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Mishra, C., Young, J. C., Fiechter, M., Rutherford, B., Redpath, S. M. (2017). Building partnerships with communities for biodiversity conservation: lessons from Asian mountains. Journal of Applied Ecology, , 1–9.
Abstract: Applied ecology lies at the intersection of human societies and natural systems. Consequently, applied ecologists are constantly challenged as to how best to use ecological knowledge to influence the management of ecosystems (Habel et al. 2013). As Hulme (2011) has pointed out, to do so effectively we must leave our ivory towers and engage with stakeholders. This engagement is especially important and challenging in areas of the world where poverty, weak institutions and poor governance structures conspire to limit the ability of local communities to contribute to biodiversity conservation. These communities often bear disproportionate costs in the form of curtailed access to natural resources, ecosystem services, and developmental
programmes, and also suffer wildlife-caused damage, including injuries or loss of human life, and economic and psychological impacts (Madhusudan & Mishra 2003). It is well-recognized that conservation efforts in large parts of the world historically have been perceived to be discriminatory by local people (Mishra 2016). The need for engagement with local communities is therefore embedded in the 2020 Aichi biodiversity targets and is widely thought to be critical to the success of conservation efforts. However, although the need for engagement is clear, as ecologists and practitioners we often have little formal training in how we should engage with local communities and how we can recognize the pitfalls and opportunities provided by developing genuine partnerships. The practical challenges of achieving effective engagement are considerable (Agrawal & Gibson 1999; Waylen et al. 2010, 2013), and such forays are fraught with difficulties and ethical considerations (Chan et al. 2007). When they are done badly, conservation interventions can damage relationships and trust, and lead to serious injustice to local people and setbacks for ecological outcomes (Duffy 2010). Much has been written on knowledge exchange and participatory research approaches (e.g. Reed et al. 2014 and references therein). This Practitioner’s Perspective seeks to focus on the next logical step: the elements that practitioners and researchers need to consider when engaging with communities to effect conservation. Engagement around the management of protected areas has been discussed and formalized (e.g. Dudley 2008). Considerable literature has also emerged, particularly from Africa, on the use and co-management of natural resources, commonly referred to as community-based natural resource management or CBNRM (e.g. Fabricius 2004; Roe, Nelson & Sandbrook 2009; Child & Barnes 2010). There have been attempts to draw general principles for CBNRM (e.g. Thakadu 2005; Gruber 2010). In the related field of community-based conservation, however, while there have been efforts to draw lessons (e.g. Berkes 2004), little exists in terms of frameworks or guidelines for effectively working with local communities to effect biodiversity conservation in multi-use landscapes (Mishra 2016). The eight principles for community-based conservation outlined here (Fig. 1) build on ideas developed in fields as diverse as applied ecology, conservation and natural resource management, community health, social psychology, rural development, negotiation theory, and ethics (see Mishra 2016). They have been developed, challenged and tested through 20 years of community experience andour own research on the endangered snow leopard Panthera uncia and its mountain ecosystems, in South and Central Asia. We suspect that with contextual adaptations, their relevance for applied ecologists and practitioners may be universal. |
Suryawanshi, K. R., Redpath, S. M., Bhatnagar, Y. V., Ramakrishnan, U., Chaturvedi, V., Smout, S. C., Mishra, C. Impact of wild prey availability on livestock predation by snow leopards. Royal Society Open Science, , 1–11.
