The Snow Leopard Network is pleased to announce a new Snow Leopard Grant Program offered by Tencent Foundation and Shan Shui Conservation Center, and supported by partners (the Amity Foundation, HUATAI Foundation and Peking University Center for Nature and Society).
Launched for the first time in 2022, the ‘With Snow Leopards’ Small Grant (SLSG) aims to provide financial support and promote snow leopard research and conservation across China and the snow leopard range.
This year, the SLSG will support projects outside China in 3 specific themes:
Snow leopard research and conservation knowledge/ technology sharing) (Theme A)
Snow leopard conservation awareness raising (Theme B)
Snow leopard conservation Research focus (Theme C)
Selected projects will be awarded amounts ranging between CNY50,000-CNY100,000 (~USD7,500-USD15,000).
Call for proposals starts from now to August 21st. Read the full ‘Call for proposals’ for more detailed information.
Please note that this call for proposals focusses on countries outside China. A separate procedure is in place for applicants in China. Please contact Shan Shui Conservation Center (contact@shanshui.org) for further information.
The Snow Leopard Network is hosting a special event for International Women’s Day, March 8th 2022. The theme for this year’s 2022 International Day is Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow. Our event takes this theme into highlighting the opportunities for translating gender equality into practice of community conservation.
We are delighted to welcome Deepshikha Sharma and Chemi Lhamo who have been working in the high Himalayas of Spiti, India on snow leopard conservation with the Nature Conservation Foundation India. Our guests bring a unique perspective of bringing new and long term programs to support women at community level, including identifying and empower women champions for snow leopard conservation. We are looking forward to hearing their account and how their work contributes to a ‘sustainable tomorrow’ for snow leopard landscapes.
Following SLN’s Women & Conservation Series launched in 2021, we organized a poll on Twitter asking members and the conservation community what they considered to be of greatest interest for an online discussion related to gender and conservation. Participants fed back that they would welcome additional discussions related to gender and community conservation. The March 8th event gives us an opportunity not only to hear from most recent experiences in Spiti, India but also a chance to provide a platform for SLN members to share examples of gender sensitive or responsive community conservation for snow leopards.
After the main presentation and questions we will dedicate the remainder of the session to collating these examples and experiences. With this in mind we specially encourage SLN members to come ready to communicate briefly: links of projects or documented examples of similar efforts that we can subsequently add to SLN’s resource centre. Do join us to promote these themes.
About the Talk
The high Himalayan landscape in Himachal Pradesh is fascinating geography with unique biodiversity. The communities share a rich understanding of living harmoniously with nature and coexisting with wildlife around them. Deepshikha & Chemi will reflect upon how women from these landscapes navigate conservation spaces, the joys, and struggles of bringing them to the forefront, and their experiences of building conservation champions and outreach networks.
Photo by the Nature Conservation Foundation
About our Guests
Deepshikha has a master’s degree in Development from Azim Premji University and is currently working as a conservation coordinator at Nature Conservation Foundation. She has been facilitating community-led conservation in upper Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh and in parts of Ladakh. She has been involved in the community issue of livestock depredation by wildlife and has been working towards raising awareness and reducing losses faced by herders. She is also working towards bringing local women to the forefront of conservation in the landscape.
Chemi has completed her post-graduate studies in Literature from the University of Delhi. She has worked in the Indian development sector as a communication professional raising awareness and engagement around issues of rural development, menstrual health & disaster relief, and rehabilitation. She currently works with NCF’s High Altitude Program to support conservation outreach in Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur & Ladakh. She is interested in exploring wildlife conservation through the lens of social justice and intersectionality.
If you have never used Zoom before, we recommend that you try the link 10 minutes before the start of the lecture.
Please feel free to write questions in the comment area and there will be time for questions/discussion at the end of the talk.
Please note that the session will be recorded and later featured on the SLN website. If you have concerns about this please let us know before the session.
Photo by the Nature Conservation FoundationPhoto by the Nature Conservation FoundationPhoto by the Nature Conservation Foundation
Across the range, snow leopards and people share space. Engaging with local communities is essential for snow leopard conservation. Community based programmes tend to engage with men largely due to social norms and existing power structures. This often results in excluding women, who are important stakeholders and form almost 50% of the adult population, from conservation action and decision making.
In this webinar, we explore how to better engage women in conservation programs across the snow leopard landscape. We hear examples from existing programs that specifically target women and discuss how conservation programs can themselves shift social norms around gender equality (positively or negatively). We also examine the key role of policy in transforming community based programs through incorporating gender sensitive approaches.
We will be hearing from conservationists across the snow leopard range – Bayara Agvantsaaren, Dr. LuZhi and Rashmi Singh – who are working at different levels to engage women in snow leopard conservation. Each of them will highlight a particular aspect of their work that highlights the opportunities and challenges in promoting women’s role in community based conservation. Dr. Charudutt Mishra, the Executive Director of the Snow Leopard Trust, will facilitate the panel discussion. Charu has been a pioneer in community based conservation and brings a special perspective around how to make a difference at the ground level.
October 6th, 13th & 20th, 2021
18:00-20:00 Bishkek time
Encounters with snow leopards can take many forms. They can range from rare sightings of one or more snow leopards, coming across injured snow leopards or instances or coming across cubs that may appear abandoned. It can also involve snow leopards killing livestocks in pastures and corrals. Although snow leopards are mostly elusive, these encounters do occur across the snow leopard range and at times can be very stressful for both the people and snow leopards involved. Responses can result in the loss of life or freedom for the snow leopard. Appropriate responses that minimize harm and promote the long term coexistence of people and snow leopards still need to be more widely known, shared and put into practice.
The aim of this course is to provide hands-on guidance to help plan ahead for such situations and help resolve potential conflict situations without posing avoidable risk to humans or animals. This module brings together recent experiences from across the range and from multiple organisations to share good practices and discuss pros and cons of different ways of responding to such encounters, including approaches to minimising livestock depredation.
The Bishkek Declaration 2017, endorsed by the 12 snow leopard range countries, recognises that threats to snow leopards are on the rise and that there is a need to develop policies and build capacity at multiple levels. This initiative, focussing on sharing experiences and building capacity for managing snow leopards in unusual or conflict situations, hopes to contribute toward this goal. This module is being organised in coordination with thanks to the support of the GSLEP Program Secretariat. We also thank the Snow Leopard Conservancy, Snow Leopard Trust, Snow Leopard Foundation Pakistan, Nature Conservation Foundation for contributing to this module.
Photo by Behzad Larry
About the course
Session 1: Recommendations on how to manage unusual snow leopard encounters
In 2020 the Global Snow Leopard Ecosystem Program (GSLEP) developed a policy brief on managing snow leopards in unusual or conflict situations. The guidelines in the policy brief are based on the most up-to-date information and scientific evidence. During this session the authors will outline the recommendations for how to manage snow leopards killing livestock in the pastures, killing livestock in corrals and when an injured snow leopard or cubs are encountered. The authors will also share information on how to handle situations where snow leopards have been caught by villagers after attacking livestock as well as possible means to handle snow leopards that repeatedly attack the same corral.
Session 2: Strategies for minimising snow leopard depredation
The Snow Leopard Conservancy and Snow Leopard Trust, in collaboration with other organisations and governments have developed a number of livestock depredation mitigation tools. During this session the team will share experiences in applying these tools and working with communities, with the goal of addressing root causes leading to depredation and measures that maximise community acceptance. We will also discuss approaches for cost-sharing and ongoing adaptive monitoring and management. The Session will be an opportunity to discuss a range of different techniques and engagement mechanisms and to learn from participants on what tools are being used in their areas and can be improved.
Session 3: Shared practices from across the snow leopard range
A series of case studies from India, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Pakistan gives unique insights on how encounters take place and vary. While the principles of responding to encounters are set out, understanding local context is vital for tailoring any effective responses. This includes looking at the different stakeholders involved, their interests and histories as well as local beliefs and policies in place. This session will showcase how responses have often had to deal with very sensitive issues within an often highly political setting. The session emphasises exchange of experiences and views with the intention of calibrating and grounding the previous session discussions.
Meet the Resource Team
Ali Nawaz
Ali Nawaz PhD has 20 years of field research experience, spanning over diverse geographical regions in Pakistan, and has 50 scientific articles and over 30 management reports to his credit. His primary focus is on understanding ecology, co-existence, and conservation issues of the carnivore community in northern Pakistan. Dr Nawaz has worked intensively with the mountainous communities in alleviating human-carnivore conflicts and promoting acceptance of large carnivores.
