Project Fishing Cat Bangladesh consists of a group of young conservation biologists of Bangladesh led by Sayam Chowdhury. Sayam has been working on globally threatened species conservation and research in Bangladesh and abroad over the last 10 years.
Sayam and his team aim to collect baseline information on fishing cat ecology in Bangladesh as well as understand and mitigate conflict with locals in order to ensure long-term conservation at Hail Haor, northeast Bangladesh. Through community awareness programs, outreach events and innovative approaches at the project site they strive to reduce conflict with fishing cats, and to train and engage selected members of the local communities to collect data, rescue captured or injured fishing cats and ideally formulate a local cat conservation/response team.
Nazim Uddin Prince and Md. Foysal are mainly working with local communities in order to understand conflicts and implement mitigation projects. Both of them have vast experience with local people, the key to successful conservation of wildlife. Sakib Ahmed assists with secondary data analysis, report and proposal writing aspects of the project. Dr. Shimona Quazi is an advisor of the project; she reviews the social and natural scientific standards and procedures of the field operations.
Objectives:
- Understand the human-fishing cat conflict in the project site.
- Reduce conflicts through community awareness programs, outreach events and innovative approaches at the project site.
- Train and engage selected members of the local communities to collect data, rescue captured or injured fishing cats and ideally formulate a local cat conservation/response team.
- Understand the population status of the fishing cat at Baikka Beel and
surrounding areas, Hail Haor, northeast Bangladesh.
Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance 