Category: Webinar

Building and exchanging capacities in snow leopard research and conservation

 

In 2022 two projects in India and Kyrgyzstan were supported by the Snow Leopard Network Training Grants Program:

“Volunteers for Nature: Developing and training local volunteers for nature education” led by Deepshikha Sharma and team from the Nature Conservation Foundation.

“Enhancing conservation awareness among youth through school visits by local rangers in Osh Oblast, Kyrgyzstan” led by Fatima Mannapbekova and colleagues from Panthera.

SLN invites you to a discussion with our 2022 Grantees to learn more about their projects and the lessons learned. We will ask our guests to share more about- What was achieved? What were the challenges and opportunities encountered in the implementation of the project? What did the teams learn that could help others wishing to do similar projects? How do teams see the results being applied to conservation? We will then open up the discussion with the audience to discuss effective and respectful strategies for building and exchanging capacities in snow leopard research and conservation among key stakeholders. 

 

 

 

SLN Webinar: Understanding geographies of threat

The world’s biodiversity face persistent and changing threats, resulting in degradation of habitats and declines in species populations. Threats are dynamic factors that cause decline or destruction of habitat, population size, or biodiversity in any site of interest. Conducting a comprehensive analysis of threats can be more challenging than it may first appears. Threats can be direct, indirect, local or globally driven and they often vary over time with new threats emerging. The Snow Leopard Network is delighted to invite you to the webinar entitled “Understanding the geographies of Threat”. Our guest Alfredo Romero-Muñoz, from the Humboldt University, Berlin, will share how his team is analysing the impact of threats to wildlife and habitats across the Gran Chaco region in South America. The talk will be followed by a discussion, with our discussant Dr. Ranjini Murali, on the geography of threats across snow leopard landscapes and exchange on approaches to assess them. 

About the Talk

This fascinating presentation describes research on the impacts of habitat destruction and hunting pressure across the 1.1 million km2 Gran Chaco region in South America – the world’s largest dry forests that has become a global deforestation hotspot. By analysing the impact of these threats in the habitats and populations of different species, we aimed to understand what is the relative impact of these threats, and how those impacts have changed over time. In addition, we explore how the two threats interact in space and what may be the implications of these interactions. The talk will be followed by a discussion and exchange on the geography of threats across snow leopard landscapes. 

About our Guest – Alfredo Romero-Muñoz

Alfredo Romero-Muñoz is a researcher at Humboldt University Berlin focused on understanding the impacts that land use change brings to biodiversity, including through habitat destruction and hunting, and identifying opportunities for conserving biodiversity in changing regions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Discussant – Ranjini Murali

Dr. Ranjini Murali has over ten years experience working in snow leopard landscapes. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Biography Lab in Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. She works on understanding the impacts sudden of institutional changes on large carnivore populations. She’s also a conservation scientist with the Snow Leopard Trust and affiliated with the Global Snow Leopard Ecosystem Programme (GSLEP).

 

 

Date/Time

Monday, March 6th, 2023 at 16:00 pm Bishkek time

Location

ZOOM, to join this talk, REGISTER HERE

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.

SLN Webinar: Building and exchanging capacities in snow leopard research and conservation

In 2022 two projects in India and Kyrgyzstan were supported by the Snow Leopard Network Training Grants Program:

“Volunteers for Nature: Developing and training local volunteers for nature education” led by Deepshikha Sharma and team from the Nature Conservation Foundation.

“Enhancing conservation awareness among youth through school visits by local rangers in Osh Oblast, Kyrgyzstan” led by Fatima Mannapbekova and colleagues from Panthera.

SLN invites you to a discussion with our 2022 Grantees to learn more about their projects and the lessons learned. We will ask our guests to share more about- What was achieved? What were the challenges and opportunities encountered in the implementation of the project? What did the teams learn that could help others wishing to do similar projects? How do teams see the results being applied to conservation? We will then open up the discussion with the audience to discuss effective and respectful strategies for building and exchanging capacities in snow leopard research and conservation among key stakeholders. 

SLN has just announced the 2023 call for applications. Come ask our 2022 Grantees questions about their projects and help potential 2023 applicants address any queries. The SLN Training Grant is made possible through the support of the Pangje Foundation, an SLN member organisation dedicated to protecting snow leopards and helping local communities. The specific goal of the grant centres around building capacities in snow leopard research and conservation among grassroot stakeholders. 

Date/Time

Thursday, 09 February, 2023 at 14:00pm Bishkek time

Location

ZOOM, to join this talk, REGISTER HERE

 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.

Perceptions of carnivore management interventions in Sweden and wildlife conflicts from the perspective of the individual.