AJAY BIJOOR
Ajay Bijoor supports conservation efforts in the regions of Ladakh and Spiti valley in India. Over the last eight years, he has worked on setting up, running and monitoring community-conservation efforts in these regions. This effort aims at trying to create conditions conducive for conservation. More recently he has also been facilitating the process of building capacity for community-based conservation in snow leopard range countries.
orjan johansson
Orjan Johansson PhD is a member of SLN’s Steering Committee. He is a senior conservation scientist at the Snow Leopard Trust and has worked with snow leopards since 2008. He is based at Grimso wildlife research station in Sweden and has previously worked with several other large carnivores including mountain lions, wolves, lynx and wolverines. His research evolves mainly around snow leopard ecology and behaviour. Orjan devotes a lot of his time to a snow leopard study in Tost Mountains, Mongolia.
ranjini murali
Ranjini Murali PhD has over ten years of experience working in snow leopard landscapes. Her PhD focused on understanding how local communities use and value ecosystem services from these landscapes. She is currently a conservation scientist at the Snow Leopard Trust and is an international staff on the GSLEP secretariat. As a part of her role she helps coordinate the effort and manage the database on unusual encounters for GSLEP.
shafqat hussain
Shafqat Hussain, PhD Founder of Project Snow Leopard, now part of the Baltistan Wildlife Conservation Development Organization (BWCDO) of which he is the Board Chair. Shafqat is a professor of anthropology at Trinity College, Hartford, CT. He is a Rolex Award for Enterprise laureate, a recipient of the United Nations Equator Prize and was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. In December of 2019 he published the book The Snow Leopard and the Goat: Politics of Conservation in the Western Himalayas.
DEEPSHIKHA SHARMA
DeepshikhaSharma is a conservation practitioner with the Nature Conservation Foundation, India. For the past 2 years, she has been working alongside local communities to conserve snow leopard habitat. She is building volunteer networks in the landscape to create awareness and strengthen conservation action.
rodney jackson
Rodney Jackson PhD is a renowned snow leopard researcher and conservationist who led the first radio-collaring study of snow leopards in western Nepal in 1981-1985 that made it to the cover story of the June 1986 National Geographic Magazine. He has published widely, with his accomplishments including leading / co-authoring all IUCN Red Data List evaluations completed to date. Rodney’s special interests rest with engaging and empowering local communities to address conservation issues, notably livestock depredation and related human-wildlife conflict. He pioneered initiatives at corral predator-proofing, community-based tourism (Himalayan Homestays), camera trapping, non-invasive scat genetics (with Dr. Jan Janecka and associates) and use of drones for censusing prey species. A Founding Member and first Conservation Director of the International Snow Leopard Trust, in 2000, Rodney co-founded the Snow Leopard Conservancy (SLC), followed by the SLC-India Trust (now an independent NGO). He received a Masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1970, and his PhD from the University of London in 1996. A Rolex Award for Enterprise Laureate, Rodney is widely recognized internationally and within snow leopard range countries for his 40 year + commitment to furthering conservation of this iconic species. (www.SnowLeopardConservancy.org).
KOUSTUBH SHARMA
Koustubh Sharma PhD has been involved in active research and conservation since 2001. He has been working with the Snow Leopard Trust since 2007, and currently serves as the Assistant Director of Conservation Policy and Partnerships. Since 2014, he is deputed as the International Coordinator of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystems Protection Program (GSLEP) at its secretariat in Bishkek. At the GSLEP Program, Koustubh works with a small team with support from international organizations to coordinate this unique alliance that brings together governments of the 12 snow leopard range countries, Non-Government Organizations and Conservationists. At the Snow Leopard Trust, he assists in implementing research, conservation, training and building collaborations across several countries.
Photo by Snow Leopard Conservancy
Date/Time
Wednesdays October 6th, 13th, 20th 2021: 18:00-20:00 Bishkek time
Planned Schedule
2 hour online Zoom Seminars take place Wednesday of the month, October 2021
Additional group work, assignments or readings are likely to be organised by the trainers
Please note we expect all participants to attend the complete set of Wednesday Seminars as they are interconnected and build on each other
Details of each specific Seminar topic will be shared approximately 5 days beforehand; including any expected preparations by participants.
