Women and Voices from Periphery: SLN & International Women’s Day

The Snow Leopard Network is hosting a special event for International Women’s Day, March 8th 2022. The theme for this year’s 2022 International Day is Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow. Our event takes this theme into highlighting the opportunities for translating gender equality into practice of community conservation.

We are delighted to welcome Deepshikha Sharma and Chemi Lhamo who have been working in the high Himalayas of Spiti, India on snow leopard conservation with the Nature Conservation Foundation India. Our guests bring a unique perspective of bringing new and long term programs to support women at community level, including identifying and empower women champions for snow leopard conservation. We are looking forward to hearing their account and how their work contributes to a ‘sustainable tomorrow’ for snow leopard landscapes.

Following SLN’s Women & Conservation Series launched in 2021, we organized a poll on Twitter asking members and the conservation community what they considered to be of greatest interest for an online discussion related to gender and conservation. Participants fed back that they would welcome additional discussions related to gender and community conservation. The March 8th event gives us an opportunity not only to hear from most recent experiences in Spiti, India but also a chance to provide a platform for SLN members to share examples of gender sensitive or responsive community conservation for snow leopards. 

After the main presentation and questions we will dedicate the remainder of the session to collating these examples and experiences. With this in mind we specially encourage SLN members to come ready to communicate briefly: links of projects or documented examples of similar efforts that we can subsequently add to SLN’s resource centre. Do join us to promote these themes. 

About the Talk

The high Himalayan landscape in Himachal Pradesh is fascinating geography with unique biodiversity. The communities share a rich understanding of living harmoniously with nature and coexisting with wildlife around them. Deepshikha & Chemi will reflect upon how women from these landscapes navigate conservation spaces, the joys, and struggles of bringing them to the forefront, and their experiences of building conservation champions and outreach networks.

Photo by the Nature Conservation Foundation

About our Guests

Deepshikha has a master’s degree in Development from Azim Premji University and is currently working as a conservation coordinator at Nature Conservation Foundation. She has been facilitating community-led conservation in upper Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh and in parts of Ladakh. She has been involved in the community issue of livestock depredation by wildlife and has been working towards raising awareness and reducing losses faced by herders. She is also working towards bringing local women to the forefront of conservation in the landscape.

 

Chemi has completed her post-graduate studies in Literature from the University of Delhi. She has worked in the Indian development sector as a communication professional raising awareness and engagement around issues of rural development, menstrual health & disaster relief, and rehabilitation. She currently works with NCF’s High Altitude Program to support conservation outreach in Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur & Ladakh. She is interested in exploring wildlife conservation through the lens of social justice and intersectionality.

Date/Time

Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 17:00 India time

Register today here

Please note

  • If you have never used Zoom before, we recommend that you try the link 10 minutes before the start of the lecture.
  • Please feel free to write questions in the comment area and there will be time for questions/discussion at the end of the talk.
  • Please note that the session will be recorded and later featured on the SLN website. If you have concerns about this please let us know before the session.
Photo by the Nature Conservation Foundation
Photo by the Nature Conservation Foundation
Photo by the Nature Conservation Foundation

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