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Asiatic Cheetah Conservation Program

Explorers of Hope Follow the Trail of a Cheetah in a Rural Area

by pourmir November 12, 2023

written by pourmir 1 minutes read

Last week, we received a report about the sighting of a cheetah by the residents of Kalateh Sadat village. We, who were working in Touran, went to the site with the rangers as part of the “Explorers of Hope” project and talked to the person who had filmed the cheetah. The calmness of the animal and its reluctance to leave the area was a worrying issue for us.

After examining all the evidence, it seemed that the animal had hunted in the same area where there were plenty of gazelles, and that was why it did not leave the place. The rangers of Touran and the experts of the Department of Environment of Miyami city also arrived in the area and we accompanied them.

Considering the lack of further sightings of this cheetah, we hope that it has moved away from this road.

Two important points should be mentioned: Mr. Mousavi emphasizes in the video that the cheetah is weak. We do not see anything suspicious in the video. Generally, people who are not familiar with the physique of the cheetah think that the animal is sick and skinny, while this body shape is part of the evolved anatomy of the Asiatic Cheetah.

The video quality is low and the image is not identifiable. However, considering the proximity of the point where “Mahatab” was recently filmed, we guess that this cheetah is Mahatab. Watch the video report (in Persian) on our YouTube channel.

November 12, 2023 0 comments

Hiring rangers in Asiatic Cheetah habitat

Asiatic Cheetah Conservation Program

Supporting Cheetah Conservation: Increasing Conservation Forces in Touran and Miandasht

by pourmir July 31, 2022

written by pourmir 0 minutes read

Efficient protection forces are essential for preserving endangered species such as the Asiatic Cheetah. By increasing the number of protection forces in each habitat, the quality of protection in the region can be improved. In 2021, the Iranian Cheetah Society hired two rangers in the Touran Biosphere Reserve. These rangers, who are also from the local community, help with patrolling, rehabilitation, and water supply to waterholes, among other activities. We were able to extend their contracts for another full year thanks to our national and international donors.

July 31, 2022 0 comments

The Iranian Cheetah Society’s statement following the news of the release of new areas for mining exploration in the only viable habitat of the cheetah.

ICS News

Iranian Cheetah Society Responds to Mining Plans in Cheetah Habitat

by pourmir May 23, 2022

written by pourmir 1 minutes read

Following the news of the release of new areas for mining exploration, the society expressed its concern to the government about the new mining activities in Touran and Miandasht and published the response for public awareness. In the image, the extensive overlap of the new area with the last viable habitat of the cheetah in Iran can be seen. The green area indicates the border of the Touran Biosphere Reserve and the red line is the area released in the cadastre system of the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade with an area of about 16 thousand square kilometers. An area that practically includes all points of cheetah observation in Touran.

In the follow-up, we learned that the Office of Habitats and Protected Areas Affairs, which is responsible for issuing mining permits in the Department of Environment, had considered this announcement illegal and had also reflected the violation to the judiciary. In a recent meeting with the director general of this office, we also received a letter from the judiciary to the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade regarding these areas. In this letter, which cannot be published publicly for legal reasons, the judiciary has warned the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade that if it repeats violations of regulations by not issuing permits in protected areas, this will be considered a violation of government employees’ law and will face serious confrontation by the judicial system.

May 23, 2022 0 comments

Explorers of Hope

North Khorasan journey with explorers of hope team

by pourmir August 26, 2021

written by pourmir 1 minutes read

Due to the pandemic of Covid-19 and its limitations, the Explorers of Hope team was not able to travel in the past months, and their major activities were focused on collecting information from long distances. Finally, they traveled to Joghatay country in cooperation with the Department of Environment of Khorasan province on 28 and 29 July 2021.

Explorers of Hope team surveyed between Miandasht Wildlife Refuge and Touran Biosphere Reserve to recognize the probable crossing corridor of Cheetah with the accompany of the head of Joghatay’s DOE. For this purpose, they interviewed local people such as farmers, ranchers, and shepherds who are in the rangeland of the area.
In the continuation of surveying, the team visited the probable areas of Cheetah presence reported by the locals and the area’s water sources. The data shows the conclusion that recognizing the potential crossing corridor of cheetahs requires more investigations in northern villages in the Semnan province and the Abass Abad region.

August 26, 2021 0 comments

ICS News

Proof of Asiatic Cheetah presence in rangeland which ICS and IUCN NL secured for conservation

by pourmir August 22, 2021

written by pourmir 2 minutes read

The Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS), supported by IUCN Netherlands, succeeded in evacuating livestock in 5,600 hectares of rangeland on the edge of Touran National Park. This intervention soon paid off; these photos are the first pictures of the Asiatic Cheetah’s presence in this area! Unfortunately, even though the 5,600 hectares are located in a vital part of the cheetah’s habitat in Iran, no cheetah pictures were available from this area.