Please note that all sessions are recorded and then made available online through the SLN youtube channel. By participating in these online sessions you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content presented during the live event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain by SLN. If you have any concerns please contact us.
Deadline for Applications
September 29th, 2021. Please note places are limited so please do not delay in applying.
Applications closed- Contact Rakhee if you are interested to attend.
Across the range, snow leopards and people share space. Engaging with local communities is essential for snow leopard conservation. Community based programmes tend to engage with men largely due to social norms and existing power structures. This often results in excluding women, who are important stakeholders and form almost 50% of the adult population, from conservation action and decision making.
In this webinar, we explore how to better engage women in conservation programs across the snow leopard landscape. We hear examples from existing programs that specifically target women and discuss how conservation programs can themselves shift social norms around gender equality (positively or negatively). We also examine the key role of policy in transforming community based programs through incorporating gender sensitive approaches.
We will be hearing from conservationists across the snow leopard range- Bayara Agvantsaaren, Dr. LuZhi and Rashmi Singh– who are working at different levels to engage women in snow leopard conservation. Each of them will highlight a particular aspect of their work that highlights the opportunities and challenges in promoting women’s role in community based conservation. Dr. Charudutt Mishra, the Executive Director of the Snow Leopard Trust, will facilitate the panel discussion. Charu has been a pioneer in community based conservation and brings a special perspective around how to make a difference at the ground level.
We hope to see you, all members both men and women, at this very special webinar and look forward to drawing on your experiences and insights during the discussion. This webinar is Part 1 of a Webinar Series focussing on the role of women in snow leopard conservation and science.
About the Webinar
Opening the webinar we first hear from the panelists, each with a five-minute presentation, where they set the context of their work and highlight key issues. This will be followed by the panel discussion facilitated by Dr. Charudutt Mishra for twenty minutes focusing on opportunities and identifying strategies and priorities for engaging women in conservation programmes. This will be followed by an open interaction with the audience.
About our Guests
Bayara Agvantsaaren is the Executive Director of Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation and Mongolia Program Director, at the Snow Leopard Trust. “I have been working as a snow leopard conservationist since 1998 when I co-found Snow Leopard Enterprises Program which offers income generation to women rural herders who share mountain with these elusive cats. It has been amazing 20+ years career journey to work with different aspects of conservation. I am privileged to be able to help both snow leopards and local people.” shares Bayara.
Professor Lu Zhi is a conservation biologist in China whose work covers multiple-disciplinary researches and bridging academic research and practices, in order to seek solutions for conservation and sustainable development in China and to promote China’s positive role in the world. She has studied ecology and conservation of endangered species in southwest China and on the Tibetan Plateau, such as the giant panda, the snow leopard, the blue sheep, the Tibetan brown bear and the Przewalski gazelle, as well as their interactions with human activities. In recent years, she focuses on mechanisms of coexistence between human and nature. She leads conservation initiatives on community-led conservation and citizen sciences in both rural and urban contexts based on economic incentives, cultural values and policy improvements. She involved in conservation policy making at regional and national levels, and is an active member of international conservation discussions.
Rashmi Singh is a PhD Scholar at the School of Human Ecology, Ambedkar University and Associate Editor for Pastoralism– research, policy and practice Journal. Her PhD work explores the politics of rangeland conservation in the Himalaya using an interdisciplinary approach. Her primary research interest includes disciplines of pastoral studies, rangeland conservation and animal geography. In the last nine years, she has worked extensively on the social dimensions of wildlife conservation across India. Her ongoing research has highlighted the importance of including pastoralists in the policy formulation, wildlife conservation, and management of rangelands. She is intrigued by the pastoral indigenous knowledge system and believes that long term regional studies are crucial for reconciling pastoral livelihood and rangeland conservation goals.
Date/Time
Tuesday, September 21st, at 17:00-18:15 Bishkek time
Location
We regret to inform you that this Webinar has been postponed until further notice
Please note
If you have never used Zoom before, we recommend that you try the link 10 minutes before the start of the lecture.
Please feel free to write questions in the comment area and there will be time for questions/discussion at the end of the talk.
Please note that the session will be recorded and later featured on the SLN website. If you have concerns about this please let us know before the session.