Large carnivores are known to evoke strong emotions. These can influence consensus or social interactions between people promoting wildlife conservation and people who suffer from its negative consequences. Conservation interventions that aim to prevent or mitigate carnivore attacks on domestic animals are intended to promote coexistence between people and carnivores. These however risk failing if they do not also address fear and social conflicts and emotions/perspectives of intervention end users.

SLN is pleased to invite Ann Eklund, a researcher in Environmental Psychology, to lead this webinar. Anne shares examples of conservation interventions in Sweden, present how these interventions may be perceived by the intended end users, and discusses the potential that interventions may or may not have to promote co-existence. Orjan Johansson, SLN’s Steering Committee member facilitates the discussion around this exchange of learnings. 

 

Snow leopards & Tajikistan

Mountains cover more than 90% of Tajikistan. The country’s mountain regions are home to the snow leopard, Marco Polo sheep, Tajik markhor, urial sheep and Asiatic ibex. Tajikistan is developing a climate-smart National Action Plan for the conservation of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and its ecosystems in Tajikistan for 2023-2025 supported by UNEPs Vanishing Treasures programme in Tajikistan. Join Ismoil Kholmatov from the Association of Nature Conservation Organizations of Tajikistan (ANCOT) who will share updates of this ongoing effort. 

Snow leopards & Nepal

Nepal has a long history in snow leopard conservation. Rinzin Phunjok Lama from the Third Pole Conservancy will share updates of the teams ongoing snow leopard population survey in Humla, west Nepal. He will share how community conservation provides the foundation for their monitoring efforts. Rinzin and his colleagues are actively working in partnership with local stakeholders to tackle threats to snow leopards including direct killings, forest fires, illegal logging through a number of livelihood programs (including gathering honey, making traditional clothes, and running ecotourism businesses). Their work includes large scale monitoring of snow leopards and other wildlife. Join us as Rinzin shares the opportunities and challenges of achieving this multi-pronged approach.

Snow leopards & China

Qilianshan National Park, extends along the magnificent Qilian Mountains in north-eastern corner of the Tibetan Plateau. The mountains of 52,000 sq.km provide home and future refuges for snow leopard and many other wildlife. When the national park was established in 2016, an ambitious plan was announced to assess snow leopard populations across the entire mountain range. Since 2014, Dr. Yanlin Liu has been working with different teams on the snow leopard assessment in Qilian Mountains. Yanlin is currently the Science Director of the Chinese Felid Conservation Alliance and previously served as director of the snow leopard project for the ShanShui Conservation Center and a Post-Doc in the Chinese Academy of Forest. During this session he will share some of the opportunities and challenges his team is facing. He would love to hear form other SLN members and discuss large scale monitoring strategies.

Snow leopards & Kyrgyzstan

In 2021, Panthera kick-started a project with a focus in building conservation capacity and partnerships with communities in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. Since June 2021, the project was co-led by two female conservationists, Sabin Snow Leopard grantee Fatima Mannapbekova and CEPF project lead Altynai Adabaeva. Together with the Ilbirs Foundation, they’ve made introductory visits to communities in the Osh Oblast of Kyrgyzstan to establish relationships with local stakeholders and communities. Later, they led a team of surveyors to conduct the preliminary survey work via household interviews. Over 23 days, 639 interviews were conducted in 37 villages. During this SLN session, Altynai and Fatima will share the results of their work, challenges faced, and lessons learned while working in a rarely studied snow leopard habitat.

SLN Webinar – Perceptions of carnivore management interventions in Sweden and wildlife conflicts from the perspective of the individual.

Large carnivores are known to evoke strong emotions. These can influence consensus or social interactions between people promoting wildlife conservation and people who suffer from its negative consequences. Conservation interventions that aim to prevent or mitigate carnivore attacks on domestic animals are intended to promote coexistence between people and carnivores. These however risk failing if they do not also address fear and social conflicts and emotions/perspectives of intervention end users.

SLN is pleased to invite Ann Eklund, a researcher in Environmental Psychology, to lead this webinar on Tuesday, 15th November, 2022, at 14:00 Bishkek time. Anne will share examples of conservation interventions in Sweden, present how these interventions may be perceived by the intended end users, and discusses the potential that interventions may or may not have to promote co-existence. Orjan Johansson, SLN’s Steering Committee member will facilitate the discussion around this exchange of learnings. We look forward to this session which goes broader than the snow leopard and promotes exchange across continents, as requested by many members. 

