The International Big Cat Alliance marks a shift from species-specific national conservation to multilateral landscape governance. Critically examine.

India's conservation model began with Project Tiger (1973), a national programme for a single species. The International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) was launched at Project Tiger's 50-year commemoration in 2023 [2]. It became a treaty-based inter-governmental organisation on 23 January 2025 [3] and now covers seven big cats across three continents. The shift is real in design but still incomplete in practice.

Evidence of the shift

• From one species to many: IBCA covers the lion, tiger, leopard, snow leopard, cheetah, jaguar and puma [1]. These are umbrella species, so protecting them protects whole landscapes.
• From national to treaty-based: The Framework Agreement gives IBCA international legal personality [3]. Its Assembly, Standing Committee and Secretariat form a permanent governance structure [4].
• Multilateral reach: A High-Level Ministerial Segment at UNFCCC CoP30, Belém linked big cat conservation to climate diplomacy [5].
• Shared capacity: Through ITEC courses and the PRIME cat-health programme, veterinarians from 20 countries learn from India's field experience [1].

Limitations

• Thin coverage: IBCA has 29 members [1], but 95 range countries were invited to the 2026 Summit [6]. Landscape governance fails if the main habitat states stay out.
• Fragile finances: India gave ₹150 crore as one-time support for 2023-28. The permanent corpus from donors and agencies has still to be raised [4]. This risks IBCA being seen as an "Indian project".
• Declarations are not results: The 2010 global pledge to double wild tigers was not met in most range countries. Recovery depended on each country's own patrolling and funding.
• Institutional crowding: CITES and CMS already work on wildlife trade and migratory corridors. Without a clear division of work, IBCA could duplicate them.
• Sovereignty limits: Land use and anti-poaching enforcement stay under national law. IBCA can coordinate countries but cannot compel them.

IBCA has moved conservation from national, single-species efforts towards a legal, multi-species, multi-continent framework. To work as true landscape governance, it needs:

• priority membership for the main habitat states;
• working agreements with CITES and CMS;
• an early corpus funded by members.

Exporting India's Project Tiger experience would turn this ambition into results. That would advance SDG 15 and India's constitutional duty under Article 51A(g).