Behzad Larry has spent many years travelling across the snow leopard range capturing the stories of snow leopard individuals and communities. During this session he shares perspectives about using images (of snow leopards, people and landscapes) in communication and raise for discussion a number of very pertinent issues for snow leopard conservation- especially in the world where the image of the snow leopard is becoming so important!
The session ends with a discussion led by Joanna Van Gruisen on ethics and examples of how conservationists can work towards putting in place safeguards and promoting good practices in the use of images for conservation communication- with a photographers manifesto.
The “Valley of the Cats” is the name given to a spectacular valley close to the town of Namsei (Angsai) in Zadoi (Zaduo) County, Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Situated on the Tibetan Plateau, the Valley of the Cats is a special place. The 22 resident families, each with their own herd of yak, hold strict Buddhist beliefs about the sanctity of all life.
Although the Valley of the Cats is situated in the core area of Sanjiangyuan (the source of the three great rivers – the Yellow, the Yangtze and the Mekong), China’s first pilot National Park, and access is strictly controlled (permits are required and independent travel is not permitted), the local government has agreed to low-volume community-based tourism for up to three groups involving a maximum of 12 people at a time. This is a community-based conservation initiative where 100% of the revenue from this project stays in the community.
Wildlife watching tourism, as a community conservation initiative, has been designed to contribute to the local community and snow leopard conservation. 100% of the revenue from tourism stays with the local community. 45% of the income will go to the host family, 45% to a community fund (for public welfare issues such as health insurance) and 10% to snow leopard conservation.
The Valley is 3-4 hrs drive from Yushu which, in turn, is a 1-hour flight from Xining in Qinghai Province.
昂赛“大猫谷”距离玉树市大约三至四小时车程。从青海省西宁市乘坐一小时飞机即可到达玉树市。
***Please note that professional photographers or film makers, or any filming for commercial purposes, requires an additional special permit from the National Parks Authority. Anyone wishing to film in the Valley for commercial purposes will be required to prove they are in possession of such a permit before an application to visit will be accepted.***
Acknowledgements
The community-based tourism project in the Valley of the Cats is a community initiative. The community would like to thank 三江源国家公园管理局 (The Sanjiangyuan [Three-River-Source] National Park Administration)、玉树州人民政府 (Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefectural People’s Government)、玉树州林草局 (Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefectural Forestry and Grassland Administration)、杂多县人民政府 (Zaduo County People’s Government) and the 国家公园澜沧江源园区管委会 (Three-River-Source National Park Administration Commission of Langcang-River-Source Zone) for their guidance and support.
The community-based conservation in the Valley of the Cats is implemented by ShanShui Conservation Center 山水自然保护中心and supported by 阿拉善SEE（The SEE FOUNDATION)，Panthera，Snow Leopard Trust, 膳魔师 (THERMOS)，安迪维特（Advanturer) and 广州博冠（BOSMA).
The report, entitled “Status of Snow Leopard Survey and Conservation, China 2018” was a collaborative effort by a number of organizations involved in snow leopard surveying and protection in China and summarizes recent snow leopard research and conservation activities.
The report was produced in a joint effort by the Snow Leopard Network China (http://www.snowleopardchina.org/) – a network of national academic groups and NGOs including the Snow Leopard Trust’s China partner; Shan Shui Conservation Center, the Research Centre for Nature Conservation and Social Development of Peking University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Vanke Foundation, Everest Snow Leopard Conservation Centre, Green River, Xinjiang, WCS, and WWF.
WWF-India Joins Hands with Tata Housing to Create Crowd-Funding Campaign
Monday, January 13, 2014
New Delhi: In a significant step towards garnering more support and awareness for snow leopard conservation in India, WWF-India, in partnership with Tata Housing Development Company, launched Project Save Our Snow Leopards (SOS) by unveiling the SOS online crowd-funding platform (www.wwfindia.org/sos) at an event at the WWF-India auditorium on January 10, 2014.