[irp posts=”22791″ name=”The starting of nationwide population monitoring the Asiatic Cheetah”]

Background

Livestock evacuation from the rangelands in this area became a priority action for ICS and the Iranian Department of the Environment (DOE) in this region to protect the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah from extinction. ICS estimates that less than 30 Asiatic Cheetahs remain in the wild, all of them in Iran. ICS managed to revoke the grazing permits and installed the camera traps in this area to ensure the presence of this valuable species.

Annually, almost 80.000 livestock in more than 120 herds with 300 dogs are allowed to roam across the Touran Biosphere Reserve. However, due to drought in recent years, herds occupy the most suitable pastures and proper habitats. This makes the ungulates and their predators move to less-preferred areas during harsh winters. Besides, the wildlife is also directly affected because of many herd dogs within the area, as well as cryptic poaching efforts by herders. Poachers also find more opportunities during grazing seasons because they can pretend they are herders looking for their livestock or trying to find proper vegetation for their animals.

In fact, due to the presence of livestock higher than this arid area’s capacity, Touran Biosphere Reserve provides risky winters for the wildlife, both due to drawbacks in proper grazing habitats for the wildlife as well as much more susceptibility to the poachers due to the presence of many people inside the area.

Accordingly, several Asiatic Cheetahs have been caught/killed by people/herd dogs in recent years during their presence with their domestic animals. Also, overgrazing threatens Asiatic Cheetah’s prey with limited food resources and makes them go to higher elevations because their habitat is occupied by livestock.

Success

These recorded photos are the first pictures of the cheetah’s presence in this area. According to the identification database, they belong to identified cheetahs with the names of Telma and Fegheh. Thus, the recorded presence of these two cheetahs in the new area is now undeniable, which is a fascinating reward for the hard work of our field team.

Currently, ICS monitors all critical Asiatic Cheetah spots in Touran Biosphere Reserve using camera traps in cooperation with the Iranian DOE.

[irp posts=”22522″ name=”Creating a Livestock-Free Wildlife Refuge to Safeguard the Critically Endangered Asiatic Cheetah”]

August 22, 2021 0 comments

Discovery of an Asiatic cheetah carcass in the city of Miami

Explorers of Hope

Discovery of an Asiatic cheetah carcass in the city of Mayamei

by pourmir May 15, 2021

written by pourmir 0 minutes read

On the 12th of May,2021 the authorities announced the discovery of an Asiatic cheetah carcass around Maimi city.
The carcass, which included the end of the body of a female cheetah, was found by a local rancher. According to the Department of Environment of Semnan Province, the cause of death is still unknown and a long time has passed since it.

May 15, 2021 0 comments

Asiatic Cheetah Conservation Program

Livestock removed from a 5,600+ hectares area to make it a secure home for Asiatic Cheetah

by pourmir March 17, 2021

written by pourmir 3 minutes read

Conservation is a complicated field that could differ with different situations and the target species. These complication gets higher when the local people and their interests are involved in a project. One of the biggest enigmas for conservationists is creating a win-win situation. Therefore, they always need to assess the situation and use the previous experiences with an open mind.

Iran is home to the last wild population of Asiatic Cheetahs in the world. Two areas have always been of importance; Miandasht Wildlife Refuge and Touran Biosphere Reserve. Due to ICS investigations, it is clear that grazing rights are an endangerment for cheetahs in these areas. With the help of the Netherlands’ IUCN National Committee, we were looking for an appropriate and efficient solution for reducing the overgrazing pressure of livestock in the cheetah’s habitat. The initial idea was to relocate herders outside the national park to secure critical seasons (i.e., winter and spring) for the cheetah and decreasing livestock overgrazing pressure on the area’s fragile rangelands to provide resources for wild ungulates.

Asiatic Cheetah in Touran Biosphere Reserve

As the project furthered, we found out that the livestock grazing permission prices have doubled up. This made the available budget insufficient. Thus, the negotiations for buying all the available permits didn’t work out at the moment. Hence, the ICS came to an agreement with the DoE of Semnan province so they would pay for the rest of the budget.

The failure in providing the needed budget until 2017, reduction of Rial value, and increasing inflation made the ICS change the project location. After contacting other provinces’ Departments of Environment that host Cheetah and coordinating with the Conservation of Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP) and the DoE of North Khorasan request, ICS finally relocated this project to this province. Again, the process of buying the grazing permits in the Miandasht Wildlife Reserve started, but because of the government budget allocation, the prices raised again, and once more, the project came to a stop.

