CMS Saiga MoU Coordination

International cooperation has been central to saiga conservation for the last two decades. Saigas cross national borders, are affected by international trade, and face threats that no single country or organisation can tackle alone.

A major step came through the Convention on Migratory Species, when range-state governments and conservation experts came together under the Saiga Memorandum of Understanding. The MoU provides a shared international framework for saiga conservation, bringing governments, NGOs, academics, funders, and other partners together around agreed priorities and coordinated action.

SCA became formally involved in this process in 2010, when we joined the MoU as a Cooperating Organisation alongside other international conservation organisations and the IUCN Species Survival Commission. At the same meeting, SCA and the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan were appointed as technical coordinators for the MoU.

Since then, SCA has helped facilitate the exchange of information between governments, researchers, conservation organisations, and other partners across the saiga range. This has included contributing technical expertise to international meetings, helping draft key documents, supporting workshops, sharing research and project information, and keeping the wider conservation community connected between formal meetings.

The MoU is supported by a Medium-Term International Work Programme, which sets out agreed conservation actions in five-year cycles. SCA has helped partners share progress against these priorities and connect practical work on issues such as monitoring, disease, trade, habitat, and community engagement with the wider international process.

SCA has also helped strengthen communication through the Saiga Resource Centre and Saiga News, making information, research, project updates, and conservation experience accessible across the range. We have supported international policy discussions beyond the CMS process too, including CITES side events and technical work on issues such as the sustainable use of saigas.

More recently, the Central Asian Mammals Initiative has provided a broader umbrella for coordinating work across migratory species in the region, helping identify shared solutions to challenges such as linear infrastructure and habitat fragmentation.

The strength of the Saiga MoU lies in the community around it. Governments, NGOs, researchers, funders, and practitioners have been able to agree on priorities, share evidence, and report progress through a common framework. SCA’s role has been to help sustain those connections and ensure that technical knowledge and experience from across the saiga range can feed into international decision-making.