The SOS crowd-funding campaign is the first-ever crowd-funded campaign for species conservation in India, giving individuals a chance to support and directly fund conservation projects. Through the SOS campaign, WWF-India, along with Tata Housing, will build awareness about the conservation issues facing the snow leopard and will aim to raise at least Rs15,00,000 through the crowd-funding platform. The funds raised will be utilised to scale up WWF’s snow leopard conservation projects, like setting up camera traps to study the exact status and distribution of snow leopards in range states, and support the construction of predator-proof livestock pens for local communities in snow leopard habitats that will help in managing snow leopard-human conflict. The campaign will be spearheaded jointly by both organisations and reach out to potential supporters through social and other online media. Tata Housing will also reach out to the Tata group of companies, soliciting support for the SOS campaign through ‘Green Guardians’, an employee engagement initiative.
Tata Housing Development Company, the biggest proponent of green housing in India, became a WWF-India conservation partner in 2012. Tata Housing has also worked with WWF-India to refine their Sustainability Charter, which outlines their commitment towards following environmental sustainability practices in housing development. WWF-India and Tata Housing will also work together to convene forums to promote sustainable housing across the housing infrastructure sector and exchange best practices relating to sustainable housing.
On the occasion, Brotin Banerjee, CEO and managing director, Tata Housing Development Company, said, ‘At Tata Housing, we feel it is important to maintain the ecological balance of natural flora and fauna in the environment, along with creating sustainable green development that help to prevent environmental degradation. Our partnership with WWF-India is in line with our efforts to safeguard and conserve India’s unique natural heritage of high-altitude wildlife populations and their habitats. We hope our efforts to save the snow leopard will result in maintaining the required ecological balance.’
Speaking on the necessity of such steps in snow leopard conservation, Ravi Singh, secretary general and CEO, WWF-India, said, ‘Snow leopards are strikingly beautiful, but sadly very few people are even aware of their existence. Due to the high altitude and difficult terrain they inhabit, snow leopards are also one of the least studied large wild cats, which in turn makes their conservation all the more difficult. By protecting the snow leopard, we ensure the conservation of our fragile mountain landscapes that are one of the biggest sources of freshwater for the Indian subcontinent. We hope this campaign will not only raise the required funds for the snow leopard, but also make people more aware about this magnificent species.’
Through Project SOS, both WWF-India and Tata Housing will continue to work with the central and respective state governments to assess the status and distribution of snow leopards and strategise conservation actions. Local communities will also be engaged to increase awareness about wildlife conservation, and build a positive attitude towards the snow leopard by sharing the results of such conservation efforts.
Snow leopards become video stars in student’s plan to save them
Humans are the biggest threat to the endangered snow leopard but a former park ranger from Bhutan hopes to mitigate that threat, thanks to Australian help.
The soft-furred, snowy cats do not live in Australia, except in places like the National Zoo in Canberra, which is home to two of them, named Bhutan and Shiva.
They are found in the wild in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Researchers and conservationists believe there are between 3000 and 6000 left in the wild.
But former park ranger Tenzin Phuntsho, who volunteers at the zoo while studying filmmaking in Canberra on an Australian government scholarship, said he is working on a plan to help conserve the small cats, who have big feet for walking on snow.
”It is so beautiful,” Mr Phuntsho said of the animal.
He hopes to use his training to educate people in Bhutan about the need to preserve the elusive cat.
There is a 95 per cent illiteracy rate among the nomadic population so he believes video will get the message across.
Until recently the cats had been thriving in Bhutan, where the cultural philosophy is that all life forms are connected.
Leopards eating domestic stock had been considered a part of life, and even if one killed a yak, there would be no retaliation, Mr Phuntsho said.
But more people are moving into the alpine areas of the Himalayas and since yaks are a trapping of wealth there are a lot more about for leopards to eat.
Yaks are less agile than other local wildlife and easier prey for the leopard.
”I am a bit afraid now because … people are changing and snow leopards are becoming more of a threat,” Mr Phuntsho said.
People are becoming more aggressive: ”I fear they might retaliate one day.”
The National Zoo also has a volunteer team that helps wildlife charities around the world, including the global Snow Leopard Trust.
The trust’s website says that over the past 16 years snow leopard numbers have declined by about 20 per cent due to habitat and prey base loss, as well as poaching and persecution. Losses to poaching were most severe in the former Russian republics during the 1990s and have declined.
But an illegal trade continues as demand for body parts from China is growing.
About our Guests
Bayara Agvantsaaren 
Professor Lu Zhi 
Rashmi Singh 
