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CHALLENGE
Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are a flagship species spread across 12 countries in South and Central Asia, most of them in the Hindu Kush Himalayas. Estimated 200-400 snow leopards still exist in the mountains of Pakistan’s northernmost provinces, repre-senting the third largest population of the world. The species is listed as Endangered on the IUCN (International Union for Con-servation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species and of cites and currently designated by the IUCN as Critically Endangered within Pakistan. However, despite the importance of snow leopards in Pakistan, and assurances of their protection from national and international laws, the species continue to face dire threats. Two of the primary threats to snow leopards in northern Pakistan are reduction of natural prey due to illegal hunting and killing of snow leopards in retribution for livestock depredation. The eco-nomic hardship is one of the root causes prompting herders to kill snow leopards to protect their livestock. In addition, to com-pensate for livestock losses and supplement their incomes, herders in the region also historically poach snow leopards to sell their pelt and body parts in the black market. More than a decade long research unleashed that livestock mortality due to preventable diseases is much higher (2-5 times) than the losses of animals due to predation. Animal health is a crucially important factor for the wellbeing of the community and economic stability of livestock owners.
Since its inception in 2003, the Snow Leopard Foundation (SLF) has been focusing to conserve viable populations of wild carni-vores as an integral part of landscapes across Pakistan while improving the socio-economic conditions of the people who share fragile mountain ecosystems. SLF has been striving to promote peaceful co-existence of livestock owners with wildlife in areas, generally having highest presence of carnivores. The overall purpose of these initiatives is to improve livelihoods, protect habitat and enhance tolerance for wildlife.
INITIATIVE
To boast SLF’s conservation efforts, USAID through U.S Ambassador’s Fund Program awarded a grant of USD 99,824 from June 2013 to April 2014 to re-duce loss of livestock to predation and diseases to under 1% of total community livestock holdings, reduce retribution killing of snow leopards by 100% and to build greater awareness for conservation of nature and wildlife among the communities in 6 vil-lages of District Chitral. These villages are located in the buffer zone of three important protected areas in Chitral, which are known to host main population of snow leopards in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
RESULT
SLF with the financial support from the American people, was able to vaccinate more than 7,000 livestock heads against common diseases to reduce the potential for disease trans-mission to wildlife and increasing family income through lesser mortality rates of the livestock. The improvement of animal health and productivity has led to increased selling of livestock and its products and consumption at the household level. The project has trained 23 male and female community based livestock Extension Workers (CLEWs) through the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council in animal health and production to enable them to provide animal husbandry services to the community at the door step. The project has also trained 15 male and female teachers of government and private schools in environmental education and dis-seminated ICT material on local environmental issues. Four predator proof corrals are being constructed as a risk mitigation meas-ure to avoid mass killing of livestock by the snow leopards. In total 955 rural herding households (3412 men, 3696 women) from 6 villages within snow leopard habitat will benefit from this intervention.
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