In 2018 and after management changes in Semnan province, ICS reconsidered the Touran National Park for the project again. Finally, the negotiations with one of the stock owners were going according to the plans, and even the budget was enough this time. Still, unfortunately, because of the official technicalities, the project remained unfinished.
In 2020 the ICS and DoE both separately started corresponding with the Department of Forests and Rangelands and the Iranian parliament to discuss law enforcement’s absence, which never happened because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the ICS tried to maintain the agreement with the stock owner. Due to the one-year pause between the agreement, the price of grazing permits doubled again; we feared we would not be able to finalize the deal.
But we succeeded! We finalized our agreement with one of the most important permission owners in Touran Biosphere Reserve. With the revocation of the exploitation permit in the northern edge of Touran National Park, an area of 5,600 hectares will be permanently empty of livestock. This permit has covered 498 livestock.

Panorama view of the purchased pasture

Panorama view coral in the purchased pasture

Although this project was postponed due to unforeseen events, it brought us the same amount of lessons learned and ultimately ended in an impressive end.” We would like to thank Netherlands’ IUCN National Committee Land Acquisition Program for their commitment to make this a success. Because of our joint efforts, an important area has been secured for the next generation of Asiatic Cheetah in one of the key reserves.

Map of pasture in Touran

March 17, 2021 0 comments

Explorers of Hope

Observation of two Asiatic Cheetahs on the side of Tehran-Mashhad road

by pourmir January 14, 2021

written by pourmir 0 minutes read

In recent days two Asiatic cheetahs have been seen on the side of the Tehran-Mashhad road, around the Abbas Abad area.
Although seeing them is gratifying their nearness to the road is a great alarm.
It is possible that these two cheetahs wanted to cross the road, and in the absence of fences and high-speed vehicles, this could have caused an accident.
The experts of the Iranian Cheetah Society have visited this area and the rangers are patrolling to make sure of these two cheetahs’ safety.

January 14, 2021 0 comments

Asiatic Cheetah Conservation Program

Creating a Livestock-Free Wildlife Refuge to Safeguard the Critically Endangered Asiatic Cheetah

by pourmir December 6, 2020

written by pourmir 1 minutes read

The project “Securing Touran National Park for Asiatic Cheetahs” was officially funded by IUCN NL Land Acquisition Program in August 2014. The initial goal was to lease ca. 516 km2 of Turan National Park from grazing permit owners and securing critical seasons (i.e., winter and spring) for the Asiatic Cheetah and its prey species. The project started positively but experienced a series of unfortunate setbacks along the way, which has protracted the project for years.

Ultimately, an amendment was signed by ICS and IUCN NL to authorize the relocation of the project in 2017. This relocation was supposed to help ICS focusing on work rather than corruption and conflicts. Based on the amendment, the project title officially changed to “Creating a Livestock-Free Wildlife Refuge to Safeguard the Critically Endangered Asiatic Cheetah in Northern Iran.” This project is still ongoing in ICS, which is prioritized in the yearly work plan.

Asiatic Cheetah and Dogs in Miandasht Wildlife Refuge

This year, IUCN NL celebrates the 20th anniversary of the IUCN NL land acquisition fund, which allowed over 100 NGOs to protect and connect the – often fragmented – habitats of endangered species. Stories of these local partners and their conservation efforts are presented in an extensive anniversary report. ICS has also shared its experiences during this complex project in the anniversary report.

You can download the “Anniversary report: two decades of land acquisition for conservation” from the box below.

TWO DECADES OF LAND ACQUISITION FOR CONSERVATION

Download Report

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Further reading:

Learn more about Land Acquisition Fund on the IUCN NL website

December 6, 2020 0 comments

Explorers of Hope

New threat for the Asiatic Cheetah habitat +UPDATE

by pourmir September 26, 2020

written by pourmir 2 minutes read

The Asiatic Cheetah is a species with continuous movement. According to ICS’s data recorded throughout the 3 phases of the Population Monitoring Program, this animal can move over 200 kilometers in just a few months. Therefore safe corridors are of high importance in conserving this species. A significant portion of cheetah mortality also occurs in these areas.

The ICS is trying to observe the presence of cheetahs in these habitats through the “Explorers of Hope” Project. Based on habitat suitability modelings, these habitats are of high desirability and importance for the species or have recorded cheetah signs in them.
One of those areas is located in the province of South-Khorasan. A critical and the only corridor for the movement of the species from Naybandan wildlife refuge towards Semnan and Razavi-Khorasan provinces.

Received information claim that the South-Khorasan Department of Roads and Urban Development is planning to construct a new road in this area, connecting Bajestan to Boshruyeh. The department has also announced that the project is awaiting the permission of the Department of Environment.

According to the Iranian Environment and Wildlife Watch news agency, the South-Khorasan DoE has sent the plan to the office of Habitats and Protected Area Affairs in the central Department of Environment for confirmation. Concerning the importance of the issue, the ICS has sent a letter to this office regarding the potential threat that developing this road will make to the extremely endangered species of Asiatic Cheetah. We hope this department will strictly reject this plan; otherwise, the only possible connection point between southern and northern habitats would be disconnected by a 4-laned Road. We will stand against this project to make sure it will be canceled.