) and clouded leopard (VU) (see prodoc Annex 18), as well as a diversity of other globally significant species including important populations of tiger (EN), leopard (VU), Asian elephant (EN), greater one-horned rhinoceros (VU), hog deer (EN), Barasingha (VU), gharial (CR), Gangetic dolphin (EN), swamp francolin (VU), Bengal florican (CR) Bugun liocichla (CR), and white-rumped, red-headed and Oriental white-backed vultures (all CR) (see the landscape profiles in prodoc Annex 16). The effective protection and management of such species, together with other species such as Indian (EN) and Chinese (CR) pangolins, Himalayan black bear (VU) and turtles that have been significantly targeted by poaching and the illegal wildlife trade, will contribute towards the goals of the GEF-7 Global Wildlife Program in addition to the supporting GEF-7 Biodiversity programs.          [1] Now being elaborated through Eco-Sensitive Zone planning for all PA buffer zones across India      [2] For example, see: https://www.thegef.org/news/integrated-ecosystem-management       [3] Nowell K. and Jackson P. (eds.) (1996). Wild Cats: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan, Vol. 382. IUCN SSC Cat specialist Group, Gland, 383pp.; Pocock R.I. (1939). Family Felidae, pp191–330. In: The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma: Mammalia, Vol. 1, Primates and Carnivora. Taylor &amp; Francis, Ltd., London, 572pp.; Sunquist M. and Sunquist F. (2002). Wild Cats of the World. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 462pp.      [4] Mukherjee S., Goyal S.P., Johnsingh A.J.T. and Pitman M.L. (2004). The importance of rodents in the diet of Jungle Cat (Felis chaus), Caracal (Caracal caracal) and Golden Jackal (Canis aureus) in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, India. Journal of Zoology, London 262(4): 405–411; https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952836903004783       [5] Core and Buffer Areas of Pakke TR, Eaglenest WS, Sessa Orchid Sanctuary, Dudhwa TR. Excludes ESZ of Eaglenest WS (5588 ha) and Ranthambhore TR (141,128 ha). PIF target was 520,949 ha.      [6] Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). 2005. Ecosystem Profile: Indo-Burman Hotspot, Eastern Himalayan Region. WWF US-Asian Program.       [7] Stattersfield, A. J., Crosby, M. J., Long, A. J. and Wege, D. C. (1998) Endemic Bird Areas of the World: Priorities for Biodiversity Conservation. BirdLife International Series No. 7. BirdLife International, U.K. PP Sultana, A. and Khan, J. A. (2000) Birds of Oak forests in the Kumaon Himalaya, Uttar Pradesh, India. Forktail16: 131-146.       [8] Olson, David M., and Eric Dinerstein. "The Global 200: Priority Ecoregions for Global Conservation." Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 89, no. 2 (2002): 199-224. doi:10.2307/3298564.