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Author Alexander, J. S., Bijoor, A., Gurmet, K., Murali, R., Mishra, C., Suryawanshi, K. R. pdf 
  Title Engaging women brings conservation benefits to snow leopard landscapes Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2022 Publication Environmental Conservation Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages 1 - 7  
  Keywords community conservation; gender; large carnivores; snow leopard; women  
  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.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1689  
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Author Murali, R., Bijoor, A., Thinley, T., Gurmet, K., Chunit, K., Tobge, R., Thuktan, T., Suryawanshi, K., Nagendra, H., Mishra, C. pdf 
  Title Indigenous governance structures for maintaining an ecosystem service in an agro-pastoral community in the Indian Trans Himalaya Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2022 Publication Ecosystems and People Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 303-314  
  Keywords Commons; local governance; plant-harvest; rangelands; Spiti Valley  
  Abstract The majority of the global terrestrial biodiversity occurs on indigenous lands, and biodiversity decline on these lands is relatively slower. Yet, robust understanding of indigenous governance systems for biodiversity and ecosystem services remains a key knowledge gap. We used the socio-ecological systems framework to study the governance of ecosystem services (ES) by an indigenous community in the Village of Kibber in the Trans-Himalayan Mountains of India. Focusing on plant-biomass removal from communal pastures, we identified the main factors shaping local governance using in-depth focal and deliberative group discussions with community members. Notwithstanding inequities of caste and gender, we found that Kibber had a well-functioning, complex, relatively democratic and inclusive system, with all households of the village involved in decision-making related to ES governance. Robust systems of information sharing, monitoring, conflict resolution, and self-organization played an important role. We found the role of institutional memory sustained by the oracle to be critical in maintaining governance structures. Our work underscores the potential resilience and importance of indigenous systems for the governance of ecosystem services.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1692  
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Author Changxi, X., Bai, D., Lambert, J. P., Li, Y., Cering, L., Gong, Z., Riordan, P., Shi, K. pdf 
  Title How Snow Leopards Share the Same Landscape with Tibetan Agro-pastoral Communities in the Chinese Himalayas Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2022 Publication Journal of Resources and Ecology Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 13 Issue 3 Pages 483-500  
  Keywords habitat use; landscape ecology; occupancy model; Qomolangma; Panthera uncia  
  Abstract The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) inhabits a human-altered alpine landscape and is often tolerated by residents in regions where the dominant religion is Tibetan Buddhism, including in Qomolangma NNR on the northern side of the Chinese Himalayas. Despite these positive attitudes, many decades of rapid economic development and population growth can cause increasing disturbance to the snow leopards, altering their habitat use patterns and ultimately impacting their conservation. We adopted a dynamic landscape ecology perspective and used multi-scale technique and occupancy model to better understand snow leopard habitat use and coexistence with humans in an 825 km2 communal landscape. We ranked eight hypothetical models containing potential natural and anthropogenic drivers of habitat use and compared them between summer and winter seasons within a year. HABITAT was the optimal model in winter, whereas ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCE was the top ranking in summer (AICcw≤2). Overall, model performance was better in the winter than in the summer, suggesting that perhaps some latent summer covariates were not measured. Among the individual variables, terrain ruggedness strongly affected snow leopard habitat use in the winter, but not in the summer. Univariate modeling suggested snow leopards prefer to use rugged land in winter with a broad scale (4000 m focal radius) but with a lesser scale in summer (30 m); Snow leopards preferred habitat with a slope of 22° at a scale of 1000 m throughout both seasons, which is possibly correlated with prey occurrence. Furthermore, all covariates mentioned above showed inextricable ties with human activities (presence of settlements and grazing intensity). Our findings show that multiple sources of anthropogenic activity have complex connections with snow leopard habitat use, even under low human density when anthropogenic activities are sparsely distributed across a vast landscape. This study is also valuable for habitat use research in the future, especially regarding covariate selection for finite sample sizes in inaccessible terrain.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1698  
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Author Khanyari, M., Zhumabai uulu, K., Luecke, S., Mishra, C., Suryawanshi, K. url 
  Title Understanding population baselines: status of mountain ungulate populations in the Central Tien Shan Mountains, Kyrgyzstan Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2020 Publication Mammalia Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages 1-8  
  Keywords conservation; human-use landscapes; hunting concession; mountain ungulates; population baselines; protected areas.  
  Abstract We assessed the density of argali (Ovis ammon) and ibex

(Capra sibirica) in Sarychat-Ertash Nature Reserve and its neighbouring

Koiluu valley. Sarychat is a protected area, while Koiluu is a human-use

landscape which is a partly licenced hunting concession for mountain

ungulates and has several livestock herders and their permanent

residential structures. Population monitoring of mountain ungulates can

help in setting measurable conservation targets such as appropriate

trophy hunting quotas and to assess habitat suitability for predators

like snow leopards (Panthera uncia). We employed the double-observer

method to survey 573 km2 of mountain ungulate habitat inside Sarychat

and 407 km2 inside Koiluu. The estimated densities of ibex and argali in

Sarychat were 2.26 (95% CI 1.47–3.52) individuals km-2 and 1.54 (95% CI

1.01–2.20) individuals km-2, respectively. Total ungulate density in

Sarychat was 3.80 (95% CI 2.47–5.72) individuals km-2. We did not record

argali in Koiluu, whereas the density of ibex was 0.75 (95% CI

0.50–1.27) individuals km-2. While strictly protected areas can achieve

high densities of mountain ungulates, multi-use areas can harbour

meaningful

though suppressed populations. Conservation of mountain ungulates and

their predators can be enhanced by maintaining Sarychat-like “pristine”

areas interspersed within a matrix of multi-use areas like Koiluu.
 