Abstract: An increasing proportion of the world�s poor is rearing livestock today, and the global livestock population is growing. Livestock predation by large carnivores and their retaliatory
killing is becoming an economic and conservation concern. A common recommendation for carnivore conservation and for reducing predation on livestock is to increase wild prey populations based on the assumption that the carnivores will consume this alternative food. Livestock predation, however, could either reduce or intensify with increases in wild prey depending on prey choice and trends in carnivore abundance. We show that the extent of livestock predation by the endangered snow leopard Panthera uncia intensifies with increases in the density of wild ungulate prey, and subsequently stabilizes. We found that snow leopard density, estimated at seven sites, was a positive linear function of the density of wild ungulates�the preferred prey�and showed no discernible relationship with livestock density. We also found that modelled livestock predation increased with livestock density. Our results suggest that snow leopard conservation would benefit from an increase in wild ungulates, but that would intensify the problem of livestock predation for pastoralists. The potential benefits of increased wild prey abundance in reducing livestock predation can be overwhelmed by a resultant increase in snow leopard populations. Snow leopard conservation efforts aimed atfacilitating increases in wild prey must be accompanied by greater assistance for better livestock protection and offsetting the economic damage caused by carnivores. |
Din, J. U., Ali, H., Ali, A., Younus, M., Mehmood,, T., Rashid, Y. N., Nawaz, M. A. (2017). Pastoralist-predator interaction at the roof of the world: Conflict dynamics and implications for conservation. Ecology and Society, 22(2).
Abstract: Pastoralism and predation are two major concomitantly known facts and matters of concern for conservation biologists worldwide. Pastoralist-predator conflict constitutes a major social-ecological concern in the Pamir mountain range encompassing Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan, and affects community attitudes and tolerance toward carnivores. Very few studies have been conducted to understand the dynamics of livestock predation by large carnivores like snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and wolves (Canis
lupus), owing to the region�s remoteness and inaccessibility. This study attempts to assess the intensity of livestock predation (and resulting perceptions) by snow leopards and wolves across the Afghani, Pakistani, and Tajik Pamir range during the period January 2008�June 2012. The study found that livestock mortality due to disease is the most serious threat to livestock (an average 3.5 animal heads per household per year) and ultimately to the rural economy (an average of US$352 per household per year) as compared to predation (1.78 animal heads per household per year, US$191) in the three study sites. Overall, 1419 (315 per year) heads of livestock were reportedly killed by snow leopards (47%) and wolves (53%) in the study sites. People with comparatively smaller landholdings and limited earning options, other than livestock rearing, expressed negative attitudes toward both wolves and snow leopards and vice versa. Education was found to be an effective solution to dilute people�s hatred for predators. Low public tolerance of the wolf and snow leopard in general explained the magnitude of the threat facing predators in the Pamirs. This will likely continue unless tangible and informed conservation measures like disease control and predation compensation programs are taken among others. Keywords: Afghan Pamir; carnivore; conflict; Pak Pamir; pastoralist; predation; snow leopard; Tajik Pamir; wolf
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Kashkarov, E. (2017). THE SNOW LEOPARD OF KIRGIZIA: NATIONAL SHAME OR NATIONAL PRIDE.239–253.
Abstract: Article examines the problems existing in conservation of the snow leopard in Kirgizia after break-up of the
USSR. Unfortunate situation is common to most of the 14 countries in the snow leopard range, but seems especially sharp to Kirgizia. Yet half of the century ago Kirgizia has had about 1.5 thousand of the snow leopards, and today there remains no more than 1/10. In Soviet time Kirgizia was a global supplier of the snow leopards for the zoo-export � to create a reserve number of endangered cats in captivity. Today, at least half of the snow leopards in the Zoos of the world are individuals, caught in Kirgizia or their descendants. Since independence, Kirgizia has set new records. In Sarychat-Irtash reserve � the best for the snow leopard in Central Asia, and probably in the whole range � this species was completely destroyed after 3 years of reserve opening... and 17 years later � revived... Situation comes presently back to the worst-case scenario, and not only for the snow leopard. Author shows how work in this direction social and economic levers, and what kind future he would like to see in Kirgizia, where he lived for 12 years and was at the forefront of pioneering research of the snow leopard and its conservation. |
Kashkarov, E. (2017). ZOOGEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES IN WESTERN BERINGIA.208–217.
