Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) presented its 3-year-old nation-wide cheetah monitoring project in a workshop in Ardakan County, Yazd Province. Held jointly by Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP) and Yazd Office of Iran Department of the Environment (DoE); together with ICS, Yazd DoE’s managers, deputies of Wildlife & Biodiversity Bureau of Iran DoE, Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), local wildlife authorities, cheetah reserves’ wardens, and a local mining company participated in the one-day workshop.
The workshop aimed to gather local and national cheetah conservationists and decision makers in order to share the most up-to-date information about the status of the Critically Endangered Asiatic cheetah in Iran, and to form a participatory framework to discuss urgent actions required to save the species from extinction in its last stronghold on the Earth.
During the workshop, ICS experts presented their findings after three years of intensive camera-trapping in cheetah reserves across Yazd Province. A framework to more actively involve the local residents in cheetah conservation was also presented. Additionally, CACP managers and PWHF experts discussed results of their projects across the country and future approaches for cheetah conservation in Iran. The workshop participants discussed the obstacles to cheetah conservation in Iran, and agreed to continue such initiatives to boost efforts to save the highly threatened Asiatic cheetah.