Abstract: The World Conservation Union listed the snow leopard (Uncia uncia) as endangered in 1974. With as few as 3,500 snow leopards left in the wild, scientists placed the snow leopard on the IUCN Red List of critically endangered species shared by animals such as the giant panda and tiger. In an effort to save the snow leopard from extinction, former zoo employee Helen Freeman founded the Snow Leopard Trust in 1981. The Snow Leopard Trust works to save this elusive cat by incorporating community-based conservation projects. One of these project Leopard Enterprise (SLE), impacts poverty stricken communities in Mongolia, Kyrgyz Republic, and Pakistan. It assists over 300 families in its conservation efforts. The economic incentives provided via SLE have led participating communities not to harm the snow leopard or its prey, and to practice sustainable herding. Since the project began in 1997, the number of snow leopards harmed around the communities' territories has dropped to near zero. Additionally, the annual income of families that utilize the benefits of SLE has increased by 25% to 40%. SLE creates this economic benefit by providing the training and equipment necessary to make desirable products from the wool of herd animals. Snow Leopard Trust then purchases these handicraft items from the local people and them globally. Zoos can expand their conservation efforts by simply offering these items in their gift shops. Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) was the first zoological institution to sell the products, and WPZ continues to generate revenue from them. SLE is a golden opportunity for zoos to increase revenue, assist poor families, and save an endangered species and fragile ecosystem.

Abstract: It is necessary to fully understand the economic conditions of local herders in order to find solutions to the conflicts between wildlife conservation and livestock rearing in remote areas of low-income countries. In the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA), Nepal, livestock depredation by snow leopards impacts on yak herders' livelihoods. Retaliatory killings of snow leopard by the herders have been reported and the concerned authorities recently initiated snow leopard conservation programmes. In 2001, interviews with the yak herders who used the pastures in the Ghunsa valley in the preceding year collected data on the incidence of livestock death caused by snow leopards. The annual net cash income of the yak herders was estimated by obtaining baseline values of sales and expenditure per livestock head through field measurement of dairy products and interviews with a sample of herders. As yet, the average annual damage does not appear to have adversely affected fundamental livelihoods in households with an average herd size (36.6 head). However, in the worst scenario of livestock depredation, households with medium or small-sized herds (<40 head) might risk their living conditions becoming unsustainable or having to withdraw from yak pastoralism. A supplementary interview showed that the majority of the herders, except those who took completely neutral attitudes towards the regional conservation and development programme, had negative views of the snow leopard conservation policy. For the snow leopard conservation programme in the KCA to be a success, there must be a system to compensate the herders' households for livestock damage.

Abstract: Livestock depredation by the endangered snow leopard (Panthera uncia) _is an increasingly contentious issue in Himalayan villages, especially in or near protected areas. Mass attacks in which as many as 100 sheep and goats are killed in a single incident inevitably result in retaliation by local villagers. This article describes a community-based conservation initiative to address this problem in Hemis National Park, India. Human-wildlife conflict is alleviated by predator-proofing villagers' nighttime livestock pens and by enhancing household incomes in environmentally sensitive and culturally compatible ways. The authors have found that the highly participatory strategy described here (Appreciative Participatory Planning and Action-APPA) leads to a sense of project ownership by local stakeholders, communal empowerment, self-reliance, and willingness to co-exist with
snow leopards. The most significant conservation outcome of this process is the protection from retaliatory poaching of up to five snow leopards for every village's livestock pens that are made predator-proof._