Abstract: Among zoogeographical discoveries of the frontier of XXI century there is nothing more interesting
than discoveries of Rodion Sivolobov in Western Beringia. Beringia has surprised us by paleontological discoveries many centuries ago, and also surprised by modern one. Somehow they came out of attention of all International environmental foundations and Academies of the world, as if on purpose to show their professional incompetence. It is the only way to describe the organization, not to notice the appearance of such big cats as the Snow leopard and Amur tiger for 5,000 kilometers from the border of main range, as well as large Pleistocene relict � the Irkuyembear. All three endangered species of mammals found by Sivolobov in Koryakia and Chukotka, and for the snow leopard he took the world's first photo in Beringia. New facts suggests two things: (1) the ancient refuges of big cats locate to Koryakia and Chukotka much closer of main ranges, (2) global warming, changing natural environment on the waves of hundred-year rhythms, periodically pushing irbis and tiger on the ways of ancient Beringian migrations stored in their genetic memories. Irkuyem is a contemporary of the mammoth. 209 Unlike it, this bear lived up to our days, but remained undetected even by the large “mammoths” of science. |
Sivolobov, R. (2017). ENDANGERED SPECIES OF KORYAKIA AND CHUKOTKA: IRBIS, TIGER AND THE IRKUYEM-BEAR.225–233.
Abstract: After 30 years of searching for the mysterious Beringian snow cat in vast space of Koryakia and Chukotka
one of the five cameras recorded finally this beast at night in September 2014. This is not so much a sensation as a real scientific discovery, saying that the hearts of the snow leopard population resettlement are not in 5000 km from the main range boundaries, but much closer. Where? � will show further studies. In addition to the snow leopard in the North-Eastern Asia, it found two more endangered large mammal species: the Amur tiger and the relict of the Ice Age � the Irkuyem-bear. Author has given these animals his life and his article devoted to this topic. |
Suryawanshi, K. R., Redpath, S., Bhatnagar, Y. V., Ramakrishnan, U., Chaturvedi, V., Smout, S. C., Mishra, C. (2017). Impact of wild prey availability on livestock predation by snow leopards. Royal Society Open Science, , 1–11.
Abstract: An increasing proportion of the world�s poor is rearing
livestock today, and the global livestock population is growing. Livestock predation by large carnivores and their retaliatory killing is becoming an economic and conservation concern. A common recommendation for carnivore conservation and for reducing predation on livestock is to increase wild prey populations based on the assumption that the carnivores will consume this alternative food. Livestock predation, however, could either reduce or intensify with increases in wild prey depending on prey choice and trends in carnivore abundance. We show that the extent of livestock predation by the endangered snow leopard Panthera uncia intensifies with increases in the density of wild ungulate prey, and subsequently stabilizes. We found that snow leopard density, estimated at seven sites, was a positive linear function of the density of wild ungulates�the preferred prey�and showed no discernible relationship with livestock density. We also found that modelled livestock predation increased with livestock density. Our results suggest that snow leopard conservation would benefit from an increase in wild ungulates, but that would intensify the problem of livestock predation for pastoralists. The potential benefits of increased wild prey abundance in reducing livestock predation can be overwhelmed by a resultant increase in snow leopard populations. Snow leopard conservation efforts aimed at facilitating increases in wild prey must be accompanied by greater assistance for better livestock protection and offsetting the economic damage caused by carnivores. |
Alexander, J. S., Bijoor, A., Gurmet, K., Murali, R., Mishra, C., Suryawanshi, K. R. (2022). Engaging women brings conservation benefits to snow leopard landscapes. Environmental Conservation, , 1–7.
Abstract: Protection of biodiversity requires inclusive and gender-responsive programming. Evidence of success in engaging women in large carnivore conservation remains scarce, however, although women play an important role in caring for livestock at risk of predation and could contribute to large-carnivore conservation. We aimed to assess the performance of an income-generation and skills-building programme for women in Spiti Valley (India) that sought to engage women in local conservation action. Annual programme monitoring together with a one-time survey of attitudes, perceptions and social norms in eight communities exposed to the conservation programme and seven ‘control’ communities revealed: a keen interest and increasing levels of women’s participation over 7 years of programme operation; participant reports of multiple programme benefits including additional personal income, social networking and travel opportunities; and more positive attitudes towards snow leopards among programme participants than among non-participants in the control communities. Women from programme communities recorded in their diaries 33 self-directed conservation actions including improving livestock protection and preventing wildlife poaching. These results show a way forward to purposively engage women in conservation programming towards achieving sustainable and equitable outcomes in efforts to promote carnivore–human coexistence.
Keywords: community conservation; gender; large carnivores; snow leopard; women
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Bohnett, E., Holmberg, J., Faryabi, S. P., An, L., Ahmad, B., Rashid, W., Ostrowski, S. (2023). Comparison of two individual identification algorithms for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) after automated detection. Ecological Informatics, 77(102214), 1–14.
Abstract: Photo-identification of individual snow leopards (Panthera uncia) is the primary data source for density estimation via capture-recapture statistical methods. To identify individual snow leopards in camera trap imagery, it is necessary to match individuals from a large number of images from multiple cameras and historical catalogues, which is both time-consuming and costly. The camouflaged snow leopards also make it difficult for machine learning to classify photos, as they blend in so well with the surrounding mountain environment, rendering applicable software solutions unavailable for the species. To potentially make snow leopard individual identification available via an artificial intelligence (AI) software interface, we first trained and evaluated image classification techniques for a convolutional neural network, pose invariant embeddings (PIE) (a triplet loss network), and compared the accuracy of PIE to that of the HotSpotter algorithm (a SIFT-based algorithm). Data were acquired from a curated library of free-ranging snow leopards taken in Afghanistan between 2012 and 2019 and from captive animals in zoos in Finland, Sweden, Germany, and the United States. We discovered several flaws in the initial PIE model, such as a small amount of background matching, that was addressed, albeit likely not fixed, using background subtraction (BGS) and left-right mirroring (LR) techniques which demonstrated reasonable accuracy (Rank 1: 74% Rank-5: 92%) comparable to the Hotspotter results (Rank 1: 74% Rank 2: 84%)The PIE BGS LR model, in conjunction with Hotspotter, yielded the following results: Rank-1: 85%, Rank-5: 95%, Rank-20: 99%. In general, our findings indicate that PIE BGS LR, in conjunction with HotSpotter, can classify snow leopards more accurately than using either algorithm alone.
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Atzeni, L., Wang, J., Riordan, P., Shi, K., Cushman, S. A. (2023). Landscape resistance to gene flow in a snow leopard population from Qilianshan National Park, Gansu, China. Landscape Ecology, .
Abstract: Context: The accurate estimation of landscape resistance to movement is important for ecological understanding and conservation applications. Rigorous estimation of resistance requires validation and optimization. One approach uses genetic data for the optimization or validation of resistance models. Objectives We used a genetic dataset of snow leopards from China to evaluate how landscape genetics resistance models varied across genetic distances and spatial scales of analysis. We evaluated whether landscape genetics models were superior to models of resistance derived from habitat suitability or isolation-by-distance.
Methods: We regressed genetically optimized, habitat-based, and isolation-by-distance hypotheses against genetic distances using mixed effect models. We explored all subset combinations of genetically optimized variables to find the most supported resistance scenario for each genetic distance. Results: Genetically optimized models always out-performed habitat-based and isolation-by-distance hypotheses. The choice of genetic distances influenced the apparent influence of variables, their spatial scales and their functional response shapes, producing divergent resistance scenarios. Gene flow in snow leopards was largely facilitated by areas of intermediate ruggedness at intermediate elevations corresponding to small-to-large valleys within and between the mountain ranges. Conclusions: This study highlights that landscape genetics models provide superior estimation of functional dispersal than habitat surrogates and suggests that optimization of genetic distance should be included as an optimization routine in landscape genetics, along with variables, scales, effect size and functional response shape. Furthermore, our study provides new insights on the ecological conditions that promote gene flow in snow leopards, which expands ecological knowledge, and we hope will improve conservation planning. |