About the Talk

Large carnivores often occur in the literature on so-called human-wildlife conflicts (HWC). In this talk HWC is understood as impacts and social conflicts, and HWC scenarios are further disentangled from a psychological perspective trying to understand the described situations from an individual’s point of view. Wildlife conflicts are often related to wildlife damages, for instance as a result of carnivore attacks on domestic animals. There are various interventions available intended to reduce the risk of carnivore attacks on domestic animals, and potentially the risk of social conflicts around carnivore conservation. Drawing on a study of animal owners in Sweden, the talk also presents how these interventions may be perceived by the intended end users, and discusses the potential that interventions may or may not have to mitigate carnivore related conflicts in the future. 

 

About our Guest   

Ann Eklund is a researcher in Environmental Psychology at Lund University, Sweden. She has a PhD in Biology (Conservation Biology) from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, a MSc in Applied Ecology from Hedmark University College in Norway, and a BSc (hons) in Conservation Biology and Animal Behaviour from University of Lincoln in the UK. Her current research is interdisciplinary and focuses particularly human interactions with wildlife and so called “wildlife conflicts”.

 

Date/Time

Tuesday, 15th November, 2022, at 14:00 pm Bishkek time

Location

 ZOOM, to join this talk, REGISTER HERE

 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.

 

 

SLN Webinar – Climate risk for communities’ livelihoods & its implications for human-wildlife conflict

 

Climate change is perhaps the overarching threat to snow leopards and their habitat. Knowledge about its impact on the species, its habitat and the people who share that habitat is growing but still remains incomplete and fragmentary. As our understanding of climate change impacts changes over time the Snow Leopard Network hopes to bring together experts and resource persons together to open up perspectives and share ideas for the way forward. Join us on this 3rd webinar with a focus on climate change as we continue to share the latest thinking and evidence that is emerging on this key issue. We are particularly pleased to welcome Dr. Eirini Skrimizea, a postdoctoral researcher who focusses on the governance of socio-ecological development and the social aspects of climate change.  

About the talk

How does climate change affect snow leopards and may intensify human-wildlife conflict?

Why is it relevant to conduct climate risk assessments focusing on communities’ livelihoods and their interaction with wildlife, and how to do so?

What is the added value of such climate risk assessments to snow leopard conservation programmes and goals?

During this seminar, Dr. Eirini Skrimizea will address these questions drawing insights from the climate risk assessment the Eurac Research team conducted in Kyrgyzstan for UNEP’s “Vanishing Treasures Programme – Snow Leopard in Central Asia’ component”.

The Vanishing Treasures Programme aims at protecting mountain flagship species generating maximum synergy between climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation; the climate risk assessment has been a crucial analytical step to understand and structure the climate risk so as to ensure climate-smart and climate-proof conservation actions. The talk will discuss the role and step-by-step methodology of this climate risk assessment with the goal to support the transferability of the approach to other communities and contexts.  Dr. Ranjini Murali, who has been supporting the social, policy and on-ground implementation of the Vanishing  Treasures Programme in Kyrgyzstan, will facilitate the webinar and the presentation will be followed by a Q&A session with Ulukbek Visid uulu as discussant.

About Our Guest – Eirini Skrimizea

Dr. Eirini Skrimizea is a post-doctoral researcher and graduate teaching associate at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at KU Leuven in Belgium. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with a background in surveying engineering, spatial planning and sustainability studies. She holds a joint PhD degree in Urban Studies from Gran Sasso Science Institute and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, and has worked at INRA, Eurac Research and DG ECHO of the European Commission. Her research focuses on the accelerated intensification of human-environment interactions covering themes such as the development-climate change nexus, community resilience, sustainable agriculture and food systems, with case-study research in Africa, Asia and Europe.

About Our Discussant – Ulukbek Visid uulu

Ulukbek Visid uulu, Program coordinator at Snow Leopard Trust, has a proven track record of 7 years in public policy and public administration at all levels, from local authorities to the government. Strongly skilled in legislation analysis, policy advocacy, monitoring and evaluation of governmental action plans/programs, partnership building and interaction with public/private organizations, CSOs engagement in government processes. Has extensive knowledge on handling cross-functional tasks related to policy development and its advocacy within public service and project management at international organizations.

He spent four years with the GSLEP building partnerships with local communities in rural areas to create an alternative sustainable source of income.

About Our Facilitator – Ranjini Murali

Dr. Ranjini Murali had over ten years experience working in snow leopard landscapes. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Biography Lab in Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. She works on understanding the impacts sudden of institutional changes on large carnivore populations. She’s also a conservation scientist with the Snow Leopard Trust and affiliated with the Global Snow Leopard Ecosystem Programme (GSLEP).

Date/Time

Monday, October 10th, 2022, at 15:30 pm Bishkek time

Location

 ZOOM, to join this talk, REGISTER HERE

 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.

Did you miss our other Climate Change focussed Webinars on SLN?

Do checkout our previous webinars or trainings with a focus on Climate Change: