Ev-K²-Cnr and WWF-Nepal, together for the snow leopard

August 2006- “Nature is talking to us and we should listen and act now”. This was the warning made a few days ago by the “Earth greats”, united in Curtiba, Brasil. The Ev-K²-Cnr Committee seems to have taken them literally. The Italian association led by Agostino Da Polenza has just signed an important agreement with WWF Nepal to protect the endangered species of the Sagarmatha National Park.


The agreement was signed on March, 24th 2006 by the president of the Ev-K²-CNR Committee and Dr. Chandra Gurung, Country Representative of WWF Nepal at WWF’s Baluwatar office in Kathmandu. The two associations are going to undertake research, monitoring and protection initiatives for the conservation of snow leopards living in the area and their prey. The snow leopard is the most charming feline in the world.

“This is an excellent result – commented Agostino Da Polenza – the fruit of many years’ research done by Professor Sandro Lovari. This collaboration focuses on snow leopards, but does strengthen our classical stream of biological research on Himalayan ungulates, too. Once again the Ev-K²-Cnr research programs have demonstrated not only their high scientific value, but also their capacity to give rise to concrete projects for environment valorization, ecosystem conservation and sustainable development of the fragile mountain areas, like the Sagarmatha National Park.”

Professor Lovari will be in charge of the “Snow Leopard: Vanishing Tracks on the Roof of the World” project, within the next three years. The plan foresees scientific research aimed at indentifying the number, features, and the habits of the snow leopards and prey living in the area. It also includes several initiatives for protecting and promoting all these endangered species.

Sandro Lovari has been dealing with mountain wildlife for over thirty years. Since 1989, he has been working in the Himalayas with the Ev-K²-Cnr Committee, studying tahrs in particular. The Snow Leopard project begun to take shape in 2003, as Lovari extraordinarily met a specimen of the snow leopard during a research mission in Nepal. The feline was the first one seen in the area since the species disappeared from the Sagarmatha National Park in the sixties.

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