Abstract: Ladakh lies between the Great Himalayas and the formidable Karakoram mountains.
Its unique landscape and rich cultural heritage have been a great attraction to tourists all over
the world. Apart from its uniqueness it has a rich Trans-Himalayan bio-diversity and is home
to the rare and elusive snow leopard. It opened to tourism in 1974 with a handful of tourists
and has gone up to the present number of about 18,000 visitors annually. Ecotourism started in Ladakh in mid 80s in the form of conservation of traditional
architecture when local communities realized the importance of their rich culture and
traditions being valued by the visiting tourists. However, while tourism became a major
source of income to people in Leh, most of the benefits stayed with outside (Delhi) based
travel agents thus leaving out the rural masses. During the last three years Snow Leopard Conservancy and The Mountain Institute have been
initiating ecotourism activities with local communities in the Hemis National Park as an
alternate livelihood and an indirect way to compensate losses of livestock from predatory
animals. However, local people while venturing into such new initiatives have tended to be
like blind men that are being led by NGO's so that they do not stumble along their paths.

Abstract: Bounded by two of the world's highest mountain ranges, the Great Himalaya and the Karakoram, Ladakh is a land of exhilarating mountain landscapes, rocky gorges and a unique cultural heritage. It is also home to distinctive wildlife such as the snow leopard, blue sheep and Tibetan wild ass, all living in a unique high altitude desert ecosystem. Not surprisingly, Ladakh is becoming a sought after tourist destination for international and domestic visitors alike. Over the past two decades tourism has grown substantially, although erratically, with both positive and less positive results for Ladakh's environment and people. People are recognizing that it is important to act now and engage in an informed dialogue in order to conserve the natural and cultural resources on which the future of tourism and related incomes depend. The Snow Leopard Conservancy (SLC) is working in collaboration with local communities and nongovernmental organizations to foster co-existence between people and predators like the endangered snow leopard by reducing livestock depredation losses and improving household incomes in environmentally friendly, socially responsible and economically viable ways. Well-balanced tourism is one income generating option.

