PICA Small Grant Programme winners 2021

19/11/2021 in Conservation

Funding from the Pallas’s cat International Conservation Alliance (PICA) Small Grant Programme (SGP) has been awarded to three critical projects to enable urgent conservation activities and help protect Pallas’s cats.

Selected from a total of nine applications from seven countries, these projects spanning Nepal, Turkmenistan and Bhutan will contribute to Pallas’s cat conservation in historically understudied range countries.

The winners (listed below) will each take a different approach to tackle the priorities defined in the Pallas’s cat conservation strategy developed in the initial phase of PICA.

• Density, activity pattern and threats of Manul in Central Himalaya of Nepal. Forum of Natural Resource Managers, Nepal.
• Finding Manul: Understanding the distribution and threats. Team Bars Turkmenistan.
• Assessing the conservation status of Pallas’s cats in Bhutan. Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environmental Research, Department of Forest and Park Services, Bhutan.

 

As one of the smallest and least known cats in the world, we need to understand more about Pallas’s cat threats, distribution, status and ecology in order to best protect this charismatic species. The PICA Small Grant Programme (SGP) was established in 2020 and builds capacity for Pallas’s cat conservation efforts in range countries, enabling projects and teams on the ground to initiate some of the most urgent conservation actions. After receiving generous funding from our zoo supporters, we were able to roll out the SGP again in 2021.

PHOTO CREDIT: Bikram Shrestha

The Pallas’s cat International Conservation Alliance (PICA) is a collaboration between RZSS, Norden’s Ark, Snow Leopard Trust, and funded by Fondation Segre. Supported by zoos around the world, PICA highlights the value of captive populations in supporting effective conservation action in range countries.

This project is funded by:

• The Pallas’s cat International Conservation Alliance: RZSS, Norden’s Ark, Snow Leopard Trust, Fondation Segre
• Key partners: La Torbiera, Hellabrunn, IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group, Tierpark Berlin
• Zoo supporters: Nasu Animal Kingdom, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens, Zoo de Lille, Lyon Zoo, Wrocław Zoo, Chester Zoo, Zoological Society of Hertfordshire (Paradise Wildlife Park), Kobe Animal Kingdom, Görlitz Zoo, Korkeasaari Zoo, Saitama Children’s Zoo

 To find out more about PICA and the work it supports, please visit pallascats.org.