The IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group brings together more than 200 of the world’s leading cat experts, including scientists, wildlife managers and conservationists from 65 countries who are dedicated to advance the understanding and conservation of the world’s 40 wild living cat species. The Cat Specialist Group is responsible for the global monitoring and conservation of all wild living cat species. It is one of over 160 specialist groups forming the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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The Cat Specialist Group is active in many of its own initiatives, focusing on the development of tools for the assessment of the species’ status, on the compilation and distribution of intelligence and on supporting the work of its members. A central concern is to promote the dialogue among scientists and practitioners throughout the world. The group believes that cooperation and sharing of knowledge are critical for the conservation of the wild cats. The main tasks of the Cat SG include:

• Maintaining and updating the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (TM) for the cat taxa;

• Supporting Green Status Assessments of the cat taxa;

• Developing conservation strategies, action plans and policy guidelines for cat taxa and support their implementation;

• Advising governmental and private organisations engaged in species conservation;

• Working together with international conventions such as Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) or the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS);

• Enhancing collaboration and improving networking between experts, organisations and institutions working on cat conservation;

• Supporting Cat SG members with their work for cat conservation;

• Establishing and distributing information on the status and conservation; needs of all wild cat species through an own publication series Cat News and the Cat SG website;

• Education and training of nature conservation experts (capacity development).

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