Abstract: In accordance with order of the Ministry of Nature and Tourism,
zoologists of our association have made surveys in three ways such as
reasons why snow leopards attack domestic animals, “Snow leopard” trial
operation to count them and illegal hunting in territories of Khovd,
Gobi-Altai, Bayankhongor, Uvurkhangai and Umnugobi provinces from
September 2009 to January 2010. As result of these surveys it has made
the following conclusions in the followings: Reason to hunt them illegally: the principal reason is that
administrative units have been increased and territories of
administrative units have been diminished. There have been four
provinces in 1924 to 1926, 18 since 1965, 21 since 1990. Such situation
limits movements of herdsmen completely and pastures digressed much than
ever before. As result of such situation, 70% of pastures become desert.
Such digression caused not only heads of animals and also number of
species. Guarantee is that birds such as owls, cuckoo, willow grouse in
banks of Uyert river, Burkhanbuudai mountain, located in Biger soum,
Gobi-Altai province, which are not hunted by hunters, are disappearing
in the recent two decades. For that reason we consider it is urgently
necessary for the government to convert administrative unit structures
into four provinces. This would influence herdsmen moving across
hundreds km and pastures could depart from digression.
Second reason: cooperative movement won. The issues related to management and strengthening of national
cooperatives, considered by Central Committee of Mongolian People's
Revolutionary Party in the meeting in March 1953 was the start of
cooperatives' movement. Consideration by Yu. Tsedenbal, chairman of
Ministers Council, chairman of the MPRP, on report "Result of to unify
popular units and some important issues to maintain entity management of
agricultural cooperatives" in the fourth meeting by the Central
Committee of Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party /MPRP/ on December
16-17, 1959, proclaimed complete victory of cooperative. At the end of
1959, it could unify 767 small cooperative into 389 ones, unify 99.3 %
of herdsmen and socialize 73.3 % of animals. The remaining of animals
amount 6 million 163 thousands animals, and equals to 26.7% of total
animals. This concerned number of animals related to the article
mentioned that every family should have not more that 50 animals in
Khangai zone and not more 75 animals in Gobi desert. It shows that such
number could not satisfy needs of family if such number is divided into
five main animals in separating with reproduction animals and adult
animals. So herdsmen started hunt hoofed animals secretly and illegally
in order to satisfy their meat needs. Those animals included main food
of snow leopard such as ibex, wild sheep, and marmot. Third reason is that the state used to hunt ibex, which are main
nutrition of snow leopards, every year. The administrative unit of the
soum pursued policy to hunt ibex in order to provide meat needs of
secondary schools and hospitals. That's why this affected decrease of
ibex population. Preciously from 1986 to 1990 the permissions to hunt
one thousands of wild sheep and two thousands of ibexes were hunt for
domestic alimentary use every year. Not less than 10 local hunters of every soum used to take part in big
game of ibexes. Also they hunted many ibexes, chose 3-10 best ibexes and
hid them in the mountains for their consummation during hunting.
Fourth reason: hunting of wolves. Until 1990 the state used to give
prizes to hunter, who killed a wolf in any seasons of the year. Firstly
it offered a sheep for the wolf hunter and later it gave 25 tugrugs /15
USD/. Every year, wolf hunting was organized several times especially
picking wolf-cubs influenced spread and population of wolves. So snow
leopard came to the places where wolves survived before and attack
domestic animals. Such situation continued until 1990. Now population of
ibexes has decreased than before 1990 since the state stopped hunting
wolves, population of wolves increased in mountainous zones. We didn't
consider it had been right since it was natural event. However
population of ibexes decreased. Fifth reason: Global warming. In recent five years it has had a drought
and natural disaster from excessive snow in the places where it has
never had such natural disasters before. But Mongolia has 40 million
heads of domestic animals it has never increased like such quantity in
its history before. We consider it is not incorrect that decrease of
domestic animals could give opportunities to raise population of wild
animals. Our next survey is to make attempt to fix heads of snow leopards
correctly with low costs.

Abstract: Preliminary recommendations for the management of snow leopard and its prey are provided for the Langu Valley segment of the Shey-Pkoksundo National Park. Park-wide and country-wide conservation options and management recommendations await results of the surveys scheduled for 1987. The following management objectives are formulated: 1) Protection and ultimate restoration of all natural communities within the area 2) Special protection measures for snow leopard and musk deer (strict control of hunting and livestock grazing) 3) Secure natural resources around local villages 4) Respect traditional rights of villagers, while controlling high impact human activities 5) Secure cooperation of local people. These objectives are refined and recommendations for concrete conservation actions are made.
Notes: document is a part of the Himalayan Snow Leopard Project: Final Progress Report, Phase I

Abstract: The high mountain ranges of South and Central Asia are increasingly being exposed to large-scale development
projects. These areas are home to traditional pastoralist communities and internationally important
biodiversity including the endangered snow leopard Panthera uncia. Development projects rely on
economic cost-benefit analysis, but the ecosystem services in the high Himalayas are poorly understood
and are rarely accounted for. As a first step to fill this gap, we identified the main ecosystem services used
by local people in the Trans-Himalayan Spiti Valley (7591 km2), a region important for conservation of
snow leopards and high mountain biodiversity, and undertook an economic valuation. Stakeholders identified
a range of services, though these were dominated by provisioning services identified by 90% of
respondents. Only 5.4% of the respondents recognised regulatory services and 4.8% recognised cultural
services. The mean economic value of provisioning services was estimated at US$ 3622 ± 149 HH
1
yr
1, which was 3.8 times higher than the average annual household income. Our results underscore
the need to account for ecosystem services in the cost-benefit analyses of large-scale development projects
in addition to assessments of their environmental and social impact.