Abstract: While the SLC is just two years old, our twenty years of field experience, numerous contacts and well-established professional relationships have enabled us to work as a mature organization. The Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) has been instrumental in building awareness of the SLC within the community, and in raising $85,000 in individual donations and merchandise sales which comprised 46% of our 2002 operating budget. With our overhead costs kept to a minimum and being substantially underwritten, donor dollars can be used directly and effectively in the field. With our donors and volunteers committed to helping us build our sustainability, we look forward to even greater success in saving snow leopards in partnership with local people.

Abstract: Livestock depredation has become a significant problem across the snow leopard's (Panthera uncia) range in Central Asia, being most severe in and near protected areas. Such predation, especially incidents of “surplus killing,” in which five to 100 or more sheep and goats are lost in a single night, almost inevitably leads herders to retaliate by killing rare or endangered carnivores like snow leopard, wolf, and lynx. Ironically, such loss can be avoided by making the night-time enclosures predator-proof, improving animal husbandry techniques, educating herders on wildlife conservation and the importance of protecting the natural prey base, and by providing economic incentives like handicrafts skills training and marketing, along with carefully planned ecotourism trekking and guiding. The author explores innovative conservation initiatives in the Himalaya (Ladakh and Tibet) and Mongolia, which also build local capacity, self-reliance, and stewardship for nature using Appreciative Participatory Planning and Action, or APPA, techniques. The most sound conservation investments are those contingent upon establishing direct linkages with biodiversity protection, ensuring co-financing and reciprocal responsibility for project activities, encouraging the full participation of all stakeholders, and assuring regular monitoring and evaluation of the village-based agreements (embodied in Action Plans).

Abstract: Nepal's snow leopards (Uncia uncia) are mostly found along the northern border with Tibet (China). The largest populations are in Dolpa, Mugu, Manang, and Myagdi Districts. Potential habitat totals about 30,000 square kilometers. Numbers are estimated at 300-500, but surveys are urgently needed to confirm this rough guess. Like elsewhere, the primary threats center on poaching, depletion of natural prey, livestock depredation and resultant retributive killing of snow leopards by herders, and the lack of public awareness and support for conserving snow leoaprds, especially among local herders.

Abstract: Wildlife-related crop and livestock damage is emerging as a leading source of conflict between local communities, protected areas and park managers throughout India and the Himalayan region (Kharel 1997, Mishra 1997, Saberwal et al. 1994 and Sekhar 1998). For example, a comprehensive household-level survey of herders living in Nepal’s Annapurna Conservation Area suggested that predation accounted for 63% of all livestock mortality over a 18-24 month period, mostly attributable to snow leopard (Jackson et al. 1996). Oli et al. (1994) reported the predation rate at 2.6% of the stockholding, with losses representing as much as 25% of the average household’s per capita income. Hardly surprisingly, most local people held strongly negative attitudes toward snow leopard and wolf. In the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary in Lahaul-Spiti, Mishra (1997) reported that 18% of the livestock holding were killed over a 18 month period, amounting to 1.6 animals per household perannum, with an estimated total value of US $ 128 per family per year. Villages received compensationin only 28 of 131 reported cases. According to local residents, predation rates in the sanctuary had increased markedly since its establishment. Mishra (1997) attributes this to a dramatic increase in livestock numbers accompanying a shift rom subsistence to a more commercially-based animal husbandry pattern.
The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of livestock damage from wild carnivores and how protected area managers could best approach this contentious issue. The author uses Hemis National Park as a case study example, focusing on baseline information gathering, and past, current and proposed remedial actions for reducing losses and compensating livestock owners.