© Arannayk Foundation/Arifur Rahman
Across the forests of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, protecting big cats means protecting the habitats and communities that sustain them. At the national inception workshop of the Beyond Borders project, Forest Department officials, conservation experts and local partners outlined how habitat restoration, community livelihoods and transboundary cooperation can work together to secure these landscapes for the future.
A big cat does not recognize a border.
For wildlife moving through the forests of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the line separating Bangladesh from India is a human boundary. What matters to the animal is whether the forest remains connected, whether prey is available, and whether the habitat is safe enough to move through.
That reality sits at the heart of Beyond Borders: Securing Big Cats and Their Habitats Across the Chittagong-Lushai Transboundary Landscape of Bangladesh and India, a 30-month initiative led by Arannayk Foundation in collaboration with the Bangladesh Forest Department and IUCN.
At the National Inception Workshop in Dhaka, conservation leaders, forest officials and technical experts gathered to discuss how that ambition can become practical action across the hill forests of Rangamati and Bandarban. Their message was clear: securing big cats will require more than protecting individual species. It will require restoring habitats, reducing pressure on forests, working with communities and building stronger institutional cooperation across the landscape.
Comments