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 1610  
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Author Yu, C., Ding, N., Li, Y., Liu, Y, Lyu, Z., Munkhtsog, B., Wuliji., Ma, Z., Se, Y., Pei, W., Gao, Y., Zhang, Y., Han, Q., Shi, K. pdf 
  Title Preliminary results from applying satellite-tracking on snow leopards for the first time in China Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2022 Publication Global Ecology and Conservation Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 40 Issue e02346 Pages 1-7  
  Keywords Panthera Uncia Home Range Satellite telemetry Qilian  
  Abstract The lack of snow leopards telemetry studies in China has hampered researchers in studying the movement ecology and home range sizes of snow leopards, the knowledge gap of which has affected effective planning and improvement of snow leopard protected areas in China. In 2021, we conducted China’s first snow leopard satellite-tracking project in Qilianshan National Park, China, one of the most representative mountain areas of snow leopard habitat. The outcomes of the research aims to apply gained understanding on snow leopard home range to enhance management and planning of snow leopard protected area. Here we summarize the preliminary home range results on the first three satellite-tracked snow leopards in China. The three snow leopards were followed between 3 and 6 months yielding a total of 7845 GPS locations. Using  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1705  
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Author Piaopiao, T., Suryawanshi, K. R., Lingyun, X., Mishra, C., Zhi, L., Alexander, J. S. pdf 
  Title Factors shaping the tolerance of local Tibetan herders toward snow leopards Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2022 Publication Journal for Nature Conservation Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 71 (2023) Issue 126305 Pages 1-8  
  Keywords Attitude, Gender, Social-norms, Religion, Livestock, Community-based  
  Abstract Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) have long co-existed with livestock herding people across Asia’s high mountains. Multiple use landscapes however imply potential competition for shared resources, livestock predation, and the risk of retaliatory killing of predators. Community-based conservation is a central pillar for supporting people’s livelihoods and safeguarding predators and their habitat. Based on the theory of planned behavior, we examined the factors that shape herders’ tolerance of snow leopards. Our questionnaire-based study was conducted in the Sanjiangyuan Region, China, encompassing four communities with varying livelihoods, experiences with live- stock depredation and levels of exposure to community conservation interventions. Our results showed that respondents generally held positive views towards snow leopards, although women tended to have relatively more negative views towards snow leopards compared with men. Current household income was largely dependent on caterpillar fungus rather than livestock. Social norms around religion and the role of community leaders in our study area seemed to be the main determinants of the generally benign association of people with wildlife, overshadowing potential influences of community-based conservation interventions. Our work suggests that conservations programs will be aided through collaborations with communities and religious institutions, and that conservationists must proactively engage with women as significant actors in conservation.  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
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  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1713  
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Author Atzeni, L., Wang, J., Riordan, P., Shi, K., Cushman, S. A. pdf 
  Title Landscape resistance to gene flow in a snow leopard population from Qilianshan National Park, Gansu, China Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2023 Publication Landscape Ecology Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages  
  Keywords Landscape genetics · MLPE · Gene flow · Genetic distance · Isolation by distance · Isolation by resistance · Landscape resistance · Snow leopard · Principal component analysis  
  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.
 
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
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  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1720  
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Author Khanyari, M., Dorjay, R., Lobzang, S., Bijoor, A., Suryawanshi, K. pdf 
  Title Co-designing conservation interventions through participatory action research in the Indian Trans-Himalaya Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2023 Publication Ecological Solutions and Evidence Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 4 Issue e12232 Pages 1-14  
  Keywords Changthang, co-design, community, conservation, participatory  
  Abstract 1. Community-based conservation, despite being more inclusive than fortress conservation, has been criticized for being a top-down implementation of external ideas brought to local communities for conservation's benefit. This is particularly true for Changpas, the pastoral people of Changthang in trans-Himalayan India who live alongside unique wildlife.

2. Our main aim was to co-design conservation interventions through participatory action research. We worked with two Changpa communities, to understand the issues faced by them. Subsequently, we co-designed context-sensitive interventions to facilitate positive human–nature interactions. We did so by integrating the PARTNERS (Presence, Aptness, Respect, Transparency, Empathy, Responsiveness, Strategic Support) principles with the Trinity of Voice (Access, Standing and Influence).

