SNOW LEOPARD CONSERVANCY

The goal of the Snow Leopard Conservancy (SLC) is to ensure the rare snow leopard (Panthera uncia; currently listed as Vulnerable on IUCN’s Red List) thrives across its vast range in South and Central Asia, encompassing 12 countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan).
The main threats to its survival include human-wildlife conflict due to livestock depredation, poaching, prey depletion, habitat degradation and large-scale infrastructure development (e.g., mining, roads).

Working in representative landscapes through trusted partnerships with local organizations, conservationists and communities, SLC’s goals center around building local capacity for (1) mitigating human-wildlife conflict; (2) diversifying livelihoods and improving household income in environmentally friendly and culturally responsible ways; (3) supporting local communities to monitor snow leopards and their prey, along with enhancing rangeland productivity and biodiversity; (4) engaging teachers, schoolchildren and youths in awareness outreach; and (5) mobilizing elders, sacred site guardians, shamans and village leaders to blend traditional knowledge with western science for conservation actions.

SLC catalyzes innovative, highly participatory, self-governing community-based conservation programs that serve as models for others, while simultaneously building in-country capacity of individuals and organizations for snow leopard conservation, research and education. Our programs and activities are designed according to the following key guiding principles: targeting the root, underlying threats affecting the species and its habitat; ensuring the project’s economic and social investments generate tangible, verifiable conservation outputs; requiring equitable co-financing from each partner; ensuring participatory planning from the onset; and monitoring project performance and impact according to site-specific action plans imbedded with clear indicators for assessing programmatic success.

Representative program activities include (1) predator-proofing corrals and improving livestock guarding practices, including pioneering use of electronic deterrents; (2) establishing incentive-based initiatives that raise household income levels and diversify local livelihoods while also addressing climate change or pandemics like Covid-19; (3) fostering awareness and understanding of fragile mountain ecosystems and biodiversity, especially among children, teachers and decision-makers; and (4) encouraging participation in non-invasive, action-oriented research, melding scientific information with local traditional knowledge.

The Snow Leopard Conservancy supports the strategic approach of empowering local communities to protect the snow leopard and its fragile mountain ecosystem, in line with global and national biodiversity goals and government policies. Empowering indigenous organizations or select individuals to undertake linked conservation / development initiatives is the best path toward ensuring long-term sustainability for both wildlife and local people. We partner with enthused individuals, NGO's and village institutions capable and supportive of devoting significant presence in the field, valuing cost-effectiveness, ensuring equitability of gender, social status and ethnicity, and known for their ingenuity, creativity, passion and commitment to our cause. SLC trains stakeholders in "Best Practice" approaches to balancing conservation / development in remote, rural mountain areas. We provide carefully targeted grants to conscientiously vetted partners, as well as channeling resources through US-based researchers and associates of SLC for testing and evaluating the best non-invasive solutions in conserving snow leopards, their prey and habitat.

Currently SLC has hosts in eight range states working to resolve human-wildlife conflicts, provide economic incentives to local herders, support ecosystem services, and include the power of traditional knowledge/cultural conservation to strengthen western scientific approaches. SLC's overriding and long-term goals are to build and sustain the capacity of range-country conservationists and organizations to protect this flagship species. Of particular importance for conserving snow leopards is the inclusion of proven incentives enabling local herders and local communities to co-exist harmoniously with this rare predator that shares the same fragile mountain environment with people.
Our multi-pronged approach is designed to: (1) eliminate the threat of retributive killing associated with livestock depredation, in tandem with mitigating other kinds of human-wildlife conflict; (2) provide local people with alternative, environmentally-friendly livelihoods and/or enterprises that reduce household dependence on unsustainable livestock rearing and yet generate much-needed income to reduce widespread poverty, decrease reliance upon external food aid, and economically empower these remote households and communities; (3) protect local cultural heritage and values against outside pressures. These actions will assist the mountain people to achieve more of their own basic needs while realizing other aspirations, including affording their children a better education and reducing outward migration to urban centers. Additionally, a key SLC strategic goal is to blend the western scientific approach with local traditional knowledge for sustaining holistic and spiritually-fulfilling life-ways adapted to the local environment and thus more robust to adapting to climate change and other environmental forces.

The Snow Leopard Conservancy was founded by Dr. Rodney Jackson, widely recognized world expert on snow leopards and their habitat. SLC is a 501 c (3) non-profit organization headquartered in Sonoma, California with a largely independent branch (SLC-India Trust) in Ladakh, India.
Dr. Jackson’s 1980’s pioneering radio-tracking study of snow leopards in the Nepalese Himalaya led to a cover story in National Geographic. He has trained biologists across many of the snow leopard’s 12 range countries and pioneered community-based conservation using APPA (Appreciative Participatory Planning and Action), a highly empowering planning process for assisting local people to coexist with this rare and elusive predator. His and Darla Hillard’s work with rural communities led to the establishment of the Snow Leopard Conservancy program in 2000 and the pioneering of many grassroots interventions including predator-proofed corrals, Himalayan Homestays (village-based Bed & Breakfasts for domestic and international tourists), along with other economic incentives that have transformed snow leopard to being perceived as a valuable asset, appreciated alive rather than dead by local people. Today, the Conservancy is actively partnering with local communities in Pakistan, Nepal, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, and India.
SLC has grown to six multidisciplinary staff members who collectively manage its partnerships, conservation and education programs, overseeing capacity-building, program development, administration, financial and general operations. Specifically, this core Sonoma staff and associates provide partners with technical support and funding vital to achieving effective results, including helping build local capacity, self-reliance, community empowerment and resilience to critical environmental threats like habitat degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change.
Range-country partnerships are fundamental to SLC’s goals: we are committed to helping build snow leopard conservation capacity within each range country, rather than relying upon foreign expertise to carry the day. Thus, the Snow Leopard Conservancy partners with local organizations and herder communities to preserve the biodiversity of Central Asia’s fragile high mountains by providing technical and financial assistance for habitat stewardship and biodiversity conservation. Our programs build community ownership, long-term self-reliance, and ecosystem health for both people and wildlife. We involve communities in non-invasive baseline monitoring of snow leopards, their prey and habitat, blending western science with indigenous knowledge.

SLC’s accomplishments are built upon Founder-Executive Director Dr. Rodney Jackson’s four decades of endeavor, starting with his pioneering 1980-85 study. Rodney and SLC also pioneered the following community-based conservation, non-invasive research and education programs:
•Predator-proofed over 100 corrals in Nepal, India, and Pakistan to greatly reduce the retaliatory killing of snow leopards by angry herders; supporting livestock insurance for other herders. Both interventions are now widely implemented by other NGOs and wildlife agencies across its range.
•Created four women-managed Savings & Credit groups in Nepal's Mt. Everest region, with a portion of interest from micro-loans supporting snow leopard conservation.
•Established the highly successful Himalayan Homestays “bed-and-breakfast” eco-tourism program in Ladakh, India.
•Snow Leopard Scouts Program in Nepal, where young students and herders monitor snow leopards and are inspired to become the next generation of environmental stewards.
•Trained over 100 park rangers and community leaders in field survey techniques, and mentoring over 12 Master's and Doctoral candidates.
•Facilitated annual Snow Leopard Day Festivals in Russia, Nepal, Mongolia, Pakistan and Bhutan, where primary and secondary students participate in concerts, poetry readings etc. focused on conservation of mountain ecosystems.
•Published children’s books, posters, and educational materials in four languages and distributed in six countries.
•Incentivized dog and livestock immunization programs in Bhutan's flagship Jigme Dorje National Park addressing a deadly 'mad-cow like' disease affecting yaks.
•Oversaw formation of the Land of Snow Leopard Network (LOSL) of Indigenous Cultural Practitioners in Central Asia to participate in conservation by blending traditional ecological knowledge with western science.
SLC’s ongoing goals include developing and piloting new approaches for making transformational changes in local communities and governance institutions, allowing them to assume greater responsibility for protecting snow leopards, prey and habitat, and for maintaining key corridors linking core populations:
•Continue to develop and apply innovative approaches to mitigating human-wildlife conflicts.
•Expand LOSL network of indigenous sacred site guardians, shamans and local community leaders ("Citizen Scientists") trained to monitor snow leopards, prey and habitat, as well as reporting threats like poaching or illegal mining.
•Expand community-managed economic incentives in Nepal's Annapurna Conservation Area and Mt- Everest (Sagarmatha) National Park drawing on Nepal’s constitutional devolution of powers.
•Support environmental education in Mongolia’s Altai and South Gobi regions with Nomadic Nature Trunks (NNC), and in Pakistan through the Baltistan Conservation Development Organizations (BWCDO), long-time partners.
•Conduct innovative, ground-breaking research into new survey techniques and conservation practices