The last issue of IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group’s newsletter, Cat News , features three articles about the Asiatic cheetah in Iran. In a letter published by ICS Cheetah Survey Team, our scientists call for urgent international attention to save the Asiatic cheetah in Iran. “The inadequate political will to mitigate continuing external threats to the Asiatic cheetah survival has been partly responsible for the failure of current conservation activities”, writes our scientists. The Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP), an international initiative launched in 2001 to save the Asiatic cheetah, has been partially successful and must not be abandoned. “What Asiatic cheetah conservation urgently requires is negotiations at high levels to encourage the Iranian government to take a clear responsibility about the fate of the Asiatic cheetah” writes our scientists in this letter. Read our scientists’ letter here.
Dr. Urs Breitenmoser, the Co-Chair of IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group, writes in the editorial of this issue of Cat News that “if the present situation continues for only for a few more years, the Asiatic cheetah will be lost forever.” “What we now need is an emergency rescue plan for the Asiatic cheetah, a global campaign similar to what helped saving the Iberian lynx from extinction some 15 years ago!”, he wrote. “Saving the Asiatic cheetah is one of the top priorities in cat conservation in the years to come.”
The Iranian Cheetah Society is working with several national and local partners, including the Iranian Department of Environment and CACP, to save the Asiatic cheetah from extinction. Learn how you help us reach this goal.