3. In Rupsho, we facilitated focus group discussions (FGDs) led by the community. We found livestock depredation by wildlife was primarily facilitated by the weather. This led to co-designing of a new corral design, which was piloted with seven households, safeguarding 2385 pashmina goats and sheep. Approximating the value of each sheep/goat to be USD125, this intervention amounts to a significant economic protection of USD c. 42,500 for each household. This is along with intangible gains of trust, ownership and improved self-esteem.

4. In Tegazong, a restricted area adjoining the Indo-China border with no previous research records, we worked with 43 Changpa people to co-create research questions of mutual interest. Wildlife presence and reasons for livestock loss were identified as areas of mutual interest. The herders suggested they would record data in a form of their choice, for 6 months, while they live in their winter pastures. This participatory community monitoring revealed nutrition and hypothermia to be a key cause of livestock death. Subsequently, we delimited two previously untested interventions: lamb cribs and provisioning of locally sourced barley as a feed supplement. The wildlife monitoring recorded the first record of Tibetan Gazelle Procapra picticuadata, outside of their known distribution, in Tegazong.

5. We aim to highlight the benefits of co-designing projects with local communities that link research and conservation, while also discussing the challenges faced. Ultimately, such projects are needed to ensure ethical knowledge generation and conservation, which aims to be decolonial and inclusive.
 
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1727  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Alexander, J. S., Murali, R., Mijiddorj, T. N., Agvaantseren, B., Lhamo, C., Sharma, D., Suryawanshi, K. R., Zhi, L., Sharma, K., Young, J. C. pdf 
  Title Applying a gender lens to biodiversity conservation in High Asia Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2023 Publication Frontiers in Conservation Science Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue Pages 1-8  
  Keywords gender, snow leopards, pastoralism, rights, decision-making  
  Abstract Community-based conservation efforts represent an important approach to facilitate the coexistence of people and wildlife. A concern, however, is that these efforts build on existing community structures and social norms, which are commonly dominated by men. Some biodiversity conservation approaches may consequently neglect women’s voices and deepen existing inequalities and inequities. This paper presents two community case studies that draw upon the knowledge and experience gained in our snow leopard conservation practice in pastoral and agro-pastoral settings in Mongolia and India to better understand women’s roles and responsibilities. In these settings, roles and responsibilities in livestock management and agriculture are strongly differentiated along gender lines, and significant gaps remain in women’s decision-making power about natural resources at the community level. We argue that context-specific and gender-responsive approaches are needed to build community support for conservation actions and leverage women’s potential contributions to conservation outcomes.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1741  
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Khanyari, M., Dorjay, R., Lobzang, S. Bijoor, A., Suryawanshi, K. pdf 
  Title Co-designing conservation interventions through participatory action research in the Indian Trans-Himalaya Type (up) Journal Article
  Year 2023 Publication Ecological Solutions and Evidence Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 2023;4 Issue e12232 Pages 1-14  
  Keywords Changthang, co-design, community, conservation, participatory  
  Abstract 1. Community-based conservation, despite being more inclusive than fortress con- servation, has been criticized for being a top-down implementation of external ideas brought to local communities for conservation's benefit. This is particularly true for Changpas, the pastoral people of Changthang in trans-Himalayan India who live alongside unique wildlife.

2. Our main aim was to co-design conservation interventions through participatory action research. We worked with two Changpa communities, to understand the issues faced by them. Subsequently, we co-designed context-sensitive interventions to facilitate positive human–nature interactions. We did so by integrating the PARTNERS (Presence, Aptness, Respect, Transparency, Empathy, Responsiveness, Strategic Support) principles with the Trinity of Voice (Access, Standing and Influence).

3. In Rupsho, we facilitated focus group discussions (FGDs) led by the community. We found livestock depredation by wildlife was primarily facilitated by the weather. This led to co-designing of a new corral design, which was piloted with seven households, safeguarding 2385 pashmina goats and sheep. Approximating the value of each sheep/goat to be USD125, this intervention amounts to a significant economic protection of USD c. 42,500 for each household. This is along with intangible gains of trust, ownership and improved self-esteem.

4. In Tegazong, a restricted area adjoining the Indo-China border with no previous research records, we worked with 43 Changpa people to co-create research questions of mutual interest. Wildlife presence and reasons for livestock loss were identified as areas of mutual interest. The herders suggested they would record data in a form of their choice, for 6 months, while they live in their winter pastures. This participatory community monitoring revealed nutrition and hypothermia to be a key cause of livestock death. Subsequently, we delimited two previously untested interventions: lamb cribs and provisioning of locally sourced barley as a feed supplement. The wildlife monitoring recorded the first record of Tibetan Gazelle Procapra picticuadata, outside of their known distribution, in Tegazong.

5. We aim to highlight the benefits of co-designing projects with local communities that link research and conservation, while also discussing the challenges faced. Ultimately, such projects are needed to ensure ethical knowledge generation and conservation, which aims to be decolonial and inclusive.
 
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number SLN @ rakhee @ Serial 1743  
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