Category: Uncategorized

Our webinar with Tshiring Lhamu Lama, the founding director of Snow Leopard Journey and Snow Leopard Sisters.

As the founding director of Snow Leopard Journey and Snow Leopard Sisters, Tshiring is on the frontlines of snow leopard conservation in the Dolpo Himalaya. Through innovative, sustainable, and practical projects, she works to encourage, empower, engage, and employ local youth by promoting eco-tourism, sustainable livelihoods, and environmental education. Tshiring’s efforts aim not only to shift local perceptions of the snow leopard, transforming it from a threat into a vital asset for both conservation and community well-being, but also to end the retaliatory killings of snow leopards in the Dolpo Himalayas.

Our webinar presentation with Scott Waller, from Wildlife Conservation Society’s Temperate Asia regional program.

Population density is a valuable metric used to manage wildlife populations. In the Russian Far East, wildlife managers use the Formozov-Malyushev-Pereleshin (FMP) snow tracking method to estimate densities of ungulate prey for hunting management and Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) conservation, since the carrying capacity of a landscape for tigers is closely linked with the density of available prey biomass. Yet, climate change and challenges with survey design call into question the reliability of the FMP, and wildlife managers are looking for alternative methods. Camera traps offer a promising new tool, but their suitability for monitoring prey remains unclear.

Working with the Wildlife Conservation Society and Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve, Scott and colleagues applied a rigorous scientific design of random sampling to estimate densities of preferred prey of the Amur tiger using both FMP and camera-based methods. They also converted these density estimates to prey biomass following conventions in the literature. They found that, while both track surveys and camera traps provided consistent estimates of density, cameras required more resources and effort to implement. They also consider the demands of random sampling of the landscape as restrictive, especially in other parts of the tiger’s range with more challenging terrain. Finally, they found that insignificant differences in density estimates between methods still led to large differences in prey biomass, emphasizing the need for more robust methods.

This webinar shares news about Ethical Conservation Alliance (ECA) which has been active since 2023, as a transformative force, aiming to help conserve biodiversity while addressing the historical injustices to indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs).

Recognizing the urgent need for a shift towards ethical biodiversity conservation, the ECA is working to develop cadres of frontline conservationists who are trained and have the needful tools to foster respectful relationships with IPLCs. By enabling respectful partnerships with IPLCs, the ECA aims to facilitate these communities as key stakeholders and rights holders in biodiversity protection, climate adaptation, and sustainable development. This approach aligns really well with the goals of multiple international conventions, particularly as these frameworks increasingly emphasize the importance of local and Indigenous involvement in biodiversity conservation.

The webinar also describes how conservation practitioners use resources developed by the Alliance for their own work.

Understanding the diet composition of animals is essential for comprehending their ecology and developing effective conservation strategies, especially for endangered species. In the depressions of Great Lakes of western Mongolia, the critically endangered Mongolian saiga coexists year-round with livestock. This research aims to determine the seasonal dietary overlap between the Mongolian saiga and livestock using the microhistological method.

Bayarmaa Chuluunbat,  WCS – Mongolia has also created a microhistological reference key for over 120 different plant species in the steppe and desert steppe. This key is vital for determining the diet of herbivores and understanding their dietary habits in these regions. Given the widespread practice of livestock husbandry in Mongolia, understanding the dietary habits and overlaps between wildlife and livestock is crucial for conservation efforts and rangeland management. This is particularly important for endangered ungulates, many of which are found in the steppe and desert steppe. Additionally, these regions are significant for snow leopard conservation, as their diet includes these herbivores.

The Snow Leopard Conservancy partners with local conservationists, range country and international organizations, and mountain communities living with snow leopards. SLC invests in solutions that save the lives of snow leopards and other predators from the consequence of human-wildlife conflict and build a long term foundation of coexistence, guardianship and self-reliance.  SLC’s initiatives empower Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge, evidence-based science, and promote healthy mountain ecosystems across the snow leopard’s range.

The One-Health-One-Welfare initiative facilitates a community-driven and holistic conservation approach that bridges educational, health, and environmental challenges within the remote mountain communities of Nepal. Using a One Health framework, that aims to conserve snow leopards and their habitat by improving local livelihoods, agricultural practices, expanding snow leopard conservation education, improving access to livestock veterinary care, reducing zoonotic disease transmission, and building local capacity to address these challenges.

In this webinar hosted by the Snow Leopard Network, Peter van Lunteren’s presentation will explore the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in nature conservation, specifically emphasizing its potential applications in advancing Snow Leopard conservation effortsPeter will examine the current state of AI capabilities and discuss how conservationists can leverage automation and computer vision to enhance efficiency in their work. The focus will be on using AI for data analysis, real-time audio, and image processing in remote areas. Technologies such as camera traps, GPS collar tracking, and bioacoustic monitoring will be discussed. By addressing the current possibilities and challenges, Peter aims to shed light on how AI can be a powerful ally in the ongoing efforts to protect and preserve Snow Leopards and their habitats.

This webinar highlights the importance of community-led conservation in safeguarding the snow leopard and its habitat. Through generations, local communities and indigenous people have played a crucial role in preserving the environment, and their traditional practices and knowledge can greatly contribute to the protection of natural resources and biodiversity. This webinar delves into community-based approaches to conservation and showcase the Community Responsible Area (CRA) model being implemented in Mongolia. By exploring this model, we can explore strategies to protect threatened species such as the snow leopard while also supporting sustainable livelihoods for local people.

The webinar focuses on an innovative approach to conserving the natural resources of Mongolia and protecting its wildlife, including the elusive snow leopard. Since 2009, the Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation has been working to secure the legal rights of communities to manage their pastoral land and sustainably use its resources. This involves mapping and delineating Community Responsible Areas (CRAs) based on traditional resource use and grazing patterns. The CRAs are managed through local communities with legal entities, and their aim is to promote sustainable pasture management, secure legal land rights, and support livelihood-linked conservation activities. The webinar showcases the progress made in implementing the CRA approach across Mongolia and shares inspiring community stories that demonstrate the approach’s effectiveness.

Welcome to our first Webinar of 2024 in which we are happy to host Dr. Carol Esson.

In this talk today, Carol will be presenting the key questions and outcomes of her PhD research project on Snow Leopards in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia.

Emerging wildlife diseases are a growing concern across the world.  They have wide-spread and diverse ramifications, including effects on and interactions between, endangered species, production animals, human health and livelihoods (Smith et al. 2009).  In the future, successful disease control will have to reach across the traditional boundaries of conservation, human health and production animal diseases to achieve integrated disease assessment and control programs.

A One Health Approach was utilised to investigate disease threats to an endangered species in a remote location. Carol will talk about the rationale behind the research project design, the techniques used, the analysis and outcomes and how the results should lead to an improved understanding of how we can manage these populations from any future disease threats. These techniques we employ will be able to be extrapolated to other threatened species in remote locations.