Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav addressed the High-Level Ministerial Segment of the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) at UNFCCC CoP30 in Belem, Brazil, on Monday, calling for renewed global cooperation to safeguard big cat species and their habitats as part of integrated climate and biodiversity efforts, the Environment Ministry said.
The session was attended by Nepal’s Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Madan Prasad Pariyar, according to the ministry.
Thanking Brazil for hosting the event, Yadav described the theme—“Protecting Big Cats, Protecting Climate and Biodiversity”—as timely. He stressed that today’s ecological challenges are interconnected and demand coordinated solutions.
Yadav underscored the ecological role of big cats as apex predators and indicators of ecosystem health. “Where big cats thrive, forests are healthier, grasslands regenerate, water systems function, and carbon is stored efficiently in living landscapes,” he said. Declines in their populations, he warned, weaken ecosystems, reduce climate resilience and diminish natural carbon sinks.
Positioning “Big Cat Landscapes” as nature-based climate solutions, the Minister urged that such actions be placed at the core of future NDCs. What is often described as wildlife conservation, he said, is effectively climate action in its most natural form, contributing directly to carbon sequestration, watershed protection, disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation and sustainable livelihoods.
Yadav highlighted IBCA’s potential to assist countries through technical expertise, standardised tools, capacity building, south–south cooperation and mobilisation of blended finance as well as biodiversity–carbon credit mechanisms.
He also detailed India’s role as home to five of the world’s seven big cat species and pointed to the country’s conservation achievements. India has doubled its tiger population ahead of schedule, he said, and the Asiatic lion population continues to grow. He noted that India has developed one of the world’s most extensive wildlife databases through national assessments of tigers, lions, leopards and snow leopards, alongside the expansion of protected areas, corridor protection and community-based conservation initiatives.
The Minister noted the growing membership of the International Big Cat Alliance, describing it as a vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi based on trust, mutual respect and shared responsibility, echoing the philosophy of “One Earth, One World, One Future.” Seventeen countries are formally part of the alliance, with more than 30 others expressing interest in joining.
Yadav said India aims to bring all big cat range countries and all biodiversity- and climate-focused nations into the alliance. He announced that India will host a “Global Big Cats Summit” in New Delhi in 2026 and invited all range countries to contribute their experiences and strategies for protecting big cats and their habitats. He also appealed for wider participation in IBCA to strengthen global conservation partnerships.
Calling for collective action, Yadav said the world is at a moment of ecological realignment that demands solidarity. “We must collaborate, not compete. We must find strength not in isolation, but in solidarity,” he said.
He concluded by underscoring the global importance of big cat conservation: “Protecting big cats is protecting our shared planet. Protecting big cats is protecting our future.”
